What is a Self-Improving System?

 

What is a people network? Connectedness, shared information and reciprocity.  What does it look like? Short, focused, connected huddles around visual boards. Why does it matter?  A strong network is like a nervous system. Think quick response, adjustment and learning. If you pull it off, it’s a gold mine. So how do you build one?

Building a Self-Improving System.

Here are some key elements.

·       Clarity & alignment around Aspiration & Winning Logic. Each level and team translate the these into a tactics & metrics they track on their huddle boards.

·       A Big Room called an ‘Obeya’ (aka Control Tower, Cockpit) that serves as ‘mission control’. The Obeya answers the big strategy questions at a glance. What should be happening? What’s actually happening? What are the biggest blockers & what are we doing about them?

·       Information flows up, and support flows down. “Here's how we're doing, and here are the blockers. Can you please help with this one & that one, boss?”

·       World class problem solving – more to come on this topic in future posts

·       Clear roles: It’s understood that the team owns the problem. Senior leaders help remove the blockers that are beyond the team’s control

What are the enablers?

·       Simple visual standards for all important work

·       Repeatable operating rhythms at each level.

·       Visual management - at a glance understanding of what’s happening

·       Strong connections between teams in the form of Ok/Not Ok tests.

·       Clear rules of engagement such as:

o   Make problems visible – they’re gold

o   Warm heart principle. Hard on the problem but easy on the people. Remember the problem is usually in the process.

o   Respectful inquiry. Leave your rank at the door. Listen more than you speak.

o   Evidence-based management – no Zebras or Hippos![i]

 

Common Blockers

Common failures modes include poor (i.e. invisible, low quality, incomplete) information flow, lack of shared Purpose, and an overly rigid strategy deployment system.

Team Hassles: The ideal team size is typically between 5 & 9 people (e.g. Amazon’s famous ‘two pizza teams’). This sweet spot balances the need for diverse skills & perspectives against the communication & coordination challenges that plague larger groups. There are many other team-related hassles well described by Patrick Lencioni and others.

Information Hassles: E.g. Information that is incomplete, low quality or invisible. Team boards can be both analogue & Digital, but a messy analogue board is more compelling.

Lack of Shared Purpose: Have we articulated our purpose in clear simple language?  Can team members explain in their own words? Leadership is oratory, leadership is storytelling.

Dysfunctional Cultural Norms: Reciprocity means ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’.  Incentive structures obviously help but are not enough. Cultural norms around Safety, Respect for People, Teamwork and other core principles drive reciprocity.  Great companies provide continual nudges in this direction. Leaders at every level have a shared set of values that they reinforce through shared ‘ceremonies’.  Culture is what you do when nobody is watching.  Over time these shared routines and norms permeate you way of thinking and behaving.

Here’s an example from early in my career. The scene: my first day at Toyota, in the manager onboarding program.  Our instructor began by drawing three ovals, one at a time, and labelling each:

·       Oval 1: something for the customer & community

·       Oval 2: something for the team member

·       Oval 3: something for the company

My fellow trainees and I stared at the Toyota logo.  It’s a nudge I’ve never forgotten.

That said, please do not copy Toyota or any other company. Make a system that fits your company, culture and industry.  Weave in the fundamentals, run experiments and keep getting better.

Best regards,

Pascal Dennis

E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

---

[i] Highest paid person’s opinion; Zero expertise but really arrogant.

Igniting New Growth – Aristotle’s Two Worlds

Pascal Dennis, co-author of (Harnessing Digital Disruption)

The future belongs to the ambidextrous, those who can both protect the core business with OpEx/Lean and ignite new Growth with Digital methods.

In his metaphysics, Aristotle distinguished between two realms of existence:¹

The World of things that cannot be other than they are – (‘Necessity’): This realm includes the:

• Fundamental principles that govern the universe, such as the laws of Physics, Chemistry and mathematics, and
• Laws of logic e.g. the law non-contradiction

These truths are considered eternal and unchanging.

The World of things that can be other than they are – (‘Contingency’): This realm encompasses things that change unpredictably. These include:

• Public opinion, politics
• Consumer taste, fashion, style
• Changes we experience in the physical world, such as the weather

Key Points:

• Essence and Accident: The world of necessity deals with essences – the defining characteristics of a thing that make it what it is. The world of contingency deals with accidents – the non-essential properties of a thing that could be different without changing its essence.
• Change and Becoming: The world of contingency is the realm of change and becoming. Things in this world are constantly in flux, coming into being and passing away.
• Knowledge and Understanding: Aristotle believed that true knowledge comes from understanding the necessary truths that underlie the contingent world. By grasping the essential nature of things, we can better understand their behavior and predict their actions.

In summary: Aristotle's two worlds represent a fundamental distinction between the realm of unchanging, universal truths and the realm of particular, changing experiences. This framework has had a profound and lasting impact on Western thought, influencing fields such as metaphysics, logic, and science.

So what?

Innovation Sprint – Experiment Design Card

OpEx/Lean and Continuous Improvement belong in the world of things that cannot be otherwise, the world of necessity. A production line designed in accord with the principles of the Toyota Production System and run by a skilled team trained by seasoned Toyotas senseis will perform in a predictable way. We can level up or level down the capacity in accordance with universal laws. We can improve the quality of our output with tried & true methods. If abnormalities arise, we can address them with robust methods of root cause problem solving.

Innovation, by contrast, belongs to the world of things that can be otherwise, the world of contingency. Igniting new Growth entails discovering and validating core questions like:

• Who is the customer?
• What does the customer value?
• Why does the customer by, or not buy, from us?

Innovation sprints teach you that the customer often does not know they are a customer, does not know what they value, and does not know why they buy from you or not. People routinely say they love your offering and will happily buy it at a given price – and then don’t buy it! In fact, it’s almost a given.

When you ask, ‘Why did you say you’d buy it?’, they’ll often answer, ‘I don’t know.’, or ‘I didn’t want to disappoint you.’ If you ask again a few days later, you’ll get a different answer. That’s the world of contingency, and the challenge of igniting new Growth. Some people call it a VUCA world – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Navigating here requires different methods and a different way of thinking, which I’ll explore in articles to come.

Best wishes,

Pascal Dennis

E: pascal.dennis@leansystems.org

Note: If you’d like to hear more about my program Getting the Right Things Done in a Digital World, please drop me an email.


^{1. A deep bow to the great Dr. Roger Martin who taught me these things.↩}



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

Innovation Does Not Begin with Technology
Getting the Right Things Done in a Digital World
Igniting New Growth - My Improbable Journey, Part 2
Igniting New Growth - My Improbable Journey, Part 1

Nick Saban on the Power of Process Thinking

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

PDCA – because it’s all too clear, it’s difficult

Here’s the great coach Nick Saban on University of Alabama football team’s success

“We’ve set up an organizational process, so that each person knows what they have to do during the week minute by minute… the players, the coaches.”

“We don’t talk a lot about winning. We talk a lot about what you have to do to play your best on a consistent basis.”

“We focus on a high standard of consistency…and understanding [we’ve] never arrived.”

The fundamentals – PDCA, process thinking, continuous improvement, total involvement are ‘simple’.

So simple that they’re hard. I’m not very good at PDCA, process thinking and the rest. (Like most people, I find it easier to jump to countermeasures and wing it in general.)

Like a number of Toyota alumni, for decades now I’ve relied on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual routine, to keep me on track. I’m simply trying to apply the practices very patient senseis taught me.

At best I partially succeed, but the effort makes all the difference. The process continually highlights hot spots, shortcomings & opportunities for improvement.

In my experience, terrific organizations, whether in business or sports, aren’t perfect. (They’re human after all.)

But they’re acutely aware of their imperfections & constantly try to improve. Of course, Lean methods are essential in making these opportunities visible.

But Lean methods are always in the service of this engine, this heart-muscle.

If I may suggest, Mr. Saban would find TPS culture simpatico, and would feel entirely at home in a Toyota factory or design studio.

My sense is we have an innate understanding of these things. (In the attached clip, the ESPN analysts certainly seem to understand what Coach Saban is saying.)

The challenge (speaking for myself) is to overcome our innate laziness, trickiness and dislike of standards. The challenge is to thereby learn & apply the fundamentals for the greater good.

The more successful and powerful we become, the easier it is to ignore them. (Power is the power to do stupid things, no?)

At this point in his career, Coach Saban can do pretty much whatever he wants to do, including ignoring the fundamentals.

But like all great senseis, he continues to practice and teach the ‘right way’. (Until he dies, I suspect.)

Bravo,

Pascal




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

Lean and the Martial Arts
Daily PDCA is a Meditation
Ethics Again
Lean/TPS in the Public Service – Part 3 – Obstacles & Countermeasures?

The Beauty of Making Things

By Pascal Dennis (bio)

Poesis is the Greek work for 'making things'.

Not coincidently, it's also the word for poetry.

A good piece of writing is like a fine piece of cabinetry, an elegant circuit board, or a beautiful engine.

Steve Jobs famously insisted that everything should be beautiful in the IPod, IPad, IPhone -- even if the customer couldn't see it.

A great carpenter feels the same way about the back of a cabinet.

This insight informed my life and the arts I've committed to:

• The art of management, and
• The art of writing

But do North American high school students appreciate the beauty of making things?

Have they been given proper guidance? Or do they stumble, by default, into barren general arts programs?

I understand, for example, that there are almost a million unfilled skilled trades positions in America.

Good jobs in fields like mechanical, construction and information technology.

A chance to make something beautiful, to learn & practice a great art.

My sense is our kids don't have a full picture of what's possible.

Can I appeal to our friends and colleagues in the Continuous Improvement community to help?

Please spread the message every chance you get.

Making things is COOL.

Pascal


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

What is Breakthrough?, Part 2
What Does Breakthrough Mean? - Part 1
Suggestion boxes vs Quick & Easy Kaizen
What is Intellectual Capital?, Part 2

KAIZEN – Small Changes vs. Monster Projects

By Al Norval (bio)

As an engineer in school I studied the physical sciences - Chemistry, Physics, Differential Calculus and my favorite Statistics but lately I’ve been studying things which I would have laughed at when I was in Engineering school. That is the behavioral sciences of Adult Learning and Change Management. Specifically I’m interested in why people are afraid of change, how to overcome it and how to maximize the learning we get from making changes.

Turns out it goes way back to the dawn of humanity as our brains were developing. Simply put, our brains have three sections; the reptilian or limbic brain located at the brain stem which controls our basic functions; our mammalian brain which contains our emotional center, and the prefrontal cortex which is the part of the brain that is most developed in primates and makes us most human in that it contains the reasoning and logic centers.

Our limbic system is much older than the other structures in our brains and developed to manage the “Flight or Fight” response. That’s the part of our brain that responds to threatening situations with a response that decides either to run away – the flight or to stand and fight. The decision isn’t based on logic or even emotion but is decided upon by this ancient part of our brain that overrides the other more highly advanced sections of the brain. It’s a basic survival mechanism.

What has this got to do with Kaizen?

This same mechanism kicks in when we are faced with changes. Its part of the fear of change and overcoming it is a large part of change management.

I’d like to suggest that kaizen can be a great way of overcoming this fear of change and can greatly simplify change management. By kaizen I mean kaizen as small, steady, relentless continuous improvement not as big workshops or events. The kind of Quick & Easy Kaizen that is practiced every day.

Turns out we can absorb small changes and that a series of small changes is easier to make than one big change. The key is the repetition. Small daily changes quickly turn into a routine that is no longer threatening. It becomes a habit and minimizes the threat and so minimizes the Flight or Fight response.

Small changes add up to big improvements over time. That’s not to say there isn’t the need for the occasional kaizen workshop but temper them with daily kaizen perhaps at a ratio of 10:1 or even 100:1

The words of Taiichi Ohno ring in my ears “Every day a little bit higher”.

What does this mean for the Lean community? Don’t fight basic biology. Combine daily Quick & Easy Kaizen with a focus on delivering Customer value you can use it to your advantage. You’ll get more improvement done quicker with less resistance. Go ahead and try it. I’d love to hear how you did.

Cheers,

Al


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

Is Inventory a waste or a cover-up of deeper waste?
7 Basic Quality Tools – Are they underrated?
What Does Leader as a Teacher Really Mean?
PDCA - the Pounding Heart Muscle of Life

Nick Saban on the Power of Process Thinking

By Pascal Dennis

PDCA – because it’s all too clear, it’s difficult

Here’s the great coach Nick Saban on University of Alabama football team’s success

“We’ve set up an organizational process, so that each person knows what they have to do during the week minute by minute… the players, the coaches.”

“We don’t talk a lot about winning. We talk a lot about what you have to do to play your best on a consistent basis.”

“We focus on a high standard of consistency…and understanding [we’ve] never arrived.”

The fundamentals – PDCA, process thinking, continuous improvement, total involvement are ‘simple’.

So simple that they’re hard. I’m not very good at PDCA, process thinking and the rest. (Like most people, I find it easier to jump to countermeasures and wing it in general.)

Like a number of Toyota alumni, for decades now I’ve relied on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual routine, to keep me on track. I’m simply trying to apply the practices very patient senseis taught me.

At best I partially succeed, but the effort makes all the difference. The process continually highlights hot spots, shortcomings & opportunities for improvement.

In my experience, terrific organizations, whether in business or sports, aren’t perfect. (They’re human after all.)

But they’re acutely aware of their imperfections & constantly try to improve. Of course, Lean methods are essential in making these opportunities visible.

But Lean methods are always in the service of this engine, this heart-muscle.

If I may suggest, Mr. Saban would find TPS culture simpatico, and would feel entirely at home in a Toyota factory or design studio.

My sense is we have an innate understanding of these things. (In the attached clip, the ESPN analysts certainly seem to understand what Coach Saban is saying.)

The challenge (speaking for myself) is to overcome our innate laziness, trickiness and dislike of standards. The challenge is to thereby learn & apply the fundamentals for the greater good.

The more successful and powerful we become, the easier it is to ignore them. (Power is the power to do stupid things, no?)

At this point in his career, Coach Saban can do pretty much whatever he wants to do, including ignoring the fundamentals.

But like all great senseis, he continues to practice and teach the ‘right way’. (Until he dies, I suspect.)

Bravo,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

All Work Can Be Improved

By Pascal Dennis

All work is a process, all work can be improved.

This is one Four Revolutions of management - (more on the others in upcoming blogs).

The statement seems obvious, sitting there on the screen or page. But that’s not how I was taught in engineering and business school.

In fact, I was taught that the workplace was fixed. Process cycle and changeover times, scrap rates, optimal batch sizes, lead times and the like were ‘given’.

Business case studies, for example, invariably began with a ‘given’ set of facts describing the current condition.

None of our professors said, “By the way, these can all be greatly improved. And it’s your job to involve everybody in your team in improvement work.” [Reflections of a Business Nomad].

The barriers to improvement are daunting, as we all know. In one memorable engagement, the president of the local union effectively forbade improvement.

It was heavy industry and the ergonomics was dreadful. Back, neck and shoulder injuries were all but inevitable.

Our team’s focus was fixing the lousy jobs and making it easy and pleasant for team members to produce quality.

“You can only change jobs up to 90 days after contract ratification,” he told us.

“But people are going to get hurt,” we replied.

“These are our jobs, and we like them just as they are,” he said.

Don’t want to be misunderstood. Many unions have accepted and support continuous improvement. Often management is the obstacle.

But all work is a process, and all work can be improved.

Nothing is given.

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Why Continuous Improvement?

By Pascal Dennis

In my travels I've stumbled on many interesting places and characters.

A colleague in a former communist country asked the above question.

Why indeed?

Change is hard, change hurts. Change has no natural constituency, the status quo has many.

People who grew up behind the Iron Curtain had every reason to ask this question.

The system was imposed upon them, and maintained by coercion.

My last book includes a piece called 'Heavy Industry'.

A senior union leader berates the narrator, and ridicules the idea of getting better every day.

"We like our jobs just the way they are..."

Respect for people is the foundation of any great enterprise.

Everybody has the God-given right to be involved in improving their work and organization.

People have knowledge, capability, and creativity. Why shouldn't they be allowed to express them?

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.

Lord Tennyson put it memorably: ’...to seek to strive and not to yield.’

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Two Pillars of the Lean Business System

By Pascal Dennis

Continuous Improvement and Respect for People - big ideas that deserve to capital letters!

These reflect the infinite finesse of the Lean Business System.

They are yin & yang, masculine & feminine, mind & heart.

Each contains the other, as in the famous yin/yang image.

Continuous improvement is largely, though not entirely, an affair of the 'rational mind', which some people call the 'Left Brain'.

We need to know the fundamentals, including Value/Waste, 5 S, Visual Management, Standardized Work & the like.

We need enough problem solving 'reps' so that our core katas become part of our muscle memory.

Respect for People is largely, though, again, not entirely, an affair of the 'heart, which some people call the 'Limbic Brain'.

Respect for People requires empathy, and a solid grounding in core values.

Our readers will know, by now, that for me, this means the Cardinal Virtues:

• PRUDENCE,
• TEMPERANCE,
• COURAGE,
• JUSTICE

These figure strongly in my latest, Reflections of a Business Nomad.

By the way, my friend and colleague, Dr. Reldan Nadler, has written persuasively about the importance of Emotional Intelligence in leaders.

I recommend his books warmly.

Best regards,

Pascal

Why is Safety Foundational to Lean?

By Al Norval

I’ve visited several organizations that have taken the traditional five areas of 5S and added a 6th S to them – Safety. I understand why they do this, as they are trying to highlight Safety as an important part of a Lean Transformation but I think it goes deeper than this.

Let’s start off by asking what we mean by Safety.

Safety is more than the physical safety of our employees. That’s just the beginning. Of course we don’t want anyone to get injured or have an accident at work but Safety in Lean goes far beyond that. We need to provide a workplace that is not only physically safe but emotionally safe as well. One where people don’t need to worry that their ideas may be ridiculed or fear that their boss will yell and get angry if they make a mistake or worse if they suggest something the boss doesn’t agree with.

By providing our people with a working environment that is both physically and emotionally safe, we lay the foundation of a workplace where people are treated with dignity & respect.

Respect for Humanity is one of the pillars of Lean along with Eliminating Waste and Continuous Improvement.

It means engaging their brains as well as their bodies in the daily work of the organization.
It means providing challenging problems that stretch people’s capabilities to solve and lead to huge learning.
It means believing in the creative and innovative power that resides in every person.
It means engaging people to their full potential and helping them become the best they can be.

It’s a workplace where we engage people’s hearts and minds to help get a little bit better every day. We can only do this when we provide a workplace that is both physically & emotionally safe, where people don’t have to worry about their well-being and so can focus on the task at hand as well as making daily improvements in the way we do the work.

Paul O’Neill, former Secretary of the Treasury and former Chairman and CEO of Alcoa used Safety as a window on the process to drive improvements and make Alcoa the industrial giant they are today. He understood that Safety was foundational to engaging people in improvement. He is now leading a charge to do the same thing in Healthcare.

We wish him all the best.

Cheers

It's Too Hard...

By Pascal Dennis

When leaders say that Lean/continuous improvement/kaizen is "too hard", I'm reminded of the last days of the Roman Empire.

The so-called nobles were no longer capable or willing to fight.

So they hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them.

"Our shields and swords are too heavy..."

The mercenaries, of course, soon turned on them and Rome's splendid civilization collapsed.

Much of the world into chaos & despair. People lived like dogs for centuries.

Nowadays, some 'leaders' outsource thinking to the 'big consulting houses'.

Some of these, a cynic would say, are also treacherous, if not barbaric.

(For examples, do a Google search on 'Gupta scandal'.)

Kaizen is hard, but not as hard as the alternative.

Best regards,

Pascal

Kaizen Events vs Continuous Daily Improvement

By Al Norval

I’ve run across several organizations recently that seem mired in the belief that kaizen is all about weeklong events. Nothing could be further from the truth.

These organizations describe situations where they have a problem that isn’t big enough for a weeklong event so they are forced to add other items to it to make the problem larger enough just to use their kaizen process. Now give them credit, they are following their standard process but if we apply PDCA Thinking to this, we realize that if the standard is inadequate, we adjust the standard.

Problems come in all sizes and shapes. Some are large and messy and others are smaller and straight forward. In all these cases, the most important thing is to use a formal problems solving approach that embodies the Scientific Method. Why? Using the scientific method we set up experiments that are binary. They work or they don’t but in either case we learn from them and we learn from both our successes and our failures.

Because problems come in different shapes and sizes, kaizen needs to be able to handle both large problems as well as small ones.

What is kaizen?

There are many definitions that include “continuous improvement” and “change for the better” but I like to think of it as:

“an orderly, incremental, relentless process of continuous improvement” which was best captured in a quote:

“every day a little bit higher” by Taiichi Ohno.

Kaizen needs to embody the scientific method of problem solving which makes it an orderly, repeatable process. It also needs to be able to solve problems both large and small so we can use it for daily continuous improvement as well as for bigger problems both of which lead to incremental gains. Make no mistake; many small daily improvements often lead to larger gains than a few big ones because of the ability of small improvements to compound and to involve the people who do the work in actually improving the work as the problems occur.

In the end it’s all kaizen and we need both, kaizen events supported by daily kaizen. Together they give an organization the ability to have relentless continuous improvement.

Cheers

Alistair Norval