Lean Means Don’t Be a Dumb-Ass

By Pascal Dennis

I owe this gem to our friends & colleagues in the great state of Alabama.

Our partners there have a way with words, and a fine appreciation of Lean fundamentals.

Lean is ‘simple’, is it not?

1. Define Purpose clearly
2. Make problems visible at all levels
3. Treat people with respect – team members, customers, suppliers and the community
4. Involve everybody In problem solving

Lean methods like visual management, standardized work, Help Chains and the like are about making problems visible, so we can fix them.

Once the problem is visible, the countermeasure is often obvious, no?

To be sure, some problems (e.g. Strategic, Design, Supply Chain, machine, information flow etc.) are complex and have multiple causes.

Countermeasures reveal themselves only after much reflection and experimentation. Lean methods enable this process. (Without them we often jump to a dumb-ass ‘countermeasure’)

An old Henny Youngman joke goes like this:

Henny, flapping his arms like wings. “I went to my doctor and told him it hurts when I do this!” Henny makes a face. “The doctor told me, don’t do that!”

Lean methods help us understand what ‘that’ is, so we can fix it.

Our challenge is that we often learn dumb-ass things in college and in dysfunctional organizations. Things like, let’s hide our problems, let’s brutalize our team members, let’s try to hoodwink our customers, and the like.

The truth will out.

Don’t be a dumb-ass.

Best regards,

Pascal

PS Andy & Me and the Hospital, describes how not to be a dumb-ass in healthcare.




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Scatter - Our Nemesis
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What Makes a Great Sensei?
Beware Prizes, Belts & Self-appointed Experts

Why Do ‘Smart’ People Struggle with Strategy?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

I’ve been coaching senior executives for more than a decade now.

Good, fun work with smart, fundamentally decent people. (If they’re not, I skedaddle.)

But you know what? The smarter they are, the more they struggle with strategy! Strange, no? Here’s a critical leadership skill for which excessive smartness can be a liability!

What’s going on? Well, most of these folks have gotten to where they are by having the right answer, and by proving thereby, that they’re the proverbial ‘smartest people in the room’.

But in strategy, there is no right answer. In any complex industry or field of endeavour, there are too many variables, too many unknowns.

In chess, arguably our greatest strategy game, the number of potential positions exceeds the number atoms in the universe.

Given such complexity, Is there a right answer? Of course not – there is only a right process. And this process, which I’ve tried to describe in my books [Andy & Me and the Hospital, and Getting the Right Things Done] includes the following steps:

1. Define purpose clearly
2. Identify the major obstacles & needed capabilities
3. Articulate a hypothesis
4. Run the hypothesis and quickly adjust based on what happens
5. Keep going till you reach your objective

By contrast, if senior leader is fixated on finding out the ‘right answer’, (and telling people how to effect it), bad things can happen:

• The activities that make up the false plan are, at the very least, a waste of time and energy
• The management team can stop caring
• Front line team members, who often have a better understanding of the problem, can become cynical
• “Here comes another brilliant top-down initiative”
• “Our leaders are bozos – we’re doomed”

In summary, in strategy there is no right answer. There is only a right process.

Here are some corollaries:

• Diversity in a management team is a good thing. More viewpoints bring a deeper understanding
• There’s no need to seek perfection in strategy – it doesn’t exist
• Seek to develop a shared understanding of the problem, and of our overall approach to solving it
• Admit you don’t know, and go see for yourself to better understand your purpose, obstacles and needed capabilities
• Be humble, for heaven’s sake

More to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal




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Where Lean Has Gone Wrong & What to Do About It, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Jim Womack had once written an insightful & heartfelt piece about where lean had failed. (Jim is a friend, supporter and visionary, not to mention a person of decency & kindness. It’s fair to say that Jim & Dan Jones kicked off the Lean movement twenty years ago. Their insights have penetrating ever since.)

Here are a few thoughts, building on Jim’s points.

Lean is hard and only fully succeeds when there is aligned motivation on many levels. While it’s true that few transformations succeed without the senior leader’s full-hearted participation, that’s not enough.

We need a single-minded strength of purpose throughout the organization. We need front line team leaders and middle managers teaching & doing the right thing – even when nobody is watching. And that, of course, means a management system, (a concept I’ve tried to illuminate, especially in all my most recent stuff - Andy & Me and the Hospital.)

Single-minded strength of purpose also requires full alignment between the organization’s Purpose, and each member’s Purpose. Toyota’s corresponding alignment is more or less: “You do the work that needs doing and help us to improve, and you’ll have an engaging & well-paying job here for as long as you want it.”

I believe each organization needs to develop something similar, in accord with its culture. Do not copy Toyota or any other strong Lean company. This alignment must resonate with your team members, culture and industry. In a number of our partner firms, the deal is subtly different: “You do the work that needs doing and help us to improve, and you’ll learn & grow more than you ever thought possible, and will do cool things for as long as you want to.”

People systems including Recruitment, Succession Planning and Compensation are central of course, and a very common impediment. We have to start with Strategy Deployment, the senior leader’s core methodology.

Negative motivators can be helpful too. A number of Lean Pathways team members are Toyota alumni and remember the acronym CLM – Career Limiting Move! Any selfish, destructive, random, political disrespectful to a team member, the customer or the community would quality as a CLM. Any action that compromised Safety or Quality was a CLM. A few CLMs and your future at Toyota was in doubt. These are, in effect, a healthy version of the corporate antibodies.

One more thing. After a decade & a half of practice, our Lean Pathways team has lived through many transformations. In every blow your socks off, get out of town, let’s do the Moon Walk in slow motion transformation, (pardon the body English), the CEO, COO and their teams have a) made significant time for Executive Coaching, and b) been wide open to making corresponding changes in their day to day work.

More to come.

Best regards,

Pascal




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Lean Means Don’t Be a Dumb-Ass

By Pascal Dennis

I owe this gem to our friends & colleagues in the great state of Alabama.

Our partners there have a way with words, and a fine appreciation of Lean fundamentals.

Lean is ‘simple’, is it not?

1. Define Purpose clearly
2. Make problems visible at all levels
3. Treat people with respect – team members, customers, suppliers and the community
4. Involve everybody In problem solving

Lean methods like visual management, standardized work, Help Chains and the like are about making problems visible, so we can fix them.

Once the problem is visible, the countermeasure is often obvious, no?

To be sure, some problems (e.g. Strategic, Design, Supply Chain, machine, information flow etc.) are complex and have multiple causes.

Countermeasures reveal themselves only after much reflection and experimentation. Lean methods enable this process. (Without them we often jump to a dumb-ass ‘countermeasure’)

An old Henny Youngman joke goes like this:

Henny, flapping his arms like wings. “I went to my doctor and told him it hurts when I do this!” Henny makes a face. “The doctor told me, don’t do that!”

Lean methods help us understand what ‘that’ is, so we can fix it.

Our challenge is that we often learn dumb-ass things in college and in dysfunctional organizations. Things like, let’s hide our problems, let’s brutalize our team members, let’s try to hoodwink our customers, and the like.

The truth will out.

Don’t be a dumb-ass.

Best regards,

Pascal

PS Andy & Me and the Hospital, describes how not to be a dumb-ass in healthcare.




In case you missed our last few blogs... please feel free to have another look…

Lean – So ‘Easy’, It’s Hard
“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”
Building Quality into the Process
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Where Lean Has Gone Wrong & What to Do About It, Part 1

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Thanks to Jim Womack for his insightful & heartfelt piece about this last month. (Jim is a friend, supporter and visionary, not to mention a person of decency & kindness. It’s fair to say that Jim & Dan Jones kicked off the Lean movement twenty years ago. Their insights have penetrating ever since.)

Here are a few thoughts, building on Jim’s points.

Lean is hard and only fully succeeds when there is aligned motivation on many levels. While it’s true that few transformations succeed without the senior leader’s full-hearted participation, that’s not enough.

We need a single-minded strength of purpose throughout the organization. We need front line team leaders and middle managers teaching & doing the right thing – even when nobody is watching. And that, of course, means a management system, (a concept I’ve tried to illuminate, especially in all my most recent stuff - Andy & Me and the Hospital.)

Single-minded strength of purpose also requires full alignment between the organization’s Purpose, and each member’s Purpose. Toyota’s corresponding alignment is more or less: “You do the work that needs doing and help us to improve, and you’ll have an engaging & well-paying job here for as long as you want it.”

I believe each organization needs to develop something similar, in accord with its culture. Do not copy Toyota or any other strong Lean company. This alignment must resonate with your team members, culture and industry. In a number of our partner firms, the deal is subtly different: “You do the work that needs doing and help us to improve, and you’ll learn & grow more than you ever thought possible, and will do cool things for as long as you want to.”

People systems including Recruitment, Succession Planning and Compensation are central of course, and a very common impediment. We have to start with Strategy Deployment, the senior leader’s core methodology.

Negative motivators can be helpful too. A number of Lean Pathways team members are Toyota alumni and remember the acronym CLM – Career Limiting Move! Any selfish, destructive, random, political disrespectful to a team member, the customer or the community would quality as a CLM. Any action that compromised Safety or Quality was a CLM. A few CLMs and your future at Toyota was in doubt. These are, in effect, a healthy version of the corporate antibodies.

One more thing. After a decade & a half of practice, our Lean Pathways team has lived through many transformations. In every blow your socks off, get out of town, let’s do the Moon Walk in slow motion transformation, (pardon the body English), the CEO, COO and their teams have a) made significant time for Executive Coaching, and b) been wide open to making corresponding changes in their day to day work.

More to come.

Best regards,

Pascal

Interview – Andy & Me and the Hospital

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Fine interview last month on my latest book, Andy & Me and the Hospital.

Good questions & a chance to talk about Tom & Andy’s latest adventures.

The boys get pulled into a major New York City hospital in crisis.

Can Tom & Andy translate Toyota’s powerful methods and thinking to save the hospital from disaster?

The book reflects my experiences the past ten years working with healthcare leaders at every level.

Had fun writing it. Hopefully, my best book.

Thanks to our colleagues at Taylor & Francis and Catalysis who will also be posting the interview presently on their website.

Best regards,

Pascal

Tip of the Hat to Catalysis

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

“We want to transform the healthcare industry to deliver higher value through experiments, collaboration and education…”

A mission driven person and organization can change the world & that’s what Catalysis is all about.

Dr. John Toussaint, Kim Barnas, Helen Zak and the rest of the team are trying to change the healthcare world through experimentation, collaboration & education.

It’s a daunting task, and one that requires tenacity and courage.  (Our Lean Pathways crew have found healthcare transformation to be our toughest & most rewarding assignment.)

I’m lucky enough to count several Catalysis leaders as friends, and can attest that they have the above qualities in abundance.  (They merit even greater respect when you realize they don’t need to do any of this & could pass the time on the beach sipping mojitos…)

I’m please & honored, therefore, that Catalysis on-line bookstore is carrying Andy & Me and the Hospital, the latest Tom Papas & Andy Saito adventure. Order here.

Tom & Andy get pulled into a major New York City hospital in crisis – chaos ensures.  It’s my best book.

If you’re interested, please give Andy & Me and the Hospital a gander on-line at Catalysis.  Yes, it costs a couple of bucks more here than at Amazon.  But you’re helping out a splendid organization that’s making the world a better place.

A tip of the hat & a deep bow to the splendid folks at Catalysis.  Full speed ahead & long may you run.

Best regards, 

Pascal

Why Do ‘Smart’ People Struggle with Strategy?

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

I’ve been coaching senior executives for more than a decade now.

Good, fun work with smart, fundamentally decent people. (If they’re not, I skedaddle.)

But you know what? The smarter they are, the more they struggle with strategy! Strange, no? Here’s a critical leadership skill for which excessive smartness can be a liability!

What’s going on? Well, most of these folks have gotten to where they are by having the right answer, and by proving thereby, that they’re the proverbial ‘smartest people in the room’.

But in strategy, there is no right answer. In any complex industry or field of endeavour, there are too many variables, too many unknowns.

In chess, arguably our greatest strategy game, the number of potential positions exceeds the number atoms in the universe.

Given such complexity, Is there a right answer? Of course not – there is only a right process. And this process, which I’ve tried to describe in my books [Andy & Me and the Hospital, and Getting the Right Things Done] includes the following steps:

1. Define purpose clearly
2. Identify the major obstacles & needed capabilities
3. Articulate a hypothesis
4. Run the hypothesis and quickly adjust based on what happens
5. Keep going till you reach your objective

By contrast, if senior leader is fixated on finding out the ‘right answer’, (and telling people how to effect it), bad things can happen:

• The activities that make up the false plan are, at the very least, a waste of time and energy
• The management team can stop caring
• Front line team members, who often have a better understanding of the problem, can become cynical
• “Here comes another brilliant top-down initiative”
• “Our leaders are bozos – we’re doomed”

In summary, in strategy there is no right answer. There is only a right process.

Here are some corollaries:

• Diversity in a management team is a good thing. More viewpoints bring a deeper understanding
• There’s no need to seek perfection in strategy – it doesn’t exist
• Seek to develop a shared understanding of the problem, and of our overall approach to solving it
• Admit you don’t know, and go see for yourself to better understand your purpose, obstacles and needed capabilities
• Be humble, for heaven’s sake

More in the blogs to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal

Lean Means Don’t Be a Dumb-Ass

By Pascal Dennis

I owe this gem to our friends & colleagues in the great state of Alabama.

Our partners there have a way with words, and a fine appreciation of Lean fundamentals.

Lean is ‘simple’, is it not?

1. Define Purpose clearly
2. Make problems visible at all levels
3. Treat people with respect – team members, customers, suppliers and the community
4. Involve everybody In problem solving

Lean methods like visual management, standardized work, Help Chains and the like are about making problems visible, so we can fix them.

Once the problem is visible, the countermeasure is often obvious, no?

To be sure, some problems (e.g. Strategic, Design, Supply Chain, machine, information flow etc.) are complex and have multiple causes.

Countermeasures reveal themselves only after much reflection and experimentation. Lean methods enable this process. (Without them we often jump to a dumb-ass ‘countermeasure’)

An old Henny Youngman joke goes like this:

Henny, flapping his arms like wings. “I went to my doctor and told him it hurts when I do this!” Henny makes a face. “The doctor told me, don’t do that!”

Lean methods help us understand what ‘that’ is, so we can fix it.

Our challenge is that we often learn dumb-ass things in college and in dysfunctional organizations. Things like, let’s hide our problems, let’s brutalize our team members, let’s try to hoodwink our customers, and the like.

The truth will out.

Don’t be a dumb-ass.

Best regards,

Pascal

PS Andy & Me and the Hospital, my latest, describes how not to be a dumb-ass in healthcare.

Get a copy today & tell me what you think!

Pascal Dennis Bio

New Book Update - Andy & Me and the Hospital

By Pascal Dennis

Hi folks,

Resurfacing at last after an intense summer working on Andy & Me and the Hospital, the latest Tom Papas and Andy Saito adventure.

First draft complete, working on the doodles and images with our splendid artist, Dianne Caton.

What’s the book about?

A major New York City hospital is in crisis. Tom and Andy get pulled in to help save it.

Tom is also in the midst of a personal crisis. Will the new challenge save or destroy him?

Why a book about Toyota methods and thinking in Healthcare?

Healthcare defines Lean’s frontier. The challenge, and opportunity, are immense. Moreover, if we don’t get it right, Healthcare could bankrupt us.

Why this book?

I want to answer some basic questions. What does a Lean transformation in a hospital feel like? What overall approach should we take?

What kind of leadership and behavior change is needed? How do we develop and engage people? How do we improve processes?

How do we build a management system? How do we translate what Deming called the ‘profound system of knowledge’ with our healthcare colleagues?

At the same time, I want to provide a clear and simple guide to Toyota methods and thinking, how they fit together, and the spirit that animates them.

One of the problems with Lean implementation has been the tendency to cherry-pick activities, rather than grasping the system as a whole.

What are the next steps?

Dianne and I will complete the doodles and figures and submit to our publisher. We’ll then get review copies out, after which we’ll adjust and polish the book as needed.

God willing, Andy & Me and the Hospital will be available in early 2016.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio