No Plan Goes According To Plan

By Al Norval

January is always the time of year when organizations take the annual plans they have been developing and start to work on them. Or at least this is the time of year that organizations are supposed to begin working on their annual plans. In fact, to many organizations the annual strategic planning exercise is just that and once the plans are developed they are placed on a shelf where they gather dust until the perfunctory review at the end of the year. After the plans are made, the modus operandi is business as usual. This organization completes the Plan but never moves out into the Do part of the PDCA cycle.

Another thing I see is about this time of year is the plans are deemed to be in need of updating since something has changed and so the organization goes through an exercise of re-planning and will inevitably re-plan again later on in the year. This type of organization follows a Plan, Plan, Plan, Do cycle or a Plan, Do, Plan, Do, Plan, Do, cycle but again never gets into a PDCA cycle.

At least this is better than organizations that just Do, Do, Do with no Plan.

What we really want organizations to do is to complete the annual PDCA cycle which means that after we have completed the plan and get into the Do or implementation phase, we need to focus on the Check and Adjust process. In my experience this is the hardest part of the PDCA loop and the one that most organizations are the weakest at and therefore the process that needs the most strengthening.

The plan is a hypothesis:

If we do these things in this timeframe, we will get this result.

The Check process tests the hypothesis, both the execution of the plan (the process) as well as the results. If either is off target, the organization launches problem solving. But how are we to know we’re off the plan unless we have a rigorous Check process and a rapid response to the problems raised as part of the Adjust or Act process.

No plan goes according to plan, something unforeseen always happens, and because of that, good Lean organizations understand the need for a quick checking process so they can respond rapidly to being off plan and an marshal the resources needed to solve the problems and get back on plan.

January – the time to get the year off to a good start by getting into implementing the plan via the Do phase. But just as importantly, the time to set up a Check process that allows us to see when we’re off the plan so we can respond with problems solving and get back on plan.

Cheers

How Do We Change Our Thinking?

By Pascal Dennis

We live in difficult times.

Organizations around the world can't seem to do what they're trying to do.

America, our management lodestar for most of the 20th century, is struggling with seemingly intractable economic & political difficulties.

Europe, if anything, is doing even worse.

In spite of everything, I believe things are going to be okay. America, Europe and the world will muddle through in 2012.

Over time, I believe we'll resume the path of continuous improvement in health, freedom & prosperity.

How do we accelerate this process?

I believe many of our current problems are the result of dysfunctional mental models.

Here are a few of the most debilitating:

• Top down, instead of bottom-up
• Leaders believe that they & they alone are qualified to identify & lead needed improvement efforts.
• "What can we learn from front-line team members?"
• Initiative-fever
• "To improve, we need to launch a bunch of new Initiatives! Wait, we'll need an Initiative Tsar!"
• We can manage all our 'Initiatives' from a distance, by the 'numbers'.
• "We don't have to go see. We don't have to get our hands dirty. You know, we don't even have to know that much about our business."

The result?

• Disengaged, pathetic team members
• "Ok, just tell us what to do..."
• Wasted potential
• "The problems & countermeasures are clear. Why doesn't our leadership ask us?"
• Absence of focus
• "Okay everybody, here's our list of 147 focus projects for 2012!"

Virtually all my books address these themes, across a variety of industries.

How do we change our thinking?

An esteemed sensei posed this question a long time ago.

It remains our key to the kingdom.

In 2012, I'll dig deeper into these mental models & this question.

Cheers,

Pascal

Lean & Wakefulness

By Pascal Dennis

The Lean Business System, at heart, is about wakefulness.

Philosophers throughout the ages have argued that we are sleepers in a dream, that our grasp of what's actually happening is, at best, tenuous.

Many schools of philosophy and religion include exercises, prayer or meditation designed to "wake" the sleeper.

Lean tools like visual management, 5 S, standardized work, and pokayoke, are meant to jolt us out of our slumber.

"Hey, buddy wake up! There's a problem over here!"

Strategy Deployment, the application of the scientific method to our enterprise, is also about wakefulness.

Our Level 1, 2 and 3 check processes, for example, should be stand-up meetings in front of a board or wall that makes "hot spots" painfully clear.

"Holy cow, look at that! We should do something..."

My books Getting the Right Things Done, Andy & Me and it's sequel, The Remedy, all entail the protagonists' gradual awakening.

Let me conclude with a mixed metaphor: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed woman is queen.

Cheers,

Pascal

The Puritan Gift

By Pascal Dennis

Kenneth and William Hopper have done us a great service.

Their award-winning book, The Puritan Gift, offers a bracing diagnosis of what ails America.

The Hoppers argue that we've squandered the gift bequeathed on us by our Puritan forbears:

1. Commitment to creating a better society, indeed, a "shining city on the hill",
   
2. Putting the needs of the group ahead of individual needs,
   
3. A willingness, and pleasure in, getting our hands dirty,
   
4. Organizational genius, and
   
5. A respect for, and comfort with, technology
   

Since the end of WWII, management practice has been hijacked by the Cult of the (So-Called) Expert.

Business schools have flooded our organizations with MBA's who "should have a skull & crossbones tattooed across their foreheads."

The cult's mental models, they tell us, include:

1. "We can manage by the numbers, from a distance. We don't have to get our hands dirty."
   
2. Credentialism -- the more degrees, preferably business degrees, the better
   
3. "Every man, woman, thing for themselves!"
   
4. "The common good -- what's that?"
   
5. "Top-down control -- what can the front-line worker possibly teach us?"
   

Raw, passionate stuff!

The book has much to teach Lean thinkers. Their discussion of the meeting of East & West in post-war Japan is not to be missed.

Well done, Ken and Bill!

Best regards,

Pascal

Lean Enterprise Institute -- 15 Year Anniversary

By Pascal Dennis

It's been my good fortune to be an LEI faculty member for a decade now.

Mama mia, time flies!

LEI folks have become my good friends, as well as, colleagues.

Their mission is to change the world -- and they mean it!

Please join me in wishing John Shook & team a Happy Anniversary!

Long may your run!

Best regards,

Pascal


PS LEI is running a corresponding promotion on my book Getting the Right Things Done.

You can get 15% off any number of copies of the book.

To get the price, please enter the discount code 15YEARS at checkout.

Promotion runs all next week -- Jan 16-20.

Lean Leadership Excuse #1

By Al Norval

As I deal with organizations in the midst of implementing Lean, I here many versions on a theme around lack of leadership commitment. When I ask what does leadership commitment look like, invariably the reply is “Leaders need to be visible at Gemba involved in the improvement work”.

So, I’ve asked many Leaders why is it they can’t spend more time at Gemba? I’m assuming they know what to do when they go to the Gemba which most of them do. That is, they would go to Gemba with the purpose of:

1. Go See
   
2. Ask Why?
   
3. Show Respect for Team Members
   

Most Leaders know what to do at Gemba and know that it’s an important thing for them to do but still don’t go. When I ask them why, I get the following response:

“I don’t have time”

Leaders don’t have time to go and seek to understand what is really happening, to see problems, to teach their people and to build the capability of the organization. So what do they have time for? E-mail, meetings, re-work and generating reports but they don’t have time for some of the most important work they need to do as leaders.

When I probe deeper and ask why, it usually comes down to leaders spending their time doing urgent work rather than important work.

Copyright to Steven Covey from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Work can be broken down to four quadrants using a simple two by two matrix with Importance of the work on one side and Urgency on the other axis.

Leaders spend too much time on Urgent but Not Important work and not enough time on Non-Urgent but Important work. How do correct this? It starts by having the discipline to load up your calendar with Important but Not Urgent work first and then sticking to it and measuring it. You may not meet your calendar 100% of the time but by applying the PDCA cycle to it, the percentages will go up over time. The best part is it becomes a benevolent cycle since the more time leaders spend at Gemba teaching, the more problems are solved, the fewer urgent issues to deal with and the more time to spend at Gemba.

Key is to start by locking out a small amount of time every day and growing it from there. Take the challenge and block out 15 minutes a day to start and see how quickly that time makes a difference in your organization.

Cheers

Jidoka – The Forgotten Pillar

By Al Norval

As we look at the House of Lean, we tend to concentrate on the Foundation and JIT pillar. I’d like to write today about the other pillar – Jidoka for without it, our House of Lean would tilt and the roof would surely come crashing down.

Jidoka or autonomation as it is often translated to, really refers to “Built in Quality at the Source” or even more simply – Don’t pass defects on. Many people forget that high quality and Just In Time go hand in hand. There’s no sense reducing lead times just to move defects faster through the value stream.

I like to think of Jidoka as three things:

1. Don’t accept defects
   
2. Don’t make defects
   
3. Don’t pass defects on
   

The origins of Jidoka go back to the original Toyoda (correct spelling of the family name) family Weaving Loom business. Before they became famous for making automobiles, the family was in the business of making weaving looms that had a reputation for making cloth of very high quality levels.

In the late nineteenth century, people used to sit and watch the weaving machines make cloth waiting for any broken threads which would lead to defects in the cloth. When they saw a broken thread they would stop the machine, repair the thread and restart the machine. Imagine a job like this, watching a machine do the work and reacting only when there was a problem. What a waste.

Toyoda saw this and invented a method whereby the weaving loom would self-detect a break in the thread, stop and alert the operators. The operators could then repair the thread and restart the weaving loom. Now one person could operate many looms and the looms would produce only cloth of the highest quality.

This is where the term Jidoka came from. Autonomation – automation or machines but with a human touch. Ones that can self-detect errors, stop and alert the operator. Now machines can do what they do best which is detecting defects and humans can do what they do best which is problems solving.

By implementing Jidoka, we implement a system that prevents defects from being sent to the next person or operation in the value stream. Now we can begin to introduce JIT and cash in the benefits of reduced inventory and lead time.

Jidoka and JIT – we need both pillars to be working hand in hand to truly provide value to our Customers.

Cheers

Reflections on Developing our 2012 Strategy

By Pascal Dennis

2012 is upon us - time to develop our improvement plans.

"Every day a little up!” an esteemed sensei taught me.

Doing so means focusing your energy of the critical few improvement areas.

What will we emphasize in 2012? What's holding us back?

What's the root cause of each obstacle? What are the countermeasures?

Strategy is all about emphasis.

Failure modes are daunting. Here are some:

1. Not understanding our current condition - hence, our remedies are ineffectual
   
2. Not understanding root causes & jumping to countermeasures
   
3. Not confirming cause & effect, before embarking on a difficult set of countermeasures
   
4. Trying to do too much - not focusing
   

In my experience, if we "go see", get our hands dirty, and grasp our current condition, we have a chance to answer the above questions honestly.

And thus, we'll have a chance to improve.

Strategy is a never-ending game. Perfect execution is unlikely and, in any event, not the point.

The point is to continually deepen our grasp of our business, deploy improvement strategies each year, learn from what happens - so we keep getting better.

Keeps us young, keeps us relevant.

We learn from where we've been, and look to where we're going.

Cheers,

Pascal

Year End

By Pascal Dennis

Dear readers & fellow bloggers,

We're obliged for your kind attention this year.

2011 was a difficult year for many of us.

As it comes to a close, perhaps I can pose some questions for each of us to reflect on:

What happened in 2011? What worked?

What didn't work? What have we learned?

Learning is hard; dogma is easy. (I speak from experience...)

It's helpful to remember & honour our core values:

1. Family, team, community,
   
2. The Cardinal Virtues: Temperance, Prudence, Justice & Courage,
   
3. Simple decency,
   

It's also important to remember that the future is bright.

In spite of everything, people around the world have more sustenance, time, energy, and freedom of thought & movement, than ever before.

In spite of everything...

Happy New Year and a safe and prosperous 2012 to you & yours.

Pascal