Pascal Dennis, co-author of Harnessing Digital Disruption
See what is - Pema Chodron
I’ve spent the past few decades working with Boards & C-suites around the world - smart, successful people, and for the most part dedicated to the common good. I’ve tried to help people understand a) how to protect the core business using the powerful methods of OpEx/Lean, and b) how to ignite new growth using the methods of Silicon Valley & Singapore. Such ‘ambidexterity’ is the essential to sustained prosperity.
What’s the biggest challenge? How to see what is actually happening (WAH)? Way back when I was a fledgling Toyota manager & engineer, WAH was a central theme. Our splendid mentors (senseis) drew circles on the shop floor and asked us to stand there, observing a process closely. After an hour or so, they’d ask, ‘What do you see?’
With practice, I learned to see waste, variation and strain (Muda, Muri and Mura, the ‘3M’s’). Then our senseis would ask what should be happening (WSBH)? which opened up the worlds of flow, ergonomics and process management. I learned an invaluable lesson: If you can define WAH and WSBH you have a good understanding of the problem. You can start think about countermeasures to bridge the gap. In strategy, we call this the ‘winning logic’, which informs all our activities. But it all begins with Pema Chodron’s simple request, quoted above.
Why is it so hard to see what is? Sages throughout history have pondered this question. A few years back, in INSEAD’s splendid Corporate Governance program, we learned about the hidden biases (blind spots) that can afflict Boards. These include the Anchoring, Sunk Cost, Status Quo & other traps that can lead to decision-making disasters. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky helped to explain our blind spots in their classic book Thinking, Fast & Slow. Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational is another fine resource.
What to do? Visual management is perhaps our greatest enabler. The ingenuity of the front line in making WAH visible is inexhaustible, and a reason why ‘Total Involvement’ is a cornerstone of OpEx/Lean.
A second enabler is humility - accepting that we are fallible creatures whose grasp on reality is imperfect. A third enabler is diversity of training & experience - the broader a team’s composition, the deeper is our grasp of WAH. A fourth enabler is going to see for yourself. Do not trust the report, chart, voice or video message. Go see it, sense it, hear it, touch it…Things are almost always different than you expected.
My core metaphor here is the Electromagnetic Spectrum, which encompasses radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays. Visible Light (i.e. visible to humans) is but a narrow part of the spectrum (~ 400 to 700 nanometers). In other words, we only see a small fraction of what’s there.
How do you build all this into your management systems & daily routines? Stay tuned.
Best wishess,
Pascal Dennis
E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS: To learn more about my executive mentoring programs: Exec 101 - Protecting the Core Business, and Exec 201 – Igniting New Growth, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look….
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 2
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 1
Canada's Innovation Makeover: Singapore’s Cheat Sheet
The Two-Gear Economy, part 2 - Singapore’s Innovation Ecosystem
See what is - Pema Chodron
What’s the biggest challenge? How to see what is actually happening (WAH)? Way back when I was a fledgling Toyota manager & engineer, WAH was a central theme. Our splendid mentors (senseis) drew circles on the shop floor and asked us to stand there, observing a process closely. After an hour or so, they’d ask, ‘What do you see?’
With practice, I learned to see waste, variation and strain (Muda, Muri and Mura, the ‘3M’s’). Then our senseis would ask what should be happening (WSBH)? which opened up the worlds of flow, ergonomics and process management. I learned an invaluable lesson: If you can define WAH and WSBH you have a good understanding of the problem. You can start think about countermeasures to bridge the gap. In strategy, we call this the ‘winning logic’, which informs all our activities. But it all begins with Pema Chodron’s simple request, quoted above.
Why is it so hard to see what is? Sages throughout history have pondered this question. A few years back, in INSEAD’s splendid Corporate Governance program, we learned about the hidden biases (blind spots) that can afflict Boards. These include the Anchoring, Sunk Cost, Status Quo & other traps that can lead to decision-making disasters. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky helped to explain our blind spots in their classic book Thinking, Fast & Slow. Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational is another fine resource.
What to do? Visual management is perhaps our greatest enabler. The ingenuity of the front line in making WAH visible is inexhaustible, and a reason why ‘Total Involvement’ is a cornerstone of OpEx/Lean.
A second enabler is humility - accepting that we are fallible creatures whose grasp on reality is imperfect. A third enabler is diversity of training & experience - the broader a team’s composition, the deeper is our grasp of WAH. A fourth enabler is going to see for yourself. Do not trust the report, chart, voice or video message. Go see it, sense it, hear it, touch it…Things are almost always different than you expected.
My core metaphor here is the Electromagnetic Spectrum, which encompasses radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays. Visible Light (i.e. visible to humans) is but a narrow part of the spectrum (~ 400 to 700 nanometers). In other words, we only see a small fraction of what’s there.
How do you build all this into your management systems & daily routines? Stay tuned.
Best wishess,
Pascal Dennis
E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org
PS: To learn more about my executive mentoring programs: Exec 101 - Protecting the Core Business, and Exec 201 – Igniting New Growth, feel free to drop me an e-mail.
In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look….
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 2
Fundamentals of OpEx/Lean, Part 1
Canada's Innovation Makeover: Singapore’s Cheat Sheet
The Two-Gear Economy, part 2 - Singapore’s Innovation Ecosystem
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