Lean Behaviors: Hard work, in reality

One of the appeals of Lean is its framework to describe, from a high altitude, how a process or collection of processes should operate.  It appeals to readers. 

 

To sell books on Lean, one needs only to tell the stories of how those processes should operate.  It appeals to authors. 

 

Understanding the books and the stories makes one literate on Lean, able to use the lingo, able to fly over a situation and offer advice.  It appelas to senior executives. 

 

Implementation, however, is the truly hard work of Lean.  By definition, implementation is at a low altitude, encompassing detail.  It's hard to write interesting books about the boring, long grind of implementation. 

 

And the true leader accepts this, buckles down, and implements anyway. 

 

The leader does the hard work.

 

The one who does the hard work is the true leader. 

 

 

 

 

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Lean Behaviors: Who Behaves Differently?

Long time blogging buddy Dan Markovitz points to an oft-forgotten essential:

Accomplishing biz strategy requires defining, developing & managing specific behaviors at a front-line level

As many of us enter the planning cycle for 2011, ask: "Will this plan actually modify anyone's behavior?"  

Keep learning.

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Lean Behaviors: Focus

Years ago, a friend succinctly described the struggle her son had due to his ADHD.  "All stimuli carry equal weight to him," she said, sadly.  A bird flying by the classroom window carried equal meaning to the assignment written on the board.  He simply could not distinguish between the important and the trivial or irrelevant.  

The Lean leader must have eyes to see the important and ignore or downplay much else.  This is doubly difficult because events irrelevant to the delivery of value maybe very important to others, even senior people, in the organization.  

It isn't easy.  But everything is not important.  Only a few things truly are. 

Keep learning.

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The Behaviors of Lean

It has been a while since I've posted in this space.  The inactivity is not because there's a problem or that I'm not learning anything about Lean. 

 

Rather, I have not been able to put a mental handle on just what I have been Learning About Lean.  And with nothing clear-headed to say, I chose to simply say nothing. 

 

There are a lot of great sources out there to discuss the tools and methods of Lean.  We've now been implementing these tools for 6+ years in my current role and it has been and continues to be a blast.  I don't see much reason now to try to add to those who are way better than me in describing tools.

 

Yet, Lean is more than tools...it represents a way of thinking, a way of viewing the often-chaotic world of business.  Ultimately, it is about the actions one chooses to take in a variety of situations.  Do the actions make sense?  Are they reasonably consistent over time?  Does the leader demonstrate those actions clearly for those with whom he/she works?

 

In short, a lot of Lean is about behavior.

 

I've been observing more closely those behaviors over the past year or so.  Yet, only recently have I sensed a framework for describing what I see, behaviorally.

 

So I'll be writing about these observations in this space.  As it has been in the history of this blog, the writing is a work-in-progress, a way I try to explain to myself just what I am sensing.  If you enjoy coming along for the ride, so much the better. 

 

Keep on learning.

 

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Over overprocessing

In the context of our digital world, where we can reach out and touch (or annoy) people at any time, think briefly about this example of the waste of over-processing.

 

Just because we CAN send a note to "all" does not mean we SHOULD send a note to "all."

 

 

Keep learning.

 

 

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The "gut punch" of poor quality

My longtime blogging pal Karen Wilhelm just posted a fabulous story on how poor quality hits a customer.  Her crisp, creative few paragraphs communicates marvelously. 

 

I suggest you read it and then use it with others in your organization to talk about quality.

 

Keep on learning.

 

 

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Cutting Meeting Waste--you can do it privately

We recently invited folks to join in a group effort to cut the waste of meeting time.  I've been encouraged by the comments we've received.

One improvement we have made, already, is this.  The original idea Dan Markovitz and I had was to do A3 analysis in public...all of us would post the A3 our company was working with and we'd all be able to learn from each other.  

Yet, for some of you, that's uncomfortable.  First, it's a concern of looking "dumb" in public.  I understand that, having been visibly "dumb" lots of times.  Second, there is a legitimate concern about exposing any company information.  

So, if you'd like to participate but want to remain anonymous, let us know.  Dan and I will comment but no others.  

We have a few slots left in our maximum of eight participants.  Let us know if you want to be in!

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Join us in an experiment to cut meeting time

Intriguing idea often come through unusual routes.  The idea in this post is one of them.

When I was at the Lean Summit in March, Jim Womack spoke quite passionately of a need to move beyond just the tools of Lean to an emphasis on Lean Management.  How do we better use the principles of Lean to run our companies, not just make our products?  This got me thinking much.

One evening at the same event, I finally got to meet Dan Markovitz, a cool guy and fellow blogger, author of Time-Back Management.  Dan has a real passion for how we use Lean to manage our time and do a much better job of getting knowledge work done.  We had some marvelous conversations, discovering many shared interests.  

Dan published a wonderful post last week; Meetings: The Plaque of an Organization.  In it, he quoted one of my heros, Peter Drucker, who wrote:

Too many meetings always bespeak poor structure of jobs and the wrong organizational components. . . if people in an organization find themselves in meetings a quarter of their time or more — there is time-wasting malorganization.

This lead to further conversations.  We all know that inventory, per se, is not waste though excessive inventory is waste.  Similarly, some meetings are necessary but excessive meetings are true waste.  And, since we know we can often cut unexamined inventory in half with little ill effect, can we do the same with meeting time?  We want to know.  So, acting on Jim Womack's assessment that "management is learned by experimentation, not by dogma", we are posing an open, on-line experiment. 

Dan and I  invite you and your group/company to join us in a group experiment to see if we can lower the quantity of meetings in each of our organizations. 

Here are the details:

Purpose:

• To reduce the plague of meetings so that we can, you know, actually do some work

People:

• Participation is limited to the first eight companies (or groups) to respond
• All members of the lean community are welcome to review the A3s at any time, or comment on the open access Google Doc

Process:

• Dan Markovitz & Joe Ely will provide the problem statement for the A3 (this creates a uniform starting point for all groups)
• Each company works simultaneously on its own A3
• All A3s posted and readable (but not editable) on Google Docs to anyone who is interested during and after the course of the project
• Comments/updates/funny cat pictures can be submitted on a separate Google Doc so that everyone can read them

Timeframe (75 days):

• Target launch date: Monday, May 3
• Target completion date: Monday, July 12
• Two weeks to fill out the left side of the A3 (background; current conditions; goal; analysis)
• Eight weeks for Do-Check-Act (proposal; implementation plan; follow up)
• Report out/reflection by July 19

If you're interested in joining us, please send an email to Dan Markovitz (dan ATSIGN timebackmanagment.com) or me (joeely618 ATSIGN gmail.com) with your name, organization, and contact information.  We'll send you the link to the Google Docs area with the A3 template and problem statement.

Questions?  Comments?  Contact either of us

We hope you can join us.

Mental Models

It is way too easy for me to have a mental model of Lean as a straight process, much like going to University.  First you take the 100 level course, then the 200 level course and, if you persevere and get some funding, you might eventually finish graduate school.  Knock off the courses, check the boxes, get the diploma.  

Which is a disservice.  

Last week, we were grappling with a problem of inadequate supply of an intermediate component assembly.  We should have had enough but ran out, severely affecting the supply of final product to a customer.  Bad news.  Drilling into the issue with the folks involved, it became clear we had missed on one element of our pull system.  Basic stuff.  But we lost track of it. 

Gee, I thought we had passed that course.  Felt we had conquered that city, slain that foe.  I guess not.  And why did we miss it for several weeks?  Fundamentally, it was the wrong mental model in my own head.  I didn't circle back quickly enough to the basic pattern which triggered the problem.  I wanted to relentlessly move forward.  Even though I have written here just last fall about linear vs. circular learning, I still was stuck in a linear mental model.  Linearity runs deep.

Take a look if you are too linear today.  

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When Systems Annoy

At a recent local business luncheon, the conversation at my table turned to diets.  It became quickly evident that five of the eight folks were on one of various current diet methods and, boy, did they five of them enjoy talking about it.  Good carbs, bad carbs, nice calories, bad fat, happy fat, omega 3 (or 5 or 7, I can't remember), salted vs. unsalted frog tongue.  The detail, the intensity, the animation were all amazing.

The other three of us, unfortunately not seated next to each other, were caught in the withering caloric crossfire.  We sat silently, having nothing to contribute in the face of such enthusiasm and controversy.    

Yet one really good thing came from the otherwise dismal lunch event.

It reminded me, in the clearest possible way, how I can annoy as well if I prattle on about Lean systems around those who do not find it interesting.  

It's great fun to talk Lean systems with those who are interested.  Let's spare the rest of the world who just want stuff that works and doesn't care how it happens.  

Keep on learning.  Even learning when to keep quiet.

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