Lean Thinking in Software Design

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

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




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

Problem Solving and the Worlds of Reflection & Experience
Learning How to Manage
Bozos and HR
Strategy and the Worlds of Thought & Experience

Leadership – Going to Gemba with a Purpose

By Al Norval

It’s interesting to observe Leaders behavior as they begin to get comfortable with Lean and start to change their own behaviors to match the new Lean Mental Models. It’s obvious most are not comfortable, yet I always give Leaders a great deal of credit for trying, after all part of Leadership is modeling the behaviors you want others to use.

I’d like to highlight a couple of these new Lean behaviors - Going to Gemba and Leader as a Teacher.

Going to Gemba has several purposes:

• To see for yourself and understand what is really happening.
• To reinforce the standards of the organization and ask why when deviations occur.
• To show respect for the people

When leaders observe abnormalities they have two choices on how to respond. They can act like dictators and tell people to fix the problem barking out orders or they can ask why? The first does nothing to develop the capabilities of the team and at best leads to compliance behavior but does not lead people to get engaged. By asking why we get people to think and can teach them to problem solve for themselves. We engage their hearts and minds in solving the problems leaders have observed. Over time people will see these problems for themselves and become actively engaged at eliminating root causes.

Sounds simple but how do leaders do this? A terrific way I observed was a leader who was just getting into the routine of a daily Gemba walk through his section of the factory. He observed a group of operators struggling to keep a piece of machinery running. The equipment was dirty, covered in oil and grime. He could have told the team members what he wanted done but instead asked them why were they having trouble getting the machine to run? They replied that it was an old machine. Another question – what was the problem with the old machine?

No one could pinpoint the problem except to say that it hadn’t been maintained in recent years.

At this point the leader started explaining the concepts of 5S and Visual Management and how they were the foundation of TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) and with these techniques equipment could be put into a like new condition once again. Since the factory was noisy he used a set of pocket cards and images to help explain these concepts to the team. The pictures were like a thousand words. The Team Members understood what needed to be done but more importantly they understood why. They began to work on simple ways to improve the performance of the equipment and over time developed daily clean and inspect checklists, visual indicators of performance and found many sources of problems including air and oil leaks, loose fittings and contamination. The equipment started to run better and the maintenance team was freed up to work on the deeper, more complex machine issues.

A good news story all around driven by a leader who understood his role of teaching his people and building their capability so they can engage and solve problems for themselves.

For more information on Pocket cards/ Lean Brain Boosters and Lean Images see www.leansystems.org

Cheers

Problems are Buried Gold – How do you get people to flag problems vs. just sweeping them under the carpet?

By Al Norval

I was visiting an organization recently and we were talking about the Lean Mental Models and focused on the “Problems are Gold” mental model. I like this one as the image is very clear in people’s minds. Problems are buried treasure. Gold to be mined and dug up. The opposite of this is “Problems are to be swept under the rug” and made to quietly disappear.

In this organization as with most organizations I deal with, Leaders believe they encourage people to surface problems and bring problems to them. Most organizations have an open door policy where people can see senior leaders at any time to discuss problems or other issues they have on their mind.

But my observation is that people rarely bring problems to Leaders attention and in fact would rather work around the problem than raise the flag. The “No problems here” sign is a great indication of just how many problems there really are.

Why is this? Firstly, a lack of problem consciousness where people really don’t know that problems exist and secondly, they know problems exist but are afraid to raise them for fear of the repercussions. In both cases people work around the problems and if the same problem re-occurs with any regularity, the work-around get locked into the process and eventually become part of the process. Broken processes just become the way it is or the way things get done around here.

What’s a Leaders role in changing this?

1. To raise problem consciousness by putting clear standards in place and making the performance or current condition visible against those standards.
   


2. Create a safe environment where people feel emotionally safe enough to raise problems where the process standards are not being met. This requires leaders to react positively and reinforce the raising of problems.
   


3. Teach people a way to problem solve so they can learn to solve problems for themselves. This is analogous to teaching people how to fish so they can feed themselves.
   

By doing these three things, leaders create a culture where problem solving is the norm. Each day problems get driven down to root cause and each day the organization gets a little better.

Cheers

"Too Much School Destroys the Mind..."

By Pascal Dennis

Like many of my colleagues I went to a professional school (Engineering), then a business school.

I dutifully did all my assignments, got good marks and climbed up the ladder.

Nobody told me about the glasses I'd been given. Nobody told me that they would distort my image of the world.

Nobody told me it would take a decade or more to learn to see clearly again. And I was lucky...

People got to professional schools and business schools with the best of intentions.

They want a better job, more responsibility and higher pay -- all worthy & admirable goals.

But my professors never told me they were teaching dysfunctional mental models.

(Getting the Right Things Done and The Remedy express my thoughts on mental models.)

Probably, they didn't even realize it themselves.

They too, were just trying to make their way in their careers, seeking the path of least resistance.

But ideas have legs. Dysfunctional mental models mutate, and debilitate their host.

The result?

Smart, well-educate, capable people who have forgotten the basics.

As my dad used to say (about me), "Too much school destroys the mind..."

Regards,

Pascal

No Problem is a Problem

By Al Norval

This is a phrase I often use. I like it since it has a couple of meanings and makes people think. The obvious meaning is that our problem solving process is so good that it can handle any problem so “No problem is a problem” for us to solve.

But it has another deeper meaning goes back to one of our core mental models:

Problems are garbage to be hidden away

Vs.

Problems are buried treasure

In many organizations, problems aren’t something to be brought to the light of day much less brought up in front of leaders. In these organizations, leaders often say “Don’t bring me problems, I want answers”. And of course, people learn not to bring problems to the boss and if they can’t resolve the problem by themselves, they just bury them and move on. Often they are forced to work around the problem and keep going. Over time these workarounds become the standard way we run the process and get baked into our standardized work.

"Elephant in the Room" by Banksy from his 2006 art exhibit "Barely Legal",
a playful exploration of the extremes some will go to when attempting to hide problems.

What amazes me is that for all this fuss, the problems still exist. Imagine this environment – what kind of continuous improvement is going on? What kind of reaction would occur if a customer complained?

What’s the alternative?
Leaders need to create an environment where it’s OK to surface problems or better yet, create an environment where people are encouraged to surface problems.

How do leaders do this?
First of all by thinking about how they react when people bring problems to them. Leaders have to choose how they react when people bring them problems. Do they coach, mentor, offer help and encouragement? Problems always provide us with a teachable moment where we can follow through on another one of our Mental Models - Leader as a Teacher, and by doing so build the capability of both the people and the organization.

After that Leaders need to reflect on the strength of their problem solving process:

Do we have a process through which problems are raised?
Do we have a rapid response to problems?
Do we have containment of problems?
Do we get to root cause of problems?
Do we put in countermeasures that sustain over time so problems don’t reappear?

All organizations have problems; to have problems is normal and natural. Why would we be any different? And why would we behave as though we don’t have any?

No problem is indeed a big problem!

Cheers

Lean Leadership Excuse #3

By Al Norval

I work with leaders in many organizations that are making the transformation from a traditional way of thinking to Lean Thinking. Some are doing very well and some struggle with this transformation. In previous posts I’ve described a couple of the excuses I hear coming from Leaders about why they can’t make the transformation to Lean Thinking and Lean Leadership and truly lead their organizations to become the best they can be to deliver exceptional value to their customers.

Some of these excuses I’ve talked about in previous posts include:

“I don’t have time” and

“It’s so hard”

Today I’m going to talk about another excuse I hear more than I’d like to, which is:

“It’s easier just to tell people what to do”

This excuse goes right back to our Mental Model of Leader as a Teacher. In a traditional hierarchy with traditional thinking, the leader was the boss who often saw his role as telling people what to do. In a Lean environment, the Leader is a teacher who uses Socratic questioning to build the capability of the team. This is best done at Gemba by using real problems encountered by the team. By building the capability of the team, the team grows and is better able to solve problems in the future. The more capable people are, the more problems they can solve to root cause, the more time they free up for leaders to coach and mentor their team. It’s a very different skill set but one that starts a benevolent cycle of teaching, learning, and improving.

Leaders acting as teachers build the capability of the team but this takes time. Thus the dilemma – If I just tell people what to do, it’s easier and takes less time but people don’t learn, grow and develop their thinking. They learn to go to the boss and in extreme cases learn to do nothing until the boss tells them what to do. Since they keep coming to the boss asking what to do, there isn’t time to build the capability of the team.

So, I hear the excuse – It’s just easier to tell people what to do. Get it done, get it over with and just move on. Short term thinking with short term gains but no foundation for the future. Lean is a journey to True North with our people pulling us into the future. For our people to do that, leaders need to invest in building people’s capability one step at a time. It’s long term thinking with respect for people at its core and it’s not easy.

But just because something is easy, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. That’s why it’s called Leadership, the ability to do the right things not just the easy things.

For more on Lean Mental Models, please see Lean Brain Boosters.

Cheers

Going to Gemba with a Purpose

By Al Norval

By now most leaders understand the purpose of “Going to Gemba”. A great deal has been written about the famous words of Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho that have become a Lean mantra now:

1. Go See
   
2. Ask Why
   
3. Show Respect
   

Each of these three phrases has deep meaning.

Go See – one of the basic Lean Mental models. See for yourself, Grasp the Situation, seek to understand what is actually happening, look at things from both a technical and people point of view. The 4 M’s is a good framework for this. Consider the Manpower, the Machines, the Materials and the Methods as you observe the situation.

Ask Why – another one of the basic Lean Mental models. It revolves around Leader as a Teacher. Rather than tell people what to do, leaders ask questions to probe. This develops people’s thinking and develops their ability to problem solve for themselves in the future. Although this approach may take longer to resolve an issue in the short term, it pays big dividends in the long term as people’s capability to solve their own problems develops over time.

Show Respect - Key to the entire process and fundamental to Lean. It’s founded on one of the basic principles of Lean which is “Respect for Humanity”. Anytime, leaders go to Gemba and ask why, it needs to be done in a way that builds the capability of the team and empowers them to try things to learn for themselves. This is showing respect for their mental capabilities and their humanity and goes beyond just showing respect for them in the way we talk to each other in an interpersonal relationship.

Now we have a system of Going to Gemba but as with any system, this system needs a purpose. What’s the purpose of Going to Gemba? Obviously to understand the current condition, to develop the capability of team members and to kaizen the process. But do we just go to Gemba hoping to find problems and waste? I’d suggest a better way would be to define a specific process or capability you want to check and predetermine questions you want to ask about it. Start by identifying the critical processes in an area and develop a calendar on when you’ll go to Gemba with the purpose of checking that process. Over time many different processes can be checked and many different capabilities developed, all with a specific purpose.

If we don’t do these things we revert back to Management by Walking Around which I like to call Management by Milling Around. We feel good about it but it really doesn’t get us anywhere.

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

Mobile Apps and Lean

By Al Norval,

Like many of you, I’m having to learn a new vocabulary and a new way of managing in this world that seems to be spinning faster and faster every passing day. Years ago, I learned e-mail, then it was texting & IM and now it’s smart phones and apps. It’s interesting to note that every new thing that comes along claims to be able to make our lives more efficient which I translate to mean more waste free. While there is some truth in this, the efficiency gains (waste reductions) are overcome by the amount of information coming at us in an ever increasing torrent.

Some of this information is truly helpful. I have to admit, I like the Sports app which allows me as a long suffering hockey fan to look up the scores for my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately, I don’t usually like the score but that’s another story. As a customer, I find value in the way & speed this information is made available to me and so there is value in this app. Likewise for the weather app I use. As I travel many days of the year, I find value in being able to look up the weather in a number of different cities and being able to see it quickly and up to date. Like the hockey scores, I don’t always like what I see.

These apps are great because they do provide value to me the Customer. The information is up to date and provided to me on demand in a way that is visual and so easy to understand. I can quickly get an update and so react appropriately.

In the Lean world, we face the same situation. When we are at Gemba or working with a team, how do we get a quick update on Lean basis? How do we know how to react? How do we know how and what to teach to our teams?

Many times we are away from our workstations and come across a problem or a moment when we could teach teams Lean Mental Models and the basic way of thinking. Unfortunately, we are away from our normal material and need to rely on our memory. We need quick access to the information but don’t have it at our fingertips. The opportunity passes.

Now we can use the same app technology on smart phones. I’d like to introduce the Lean Mental Models app for BB & iPhone. It’s twelve Lean Mental Models contrasted against the Conventional Mental Models that we can use when we are away from our workplaces but still need quick access to the Lean Mental Models.

Like the other Sports and Weather apps, I’m sure you will find value in this app.

Available at:  http://itunes.apple.com/app/lean-thinking-brain-boosters/id450984003?mt=8

Blackberry App: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/20774?lang=en