Jerry Seinfeld - Lean Thinker

By Pascal Dennis

Splendid post by James Clear on the so-called Seinfeld strategy of personal development.

Jerry's approach?

To be better comic, you have to write better jokes, and to write better jokes, you have to write every day.

At Lean Pathways we call it the "drip, drip, drip" approach.

At Toyota, we called it "every day, a little up".

Malcolm Gladwell calls it the 10,000 hour road to mastery.

But there's always some bozo trying to short circuit the process.

(I saw an article the other day entitled, "Forget the 10,000 Hour Rule".)

Folks, there is very little new under the sun & moon. The fundamentals are eternal.

And they include the Great Virtues.

Jerry walked away from the Seinfeld Show, and an untold fortune, to marry and raise a family.

He's said to be a genuinely decent guy, and a good father & husband.

Well done, Jerry-sensei!

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Pascal's Interview by 314 App

By Pascal Dennis

Enjoyable interview last week.

Thanks to Dorota Sokolowska & our friends at 314 Apps in Peterborough, UK.

(Fine app development company that's applying Lean fundamentals in interesting ways.)

Here's the transcript.

1. Why are Lean principles so important for our business?
   
   Lean, also known as Toyota Production System (TPS) allows us to do more with less – less hassle, less energy, less pollution, less overtime, fewer resources of all kinds – while giving our customers what they want, and reducing human misery. Lean helps provide meaningful work and prosperity, while engaging everybody in the organization in improvement. Lean, thus, builds capability, self-respect & confidence.


2. In your book Getting the Right Things Done you elaborate upon the concept of Strategy Deployment. How would you explain it?
   
   Strategy Deployment (aka Hoshin Kanri) has been called 'the world's most powerful planning & execution system'. SD is a proven approach to breakthrough performance that aligns everybody toward True North, our strategic & philosophical goal. SD opens up time in everyone's schedule for breakthrough work. But that entails implementing a solid Lean foundation comprising standardized work, visual management and the like.
   


3. How is Strategy Deployment different from other types of planning?
   
   Underlying SD are a set of core 'mental models' – ways of thinking – that are fundamentally different from what we're taught in our business & professional schools. At Toyota manufacturing I had to unlearn everything I learned in engineering school. The biggest obstacle, therefore, is ourselves. We need to deepen and extend our mental models – a difficult but essential prerequisite.
   
   Secondly, SD depends on total participation, which has major implications for how we manage. Respect for people becomes a foundational principle. Employment stability is job one. People won't get involved in improvement work if they don't feel secure. So, we have to commit to employment stability, we have to teach our people Lean basics, and reduce the hassles that hinder improvement work. Everything is connected, as they say.


4. How are people and companies using your books?
   
   Pleased to say, people are using my books are working tools. They form study groups & book clubs, and work on the questions at the end of each chapter. It's gratifying to see dog-eared copies of my stuff in factories, design studios, and hospitals. When a supervisor pulls out a copy of, say Andy & Me, or The Remedy and asks about a concept, I'm honoured.
   
   Writing is hard, but connecting with people makes it worthwhile.


5. What is the most important lesson that you learned while working in Toyota?
   
   Respect for people is the foundation of any great enterprise. People have knowledge, capability, and creativity. Everybody has the God-given right to be involved in improving their work and organization.
   
   This doesn't mean Shangri-La, a place where everything is nice and nobody is ever stressed. Sometimes 'respect for people' means challenging your people to go places & do things they don't think are possible. Going easy on people doesn't necessarily entail respect. In fact, it could mean the opposite.
   
   We're on this Earth for a short time. It's our duty to try & get a little better every day, 'to seek, to strive and not to yield'. (Thanks, Lord Tennyson.)


6. What advice would you give to a newbie businessman?
   
   Learn the fundamentals – Value & Waste, standardized work, visual management and the like. Join a good organization committed to Lean fundamentals, especially respect for people, and learn by doing.
   
   Practice, practice, practice for decade or so (or 10,000 hours according to Malcolm Gladwell). Then start to teach others what you've learned.
   
   Above all, stick with it. Don't be side-tracked by 'shiny objects', the buzz words du jour, and the latest management fads. The fundamentals are forever.

Best,

Pascal

Lean & Theory of Constraints

By Pascal Dennis

Lean, Six Sigma, Lean-Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering, TQM, Theory of Constraints...

Hard to make head-nor-tail of the different systems of improvement...

Or are they so different?

In fact, they all converge, just as the martial arts converge.

I studied Aikido. The better I got, the better I came to understand Karate, Taekwondo, Judo and Jujutsu.

They're all expressions of Budo, the way of the warrior, and Bujutsu, the practical application of the Way.

The greatest masters, in my view, approach a form of formlessness - no style or free style.

Free style means the student, after many years of practice -- (and at least 10,000 hours, Malcolm Gladwell tells us) -- has absorbed the core forms into their very being so they don't have to think about them.

This brings me to Lean and Theory of Constraints.

For some reason, some people frame these as 'Either/Or'.

In fact, they are synergistic.

TOC's core tenet is, arguably, Little's Law:

Lead Time = (Work in Process)/Capacity

And Lead Time is the most important Value Stream metric.

Are our materials & services flowing?

To paraphrase Taiichi Ohno, founder of the Lean Business System: "It's all about Lead Time reduction."

We could similarly align Lean and the other transformation systems noted above.

After years of practice, we learn to stop worrying about theology, and simply do.

Simple Doesn't Mean Easy

By Pascal Dennis

Big misunderstanding here.

People mistake complexity for depth.

In fact, complexity is a crude state.

Simplicity marks the end of process of refinement.

Hitting a golf ball is 'simple':

1. Eye on the ball
   


2. Smooth takeaway
   


3. Shift weight to front foot
   


4. Follow through so your elbows are pointing toward the target
   

Similarly, problem solving is 'simple'.

Here's the 'drill' we teach & which my books enlarge on:

1. Do I have a problem?
   


2. Do I know the cause?
   


3. Have I proven cause & effect?
   


4. Have I confirmed the countermeasure?
   

Both are simple.

But perhaps we can agree, neither is easy.

In fact, simple is one of the most difficult things there is, achievable only after years of practice.

(Malcolm Gladwell quotes the 10,000 hour rule, which sounds about right.)

Our hyper-connected world, with all its distractions, hinders our ability to put in the hours.

My suggested countermeasure, as you may recall, is turn the damn screen off!

I also believe in solitude - quiet time alone, for reflection, practice, meditation...

Indeed, solitude has been called the school of genius.

Since it is all too clear.

It take time to grasp it.

Best regards,

Pascal