The Paradox of Standards

By Pascal Dennis

The Toyota Business system is full of paradox -- one of the many things that make it unique.

Standards are one its most paradoxical elements.

Standardized work (STW), for example, the best way we currently know to do a given task.

Our Lean Brain Booster pocket cards and apps teach that we need "simple, visual standards for all important things."

I was taught that STW comprises:

• Work content,
• Sequence
• Timing, and
• Expected outcome

Pretty strict, no?

You'd think, therefore, that STW would be restricting...

But STW frees you up -- for learning and improvement!

My wife, Pamela, teaches kindergarten. Her class includes a number of youngsters with special needs (autism, learning disabilities etc)

Children have difficulty with basic activities like tying their shoe laces, washing their hands, and going to the bathroom.

The latter, in particular, is rife with anxiety for many kids.

So, Pamela developed simple, visual standards for each of these activities.

Result: no accidents, anxiety or humiliation.

Effect: kids have more energy for learning. I'm very happy to report that Pamela's kids are thriving.

Lesson: Standards set you free.

Cheers,

Pascal

How Do You Motivate People to Keep Asking Why?

By Pascal Dennis,

What's the most common attribute of great organizations?

Problem solving...

Whether problems of design, marketing, manufacturing or distribution -- great companies are full of problem solvers.

Toyota's famous Five Why technique has been widely adopted now -- but results vary widely.

Some cultures get it -- others, not so much.

Here are a few thoughts as to why...
To get to root cause, you have to keep asking why. You have to care...

People have to feel, "This is my machine, department, factory, company." and "Getting to root cause benefits me."

So how do leaders create this sense of ownership, loyalty and esprit de corps?

Focus on Safety first -- everything else (Quality, Delivery, Cost...) follows.

Safety is our window on the process, as well as, as concrete message to team members:

“You’re our most valuable asset. We’re going to keep you safe, we’re not going to lay you off except in the direst of circumstances and as a last resort, and we’re going to teach you stuff that’ll make you even more valuable to us.”

Who wouldn’t want to work at a place like that?

Pascal
P.S. We've launched our Lean Leadership Brain Boosters -- to help lock in the fundamentals. Would love to get your feedback on them.

Safety -- Our Window on the Process

By Pascal Dennis,

Why do leading organizations like Alcoa, Dupont, Toyota and others put safety first?

Aren't private organizations about maximizing shareholder value?

Isn't profitability number one? Without it, after all, you're soon out of business, no?

The great Paul O'Neill, former CEO of Alcoa and Secretary-Treasurer coined the title of this blog.

If we can manage our processes such that nobody gets hurt -- quality, delivery, cost & profitability will surely follow.

Safe workplaces are invariable productive. They have standardized work, visual management, good ergonomics, flow and pull.

People understand their jobs, what can go wrong, how to avoid it -- and how to excel.

A health care colleague told me that industry CEOs believe they can delegate patient safety.

He also said that patient safety is not usually in the top 3 priorities of a typical health care CEO.

If so, I believe we have a root cause of the health care catastrophe.

Why Brain Booster Pocket Cards?

By Pascal Dennis,

Over the past few years we've spend a great deal of energy on Brain Booster Pocket Cards.

What are we trying to do?

In the spirit of visual management we're trying to crystallize the fundamentals of the Lean Business System.

Less is more -- the cardinal proverb.

We want our three suites -- Lean Thinking, Lean Tools & Lean Leadership -- to complement classic Lean text books.

The Toyota Way, Lean Production Simplified, Managing to Learn, Andy & Me... these are all fine resources -- by they're largely words.

We want to express their essence in pictures.

My personal mission is to translate the profound system of knowledge I was lucky enough to learn at Toyota.

I want to make it available to people all over the world.

So our images will be available in a variety of media: pocket cards, posters, iPhone apps etc.

Next -- how do you use them?

Watch our blog for updates...

How Do We Learn?

By Pascal Dennis

Used to be, we believed talent was god-given. Mozart, Einstein, Wayne Gretzky and other brilliant talents were born, not made.



Turns out we were wrong. Talent is acquired by practicing in a certain way.  The latest psycho-neural research teaches us that we learn through:

1. Deep practice -- slow, repetitive "stop & fix"

Turns out Aristotle was right 2300 years ago! We learn virtue by repetition.
Moreover, we learn best by stopping to fix problems that arise. (Sound familiar?)

    2.   Ignition -- signals in our environment telling us,
"You can do this! Nothing is impossible!"
Ignition is about connecting with purpose -- then becoming super-charged by a supportive environment

    3.   Sensei/mentorship

A good sensei is one who has mastered the "coaching kata" through diligent practice and reflection over many years.

Here are some good books:

• The Talent Code, by Dan Coyle
• Drive, by Dan Pink
• Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Toyota Kata, by Mike Rother

If I may be self-serving, you might also find my latest book, The Remedy, worthwhile.

Here are a few of the implications:

• We can turbo-charge learning -- there's a recipe to talent
• Hiding problems makes learning impossible
• Culture is indeed, as Lou Gerstner intuited, everything...
• Organizations without senseis will get out-learned -- and ultimately, out-earned.

I'll let you noodle on others...

Japanese Disaster

Our hearts and thoughts go out to the Japanese people in their time of need after the terrible disaster they experienced in first the earthquake and then the tsunami. The images of that powerful wave of sea water rushing in and sweeping up everything in its path were overwhelming. The awesome destructive force of the tsunami was incomprehensible.

The Lean movement owes much of its roots to Toyota and to the Japanese people. Lean and Japan have always had a special bond.

As we were taught, Lean is based on a few key principles:

- Respect for Humanity

- Elimination of Waste

- Continuous Improvement

We urge you to join us and Lean Pathways in respecting our Lean roots by supporting the disaster relief effort in Japan by donating to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief fund. You can access it through the attached link: http://www.redcross.org/  by going to the link on the Lean Systems home page.

Thanks for your support

Al & Pascal