Lean Pathways Blog Milestone – 1,500,000 Visits

 

My blog hit a milestone last week – 1,500,000 visits. I started writing in early 2013, tentatively, not understanding the medium, and facing a heavy work burden. My marketing sensei, the splendid Holly Simmons, suggested a weekly blog: “You say you want to share what you’ve learned? Well, what are you waiting for?”

                        Pascal's Ikigai: Mentor, Create, Have Fun

Fourteen years later, I’m still at it.  Blogging is a way of sharing & checking my thinking.  ‘Does this make sense. Am I on the right path?’

I’ve pivoted a number of times, based on fresh interests & new learning. The past several years I’ve been telling the story of my adventures in Singapore & other innovation hot spots. It’s been a nine-year journey working with my colleague, Laurent Simon, in new geographies and industries (Insurance, Banking, Consumer Goods, Energy). I’ve learned that ‘Ambidexterity’ is the leader’s Job One. We must both protect the core business with Lean/OpEx and ignite new Growth using Digital methods. AI only intensifies the need to do so.

My pivot initially caused confusion – I thought you were a Lean guy. Indeed, cost reduction & avoidance through Lean/OpEx provide lasting value - but it’s no longer enough. As Noriaki Kano taught, ‘Delighters’ decay and become ‘must haves’. Lean/OpEx is a necessity, but it’s no longer a Wow. My job is teaching ambidexterity to leaders. In keeping with my ikigai, I have a foot in both camps. Mentor, Create, Have Fun.

Thanks for reading,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

Don’t Out Outsource Empathy to AI (Embrace Your Inner Hipster)

 

Pascal Dennis, co-author of Harnessing Digital Disruption

‘I’d rather put a gun in my mouth,’ David Simon, when asked if he uses AI to write.

This my favorite response to a question about AI and writing. David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’ did not mince words. AI can be a helpful assistant, but is a debilitating master. Use AI to do the donkey work – research a database, summarize a series of dull papers and the like.  But the blank page is sacred – let it pull you in. 

And so, I’ve stopped using AI to generate images.  I played around with it for a while but now I’m drawing out things by hand, like I always have. The feedback has been gratifying. ‘I really like your drawings…’

I am not a graphic artist. (Management & music are my twin passions.) But I like having a pen in my hand & letting it run freely across the page. I like playing with shape & color & balancing full & empty space. Most of all, I like feeling in touch with myself and expressing it in a careless, droll doodle.

So what?, you ask. How is this relevant to our business?

Ambidexterity wins nowadays – can we protect our core business, while igniting new Growth? Growth entails developing new journeys, offerings, and even new businesses. I’m describing the capability & mindset of the ‘Hipster’ – one of three personas we need in a kick-ass innovation team. The other two, the Hacker and Hustler, are equally important, but much better understood. The Hipster’s super power is empathy. A great Hipster can sense the entire customer journey, from the top of the customer funnel (I know…) to the bottom (I’m going to tell all my friends…). Great Hipsters, (think Steve Jobs or Jony Ive) can turn the customer funnel into an hour glass. Demand for your new offering grows by word of mouth.

The feeling I get while drawing or playing my instrument is how I feel in a fine innovation sprint. We’re playing and thereby getting closer & closer to the customer – who they are, what they value, and why they embrace an offering, or not. Each experiment is quick & easy, like a whimsical doodle. But it gets you close and closer to creating something delightful.

So, do not outsource empathy to AI. By all means, use AI in the ways I’ve described. But the blank page is sacred and the domain of the human heart. Let it pull you in.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

The Leadership Challenge, part 2 – What’s in it for Them?

How will you motivate your team, Pascal-san? 

A cherished mentor asked me this question decades ago. I was a young engineer & manager trying to absorb the legendary Toyota Production System. A lot has happened since those days, but his wisdom still informs me. The leader’s job one today is ambidexterity. How will we both protect the core business, and ignite new Growth? These entail very different mindsets and ways of working. How do we motivate our team members to make such extraordinary efforts?

How will you motivate your team, Pascal-san? 

Ambidexterity entails the ability to both 1) Protect the core business with the proven methods of OpEx/Lean, and 2) Ignite new Growth using Digital methods. It’s an immense challenge, and I’ve described blockers in earlier blogs. So, how do leaders motivate team members to take it on?  Here’s how I would answer the question.

We’re asking you all to help us transform our business. Why? Because it's a big challenge and we can't do it without you.

It's a big ask - life is hard nowadays and many of us are just hanging on, doing our best in a sea of seemingly endless change & turmoil. So, why should you put your backs to the wheel, why should you go the extra mile to help this organization get to the next level, and prosper in the long term? Bluntly stated, what’s in it for you?

First, the bad news.  I cannot guarantee that your jobs will not change.  And it’s likely some positions will be eliminated. As ever, we will do everything within our power to maintain employment stability.

If your job disappears, you’ll have every opportunity to apply for the new jobs we create. If you chose to seek other opportunities, or to retire, we'll be fair & generous.

Regardless, all of you will have the opportunity to grow and to learn. We’re going to invest in you so that you’re multi-skilled & invaluable to our organization.  We’re going to strengthen your capabilities in Operational Excellence and give you the opportunity to learn cutting-edge Innovation skills.

Why? Because we want you to help us continually improve our processes, and to share your innovation ideas so that we can continue to surprise our competitors and delight both existing and new customers.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn by doing through bootcamps, hackathons, our Shark Tank program and other interesting channels. We want you to become ‘employable for life’. We hope you choose to stay with us.

What about AI, you ask? Isn't it going to obsolesce the human & take our jobs?

I believe AI is going to be a tremendous enabler for us. I believe the teams of the future will comprise both people and AI agents, the latter doing specific tasks that free up people for higher level work, especially oversight to ensure our AI agents don't hallucinate and destroy value. But AI will never replace people. AI without acumen equals garbage at the speed of light. We will always need capable, committed people, and that's why we want to invest in you.

So, what's in it for you? Fun, growth, opportunity and being a part of kick-ass team in a kick-ass organization committed to doing the right thing, in the right way.

Best wishes,

Pascal

We Do Not Understand the Customer, Part 1

 I thought I understood the customer. I was a Toyota-trained engineer & entrepreneur who immersed in creating Value & eliminating Waste. I’d launched companies, and written books on Strategy execution and Operational Excellence (aka Lean). I travelled the world advising C-suites & Boards.

Framing is everything.

My illusions were shattered in Singapore, where my colleague & Innovation sensei, Laurent Simon, helped me up a steep learning curve. We worked together in the Financial Services & Consumer Goods industries and eventually built an Innovation practice. We even wrote a book about our adventures & ideas.

Framing is everything. Our Toyota senseis taught us that a) Value is what ‘customers are willing to pay for,’ and b) Waste is everything else. Toyota senseis, famously, like to draw a circle on the shop floor, and ask the deshi (student) to closely observe the process. After an hour or more, the students report back on what they’ve seen, with an emphasis on the 3 M’s - Muda, Mura, and Muri (Waste, Unevenness, and Strain).

As a deshi, my Job One was learning how to identify, diagnose & eliminate the ‘Seven + One’ wastes. It’s a skill I practice to this day (to the consternation of my family). When I encounter a process in day-to-day life, I instinctively note bottlenecks, count WIP & calculate cycle times (while my wife rolls her eyes).

In addition to my Toyota training, I was lucky enough to grow up working in our family diner, the Imperial Grill, (which features prominently in the Andy & Me novels). There, wasted motion meant sore feet; delay meant the food arrives cold, defects meant the wrong food arrives, and so on. Waste is something I understand in my core, and OpEx/Lean provides an excellent framing and solid foundation.

But is the OpEx/Lean framing sufficient in a world of exponential technology? Does OpEx/Lean provide the methods & mindset needed to delight customers in the 21^st century and thereby ignite new Growth?

Here’s a different framing, courtesy of the late, great Clayton Christensen: Customers ‘hire’ a product or service to do a job for them. Customers don’t really care what we’re doing in the factory or supply chain, as long as they get cool stuff quick, that does the job at a fair price. To be sure, customers expect us to behave ethically and to do right by our employees, community & environment. But most of all, they want us to solve their problem.

Here's the really tricky part – often customers do not recognize that they have a given problem. In the hurly-burly of 21^st century life, many people are just hanging, trying to get through the day intact, having little time to reflect deeply about their experience. People put up with a great deal of hassle without much thought. But when they’re offered a remedy in a compelling, funny, and/or charming way they react, often very strongly.

And so, we have two different framings: one is the key to protecting the core business. The other shows the way to growth and sustained prosperity. More to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis, E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Ignorance
Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win

Space - Battles We Have to Win, part 5

 Ambidexterity is the leader’s Job One and comprises: 1) Protecting the core business with Lean/OpEx, and 2) Igniting new Growth using Digital methods. Ambidexterity does not come easy. Here is the 5^th in a series on the battles we have to win.

The five blockers are a syndrome - each reinforces the others.

The deadly risks of our day are Volatility, Black Swans, and Obsolescence. Doing nothing is our riskiest option. When the ocean is in furious flux, alertness, agility and speed are of the essence, and ambidexterity is their clearest expression.

Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, Guesswork and Space. These are the ‘battles’ we have to win. Today I’ll talk about Space, summarize key lessons in the series.

Space

Whether we’re protecting our core business with Lean/OpEx, or igniting new growth with Digital, we have to make space for transformation – physical, temporal, financial, strategic, cultural and psychological space. Otherwise, corporate antibodies are likely to shut us down.  Indeed, (infamously) between 70 to 90% of both Lean/OpEx, and Digital transformations fail to meet their targets. If we do not create space for change, the blockers usually win. If we do not protect that space, the blockers always win.

Physical, Temporal, and Financial Space

A core element of my innovation work (aka ‘Smart Growth’) entails building a ‘Showcase’ wherein a selected, capable, motivated, 3H team of high achievers demonstrates a new way of working – and produces kick-ass results. And so, we need a dedicated physical space (aka Maker’s Space, Learning Lab, Incubator, Accelerator, Innovation Hub) wherein the team & the rest of the organization can learn by doing. We also need to carve out time, and a dedicated budget. For example, Lean experimentation & growth hacking entail landing pages, ads, explainer videos and the like through which we test & validate our hypotheses. Building an ecosystem of providers is in my experience the best, quickest & most effective way to doing so.

Strategic, Cultural, and Psychological Space

Strategic space means our strategy and its physical expressions (Obeya, Control Tower, Team Boards and so on) explicitly outline our Innovation targets and activities. Our visual expressions of Strategy reflect our commitment to ambidexterity: the is dedicated space for 1) protecting the core business, and 2) igniting new Growth.  The latter usually entails visual management showing the purpose, and status of our Innovation portfolio.

Cultural and psychological space means that senior leaders and the Board tirelessly express their commitment to working in a new way. DBS Bank (often cited as the ‘World’s Best Digital Bank’) is a good example. The bank’s Board & CEO, Piyush Gupta, have been the living expression DBS’ winning logic: Close to the customer; 30,000-person startup; Digital to the core. I can confirm that team members across the organization understand & accept the winning logic.  (I’ve randomly asked a few dozen of them over the years)

Transformation Blockers are a Syndrome

Our five blockers comprise a ‘syndrome’, in other words, a pattern of symptoms that reflect a specific pathology. Each blocker reinforces the others, making change particularly challenging. For example, Ignorance triggers Fear, which triggers Guesswork, which triggers Scatter. And these in turn compromise the physical, temporal and financial space needed to work in a new way. And that’s why 70 to 90 percent of transformation efforts fail to meet their objectives.

It's a heck of a problem, but it can be solved. That’s why I’m writing these articles.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Ignorance
Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win

Guesswork – continued

 In the 21^st century, ambidexterity wins. We must both protect the core business with Lean/OpEx and ignite new Growth using Digital methods. Here is the fourth in a series on the battles we have to win.

Dangerous corporate animals

Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, Guesswork and Space - these are our blockers. Today I’ll talk continue talking about Guesswork. The remedies I discuss apply to both protecting the core business with Lean/OpEx and to igniting new Growth.

Guesswork

Guesswork entails jumping to conclusions in the absence of data or expertise. Direct causes include a lack of data, and cultural or leader arrogance. Last time I talked about how to fill the data void with YODA. Today, I’ll talk about cultural or leader arrogance.

HIPPO & ZEBRA Management

I’m the highest paid person in the room. What I say goes, and everybody knows it. That’s the HIPPO’s mindset. Data, who needs it? Facts, eye-witness accounts, I don’t care. World War I generals like Douglas Haig, John French, and Luigi Cadorna are among history’s most infamous HIPPOs. Each has a room in the Military Hall of Shame, and each valued their self-image more than the lives of their troops. Do their descendants not afflict us still?

I have zero expertise but I’m really adamant (or arrogant). That’s the ZEBRA’s mindset. Some company cultures value brashness and aggression. Oligopolies and other protected sectors are immune to the consequences of disastrous decision-making, not unlike WWI generals.

Fake it till you make it has become a cultural meme. The idea is that if you act confident and competent in a situation, even when you don't feel that way, you will eventually develop the actual desired skills and qualities. Such a mindset that can help you push past self-doubt and help you grow. But at some point, it becomes outright dishonesty. And left unchecked, ‘fake it till you make it’ creates a Guess work culture - phony, superficial, and prone to disaster.

There are other dangerous animals in the corporate menagerie including Seagulls, WOLFs, YAKs, and RHINOs, but you get the picture.

Building Your Culture’s Immune System

‘No bozos, ever’ was a Steve Jobs mantra. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some uniquely successful executives, and their common refrain is ‘You have to get the right people on the bus.’ That’s a polite rephrasing of Jobs’ mantra, no? A company’s Human Resources team and system has two essential & related roles: 1) to hire, engage, develop, reward, and retain good people, and 2) to identify & remove HIPPOs, ZEBRAs, and other dangerous corporate animals.

Company culture is the responsibility of senior leaders and the Board. Radical transparency means we leave our rank at the door. Facts trump opinion and hearsay. No facts? Sit down, and do not come here unprepared again. Working in a great organization is like playing hockey in the NHL. If you can’t skate, pass, and shoot, you won’t be on the ice. But if you’re humble, tenacious, and love the game, great companies will help you grow and succeed.

In my next article, I’ll address the fifth deadly blocker: Space.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

Guesswork – Battles We Have to Win, Part 4

 In the 21^st century, ambidexterity wins. We must both protect the core business with Lean/OpEx and ignite new Growth using Digital methods. Here is the fourth in a series on the battles we have to win.

'Keep pressing buttons – something’s bound to happen."

Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, Guesswork and Space - these are our blockers. Today I’ll talk about Guesswork. The remedies I discuss apply to both protecting the core business with Lean/OpEx and to igniting new Growth.

Guesswork

Guesswork entails jumping to conclusions in the absence of data or expertise. Direct causes include a lack of data, and cultural or leader arrogance.

Filling the Data Void with YODA

How do we gather complete, end-to-end, and high-quality data in large complex organizations? YODA - we have to learn how to generate ‘your own data.’ Our management system is the key. Elite Lean organizations derive YODA from the daily, weekly, and monthly routines of Team Leaders, Group Leaders in operations roles, supplemented by capable support staff in Logistics, Finance, Quality and HR. The daily standard work (or ‘operating rhythm’) of a front-line Team Leader in a top-shelf Lean site will include regular walks around the zone with a checksheet generating the day’s Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost data. This information flow animates the entire management system, including the senior level Obeya (‘Control Tower’), and is a thing of beauty.

Useful data is also available through connections with key support groups. For example, in a hospital critical infection rate data is obtainable from the Laboratories. (What’s frequency of these infections in the sample we send you each day? What other insights do they provide?’ Can you provide us with a regular report?). Similarly, in a complex logistics system, product damage can be tracked at critical loading and unloading locations. (Here’s our box damage checksheet. We’ll train your operators in how to use them, and what to look for). Technology such as sensors, drones, data analytics, and AI will augment our ability to develop YODA.

In the world of innovation and smart growth, we must learn how to develop YODA around our core customer journeys. Rapid, inexpensive experiments are the key, both digital (landing pages, ads, explainer videos) and analogue (e.g. Discover & Validation interviews, mashups mash-ups, pop-up stores).

A common failure mode is depending on a centralized, expensive, complex data system. (If we’re lucky we get some data at month-end). Is such data complete, high quality, and end-to-end? I don’t want to be misunderstood – such systems can be valuable, provided the IT & Operation teams work closely to confirm the data satisfies the user’s needs (what data, how often, to what users, through what user interface and so on). But can centralized data systems match the quality, insight, and timeliness or data gathered by people in the Gemba observing action in real time?

In my next article, I’ll address another key cause of Guesswork – cultural and leadership arrogance.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

The Battles We Have to Win: Fear

Here is the third in a series on the transformation battles we have to win. 

Doing nothing is the riskiest option. 

When the ocean is in furious flux, alertness, agility and speed are of the essence. Doing nothing is the riskiest option. In business the clearest expression of these qualities is ambidexterity – the ability to both protect the core business with Lean/OpEx, and also, to ignite new Growth using Digital methods.

What are the proverbial transformation ‘battles’ we have to win? Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, and Guesswork, and Space.

Today I’ll talk about Fear.

Fear

Transformation fatigue is a state of exhaustion, resistance & fear that employees experience when subjected to continuous change. Symptoms include a diminished capacity to cope with change, heightened stress and anxiety, and a general sense of apathy or numbness. 

When I launched our advisory service (in 2000) the Toyota Production System was all the rage. TPS was the ‘machine that changed the world’, and companies around the world were anxious to learn its secrets. The past decade plus, ‘Digital’ has supplanted TPS as the ‘killer app’. Indeed, I’ve spent this period learning & applying Digital methods in innovation hot spots. And now of course, AI has exploded into our world in much the same way as TPS and ‘Digital’ did. No wonder people are afraid!

How do we overcome Fear in our organizations? Here are some measures I’ve found to be helpful – both for protecting the core business and igniting new growth with Digital methods. Note: in the paragraphs below, I’ve focused on the ‘Igniting New Growth’ ‘swim lane’. The same activities & principles apply for ‘Protect the Core’, but the content is of course, different.

Countermeasures to Fear:

Senior Leaders:

Small Group Mentorship:

• Short focused lessons, practical activity, followed by applied homework
• Leaders learn by doing – in a safe environment

Executive ‘Forums’

·       Ecosystem meetups with Tech orgs and peers facing similar challenges.

·       Tech ‘deep dive’ workshops that provide Executives with a practical understanding of key innovation methods, thinking & technology.

·       Learning expeditions - explore prominent Tech ecosystems in innovation hot spots

·       Innovation projects (‘Showcases’): focused innovation projects that showcase new ways or working, and lead to effective commercial pilots.

Middle & Front-Line Leaders:

Practical Learning Academies

These entail boot camps wherein practitioners learn innovation fundamentals by doing. Design Thinking, Growth Hacking and Lean Experimentation are core curriculum elements. Key features:

• ·       'Centre of Excellence’: small team of practitioners who manage curriculum & network
• ·       Focused curriculum based on key learning gaps, and
• ·       Growing network of practitioners who share learning, problems and innovations
• ·       Multiple communication channels including regular meetups, study groups, and intranet

The Light Touch

The light touch is a friendly, relaxed, and funny way to doing things. Senior leaders set the tone & change is much easier when their language, affect & aura say, “It’s going to be alright. We’ll get through this together, and we’ll succeed beyond any possibility of doubt.”

I’ve been lucky enough to know such leaders & don’t wish to embarrass them by extolling their virtues.  Suffice to say, such cheerfulness is a necessary (though not sufficient) antidote to fear. You see such leaders at Boot Camps, Hackathons, kaizen events, new product launches, and the like. They tirelessly reinforce our core Values, Aspirations and Winning Logic. They exude, ‘everything is going to be alright.’

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win - Ignorance
Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win
Daily Management Walks - a Primer

The Battles We Have to Win: Ignorance

What's the leader’s Job One? 1) Protect the core business with Lean/OpEx, and 2) Ignite new Growth using Digital methods. Such ambidexterity does not come easy. Here’s the second in a series on the battles we have to win.

Doing nothing is the riskiest option.

The deadly risks of our day are Volatility, Black Swans, and Obsolescence. Doing nothing is our riskiest option. When the ocean is in furious flux, alertness, agility and speed are of the essence. And the clearest expression of these qualities is ambidexterity – the ability to both protect the core business with Lean/OpEx, and also, to ignite new Growth using Digital methods.

What are the proverbial transformation ‘battles’ we have to win? Ignorance, Fear, Scatter, Guesswork and Space. Today I’ll talk about Ignorance.

Ignorance

When I launched our advisory service (in 2000), the Toyota Production System was all the rage. TPS was the ‘machine that changed the world’, and companies around the world were anxious to absorb & apply its secrets. Toyota even opened its factories and shared its methods with the world. And yet, 70 to 90% of Lean transformations have failed to achieve their goals.

Digital Transformations also have failure rates exceeding 70%.  Will the results be any better for AI?

So, why is it so hard to absorb & apply new ways of working like ‘Lean’ or ‘Digital’ (or ‘AI’)?

Change is hard, life is hard.  In these tumultuous times, many people are just hanging on, and just showing up is a triumph. Awash in a sea of data, factoids and impressions, people understandably shut down, numb & exhausted.

Plato viewed the mind as a “wax tablet" which receives and retains impressions. One’s experiences are like drops of water that create self-reinforcing channels. The more experiences, information and data, the deeper the channels, and the harder it is to create new ones. Ignorance, seen in this light, is a shutting down, a closing off to new experiences. How does one stay open?

The challenge of leaders and learners is ‘stay young, stay foolish.’ I paraphrase Steve Jobs, of course, who famously celebrated the ‘crazy ones, the misfits, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes, the ones who see things different…”

So, how do we overcome Ignorance in our organizations?

For a start, we should hire people who score high on openness and who believe they have control over events in their lives (‘internal locus of control’). And we have to give our people the opportunity to learn.  Here are more detailed countermeasures. (Note: below I’ve focused on the ‘Igniting New Growth’ ‘swim lane’. The same activities & principles apply for ‘Protect the Core’, but the content is of course different.)

Countermeasures to Ignorance:

Senior Leaders:

• Small Group Mentorship:
• Short focused lessons, practical activity, followed by applied homework

(Pardon the plug; >150 senior leaders have completed my Protect the Core and Ignite New Growth programs).

Executive ‘Forums’

·       Ecosystem meetups with Tech orgs and peers facing similar challenges.

·       Tech ‘deep dive’ workshops that provide Executives with a practical understanding of key methods, thinking & technology.

·       Learning expeditions - explore prominent ecosystems in innovation hot spots

·       Innovation ‘showcases’: focused projects that showcase new ways or working, and lead to effective commercial pilots.

·       Key Enabler: Executive ‘air cover’ against corporate antibodies

 Middle & Front-Line Leaders:

Practical Learning Academies

These entail hands-on boot camps wherein practitioners learn by doing. Design Thinking, Growth Hacking and Lean Experimentation are core curriculum elements. Key enablers:

• ‘Centre of Excellence’: small team of practitioners who manage curriculum & network
• Focused curriculum based on key learning gaps,
• Network of practitioners who share learning, problems and innovations
• Multiple communication channels including regular meetups, study groups, and intranet

These are some activities that help dispel Ignorance. Next time, I’ll talk about Fear.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis         E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

#transformationblockers #businessambidexterity #Ignitingnewgrowth # businesstransformation #battleswehavetowin

In case you missed earlier blogs... please feel free to have another look….

Transformation - the Battles We Have to Win
Ambidexterity-in-practice