Big Data & PDCA

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

LPI Back to Basics Series, Part 2

"Big Data" is all over the Net, and rightly so.

Burgeoning computer horsepower means we're able to crunch numbers like never before.

Manufacturing, Marketing, Human Resources etc. will be able illuminate opaque areas.

Billions of data points -- molecular, customer and team member behaviour, for example -- can be analyzed, patterns identified and conclusions drawn.

Is that it, then? Can we fold up the management tent and let the computer figure things out for us? Can we outsource thinking?

Hardly...

Big Data, wedded to PDCA, is a blessing. Divorced from PDCA, it may become a curse.

Big Data can help us make correlations -- "When we do this, that happens." -- which inform our PDCA cycle.

But it's up to us to

• Develop hypotheses,
• Design & run experiments,
• Reflect on the analyses, and
• Adjust our hypotheses

It up to us to recognize the data that's missing, unknown or unknowable.

Deming, the consummate data guy, taught us that some things can't be measured.

How do you measure esprit de corps, indomitable courage, a sense of optimism, or simple decency?

Yet great battles and fortunes, achievement and honor, often turn on such unmeasurables.

As ever, technology, in this case, Big Data, comes to fruition only through the application of human finesse and intelligence.

So let's celebrate the Big Data's potential. Let's figure out how to use it to illuminate undiscovered countries.

But let's not outsource our responsibility to learn & grow.

Best,

Pascal




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

PDCA - the Pounding Heart Muscle of Life
Yokoten, Meta-cognition and Leadership
Caffé Macaroni and Italian Design?
The Loneliness of the Small Business Owner

Lean Thinking in Software Design

By Pascal Dennis

One of my great work pleasures is helping to translate the System of Profound Knowledge, as Deming called it, for new and different industries.

Taiichi Ohno, Deming, Shingo, Juran et al have given us fundamental principles gained through hard experience.

But we have to translate these so they work for us in the here and now.

Thus, Lean is both

• Do – a set of principles that informs one’s life, and a


• Jutsu – a practical set of techniques that works

It’s fun translating visual management, standardized work, quality in the process and other fundamentals in industries like software design.

Agile, Scrum and related practices are very simpatico with Lean. In fact, if I may suggest, they are Lean’s child (or grandchild).

Our software partners recognize the need for an integrated management system that aligns things like:

• Purpose


• Core Mental Models – how we think


• Two work streams: Run the Business, and Improve the Business


• Connected Level 1, 2 and 3 checking


• Leader Standard Work & Daily Accountability


• People & Leadership Develop


• The Four Rules etc.

If we check well, reality gives us frank, binary feedback: OK or Not OK.

The answer is usually the latter! And, as ever, we learn by doing. Each organization’s journey is unique and their own. Coaches are guides, whisperers, and on occasion, taskmasters.

Step by step we walk the narrow path to enlightenment and good business results! We must have both, no?

We partially succeed – and that makes all the difference.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean – Where Are We Now? - Part 1

By Pascal Dennis

The sigmoid curve is one of nature’s most common patterns, governing phenomena as diverse as population growth, and the spread of disease.

It also governs dissemination of ideas.

The Lean Business System was born during the 1946 – 1952 Allied occupation of Japan, a historically unique moment when the best & brightest of two great cultures met and learned from one another.

The Japanese were extraordinarily open and curious students, and they absorbed what Deming, Juran, Drucker and other great senseis had to offer.

Of course, since then Japanese management gurus have returned the favor and taught what Deming called the ‘profound system of knowledge’ around the world.

Lean (a.k.a. Toyota Production System) gained worldwide attention after the publication of The Machine That Changed the World in 1990, and as Toyota’s achievements began to be understood.

Since then, Lean thinking has migrated across manufacturing and developed roots in field as diverse as health care, financial services and education.

Where on the curve are we now?

Are we still in the state of accelerated growth – or has Lean leveled off?

If the latter, how to create a new sigmoid curve? What are the obstacles and possible countermeasures.

I’ll share my thoughts in the weeks to come.

In the interim, we’d love to hear yours.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Big Data & PDCA

By Pascal Dennis

LPI Back to Basics Series, Part 2

"Big Data" is all over the Net, and rightly so.

Burgeoning computer horsepower means we're able to crunch numbers like never before.

Manufacturing, Marketing, Human Resources etc. will be able illuminate opaque areas.

Billions of data points -- molecular, customer and team member behaviour, for example -- can be analyzed, patterns identified and conclusions drawn.

Is that it, then? Can we fold up the management tent and let the computer figure things out for us? Can we outsource thinking?

Hardly...

Big Data, wedded to PDCA, is a blessing. Divorced from PDCA, it may become a curse.

Big Data can help us make correlations -- "When we do this, that happens." -- which inform our PDCA cycle.

But it's up to us to

• Develop hypotheses,
• Design & run experiments,
• Reflect on the analyses, and
• Adjust our hypotheses

It up to us to recognize the data that's missing, unknown or unknowable.

Deming, the consummate data guy, taught us that some things can't be measured.

How do you measure esprit de corps, indomitable courage, a sense of optimism, or simple decency?

Yet great battles and fortunes, achievement and honor, often turn on such unmeasurables.

As ever, technology, in this case, Big Data, comes to fruition only through the application of human finesse and intelligence.

So let's celebrate the Big Data's potential. Let's figure out how to use it to illuminate undiscovered countries.

But let's not outsource our responsibility to learn & grow.

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Reflection - the Breakfast of Champions

By Pascal Dennis

Reflection entails. honest, humble acceptance of successes & failures, strengths & weaknesses.

Hansei, as the Japanese call it.

Reflection is the countermeasure to hubris, overweening pride & arrogance, that destroyer of people and organization.

Reflection is central to all great religions, in the form of prayer, meditation, and rumination.

In some traditions the acolyte leaves civilization and seeks reflection in solitude.

In my experience, reflection requires both solitude, as well as, the camaraderie of one's team.

Thus, questions like 'What have I learned?’ naturally lead to 'What did we learn?'

Reflection, of course, reflects the Adjust phase of Plan-Do-Check-Adjust cycle.

We close of the loop thereby, and lay the foundation for next year's PDCA loop.

A couple of points here:

To close the loop, we need to have been there for all phases of PDCA.

Otherwise, we suffer the debilitating ailment I call Scatter - one group does the Plan, another Deploys the Plan, yet a third Checks the Plan.

Result: lousy results and little learning.

Scatter is at epidemic proportions in large organizations - because they're so large & complex.

More to come.

Economies I & II

By Pascal Dennis

Great piece in the NY Times recently by John Brooks.

Brooks comes up with a helpful formulation: Economy I & II

The former comprises private sector companies like Apple, Amazon, Toyota and GE.

These companies face withering competition every day.

As a result, they're wonderful at creating value, but not so good at creating jobs.

Economy II, by contrast, comprises government and quasi-government organizations like schools, universities and hospitals.

These organizations face comparatively little competition (or in the case of government agencies, none at all.)

As a result, they're wasteful and inefficient -- but good at creating 'jobs', of a sort.

Lean thinkers will argue that a job by definition is an activity that creates value for a customer.

Seen in this light, is a job in a suffocating bureaucracy that serves no one, truly a job?

I don't want to be misunderstood. Economy II is full of smart dedicated people who work hard and want to do the right thing.

They deserve what Deming called the 'pride of workman ship'.

They deserve to be involved in managing and designing their work. Given the opportunity, I've found they're very good at it.

The bigger problem is that Economy I organizations are no longer able to pay for Economy II.

As a result Economy II is bankrupting the state. Seen in this light, Greece is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Wither thou goest, go I.

Most western economies will hit the same wall before long.

What to do?

More next time.

Best,

Pascal

Lean Expert Certificate

By Al Norval

This is an eternal question – do you certify someone in Lean?

I understand the need people have for a certificate. They’ve worked hard on building their Lean knowledge and skillset and want some recognition for it. This is consistent with the culture of our entire education system where year after year people receive grades and at some interim points receive a certificate often in the form of a Diploma or Degree presented to them with full pomp and circumstance at a Graduation ceremony. So why not do the same thing with Lean?

There is certainly a technical component to Lean in the use of many of the tools be they TPM, SMED, Kanban, or Standard Work and people could certainly be certified in the use of these tools but what about the other, deeper side of Lean – the thinking that underpins the use of the tools. How do you certify people’s thinking? With the tools, people can memorize some facts and reproduce those facts at the appropriate time but often we find people using a tool in the wrong context. What was right for one situation isn’t right for another. People have developed knowledge of a tool but not the deep System of Profound Knowledge Deming talked about that enables them to use the right tool in the right context.

Is it possible to certify Lean Thinking?

I’m not sure how to do that and even if you could certify people’s thinking, a large part of Lean is the ongoing Pursuit of Perfection. The endless PDCA cycle of eliminating waste, creating more value for Customers, solving problems and learning. For people the Pursuit of Perfection often translates into Lifelong Learning, continuing to build their knowledge through practice and reflection. This ongoing process allows people to build profound knowledge.

What’s the answer?

I believe in Certificates of Participation as a means of satisfying peoples need for recognition particularly at the early learning stages. But as people continue to learn this need goes away and once it does, people become true masters.

Cheers