Lean Quote: Life of Education

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"All of life is education and everyone is a teacher and everybody is forever a pupil." — Abraham Maslow

One of the worst phrases that any person or entity can say is “I already know that” because this can very well destroy any chances of continuous learning. And when there is no learning, there is no growth.

In any organization, continuous learning means growth through learning events and experiences. It can be applied to individuals, team, and organizations- a process that will help them to achieve their overall objectives. Undergoing a continuous learning process entails change; one cannot learn and still be the same person, team, or organization. There is a constant evolution in the way we think and act, brought about by new understanding, new knowledge, and new skills.

Foster a work environment that encourages continuous learning. Make it clear to your employees that most learning happens past the initial training. Employees will be less stressed because their development will occur gradually over time, rather than be front-loaded at the start. It also makes it clear that your first priority is their well-being, which translates into higher workforce morale.

Think of continuous learning as smoothing out the bumps and valleys of your employees’ learning curve. A front-loaded strategy has a huge spike right at the beginning that demands a lot out of your employees. This may have a negative effect in their motivation, stress levels and skill proficiency. Implementing continuous learning straightens this curve out.

Replace the idea of training with capability development. This empowers the employees to be more self-motivated and more likely to want to improve themselves. Build a culture around employee satisfaction and improvement. Integrate continuous learning into daily routines.

A constant quest for learning provides the means to always be moving forward, to conquer new frontiers and achieve new and exciting goals. Make a point to learn something new every day. Learning new things brings more exciting experiences your way. It allows you to meet other people who can bring further knowledge or learning opportunities.

 

Lean Tips Edition #101 (1516 - 1530)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #1516 - Challenge Your Employees to Move Out of Their Comfort Zone.

You can’t move forward if you don’t grow and you can’t grow if you never leave your comfort zone. When possible, give your employees challenging assignments. Help them prepare by providing them a safe environment to learn from the mistakes that they are bound to make.

Lean Tip #1517 - Pair Employee’s With a Mentor.

Once their goals have been established, find someone who is in a similar role to the target position to serve as a mentor. Mentoring enables an organization to use it’s existing talent to impart their knowledge and expertise to one another. Everyone – the organization, the mentor, and the mentee – benefits from the mentoring process.

Lean Tip #1518 - Offer Opportunities for Individual Growth.

Employees want training. Providing coaching and development activities throughout the year is an employer’s best bet to create a culture of growth within the workplace. To ensure continuous growth and improve productivity, equip employees with the tools they need to function at peak performance.

Lean Tip #1519 – Remove Barriers for Development

Many organizations are rigid in their organizational structure and processes, which can make it challenging to implement some cross-functional development and facilitate dynamic growth and high-performance training. It’s up to leadership to bridge silos, knock down walls, and design a system that encourages a fluid approach to learning and working. Today’s generation of workers are used to change and enjoy open work environments that let them explore. Take the barriers away and watch people flourish.

Lean Tip #1520 - Show Employees You Trust Them

If you want to help employees develop, trust them to do their jobs by getting out of the way. Let them know what your expectations are by modeling the behavior you expect—show them you trust them. This not only lets employees know what they need to succeed and gives them greater ownership, but it also shows them that credibility and trust are important in your organization.

Lean Tip #1521 - Stop Putting Out Fires

A manager who regularly steps in to solve staff's problems isn't doing them (or himself) any favors. He's only training them to bring him the problems, rather than solving them. Coach your staff to develop their confidence and problem-solving ability. This alone will increase organizational efficiency. Sometimes the simple question, "What can you do about it?" will help to uncover a solution.

Lean Tip #1522 - Align Employee Behaviors to Long-term Business Objectives.

All teams, whether on the court or in the workplace, are trying to achieve something greater than themselves and reach big, long-term goals by working together. Great managers understand that, and use this overarching goal to motivate people and get the best performance.

Lean Tip #1523 - Support Teamwork and Leverage Employees' Individual Strengths.

Building a great team means placing each person in the right position based on his or her talents. If you put individuals in the wrong place and they fail, they're not bad athletes or employees — you're a bad coach for not using their strengths. Take an employee-centric view when assigning roles, and hand out tasks that match the individual's skill set.

Lean Tip #1524 - Celebrate the Failure

Remember, most employees are trying to do their best, most of the time. Show appreciation for the well-intentioned action, even if it led to a failure. Talk about what the employee did right, then explain the problem. Always focus on strengths, not weaknesses.

During your discussion with the employee, go over any processes and procedures necessary to get a procedural task done right the next time.

Lean Tip #1525 - Make Feedback Part of Your Team Culture.

Set the tone that feedback is a good thing. You give feedback because you want your employees to be awesome, not because you want them to be punished. Giving feedback regularly and mixing praise with constructive criticism will help enforce that tone.

Lean Tip #1526 - Give Machine Operators Process Ownership.

A number of real-time digital condition monitoring and reporting systems now support the positive trend to operator-driven reliability (ODR). The Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) approach shifts basic maintenance work (and problem notification) to machine operators, freeing up maintenance personnel to work on planned maintenance. The idea is to give workers ownership of their machine and the process, maximize equipment effectiveness, increase employees’ skills and reduce manufacturing costs through continuous monitoring. For their part, the maintenance team should respond to requests within a pre-determined time window.

Lean Tip #1527 - Engineer Machine Improvements for Maintainability and Operability. 

Windows cut into guarding to give easier viewing of gauges will make the daily checks easier to perform and more likely to be completed. Access doors installed on equipment will allow for easier periodic maintenance. Consolidation of lubrication points into a single manifold also contributes to more consistently performed maintenance.

Lean Tip #1528 - Forget About Perfection

Perfection is great, but in reality it is not attainable. Focusing on getting everything 100% perfect every time can be a huge waste of time. Figure out what level of excellence you need to hit for each task, and then make sure to get to that point. Constant improvement can continue, but in the meantime your productivity will go up dramatically if you stop worrying about making sure every tiny detail is perfect.

Lean Tip #1529 - Invest in Training

Having versatile employees improves the overall productivity of the company. This should not translate into a “Jack of All Trades” situation. Investing in training your employees in skills they are not good at will make them better people overall. When employees see you investing in their learning of side skills that improve their core skill, it gives them more encouragement to produce better results for the company.

Lean Tip #1530 - Eliminate Scrap to Increase Productivity and Profitability.

People don’t always understand the true cost when it comes to scrap. If you make a product that must be thrown away, you don’t just lose the materials. You also lose the labor and the opportunity for profit. Even if you can rework a product, you’re still losing out on the labor and cutting into your profit.

Adapting to Change, Start with a Clear Vision

When a person is undergoing significant change, five things are necessary to adapt successfully to the change:

• A clear vision of how the situation will be after the change
• Time to absorb the new vision
• Time to adjust behaviors
• Coping mechanisms to manage the stress of change
• Time to ponder the meaning of the change, and to internalize and own the change

People are more likely to do things that move them toward a goal if they clearly imagine what their world will be like after the change is successfully accomplished. This mental adjustment needs to be imagined in positive terms, not in the dread scenarios we often create in our minds. Helping employees shift their mental context from today’s problems to tomorrow’s successes is the role of a Lean Champion.

Successful change is hinged on a picture of a desirable future. Vision can provide both a corporate sense of being and a sense of enduring purpose. While incorporating a measure of today's success, vision transcends day-to-day issues. And, by providing meaning in both the present and the future, vision can empower and encourage leaders and followers to implement change.

An unclear change vision can derail the transformation of a company. Without a sensible vision, change efforts can dissolve into a list of confusing projects that take the organization in the wrong direction. Efforts without a clear vision are bound to fail, even if plans, directives, procedures, programs, goals, and deadlines are properly laid out. The many details of transformation can confuse or alienate employees unless they have a clear understanding of where they are being led. It is important that the vision be easy to communicate.

A change vision should be compelling enough to motivate fundamental rethinking at all levels of the company. However, it should not be impossible to realize. If the change vision is difficult to attain then it will have no credibility, and change will never take place.

According to John P. Kotter, the success of a company's transformation process depends on how easily and quickly the leader communicates the change vision to his employees and on how readily the employees understand and take an interest in the vision.

Lean Quote: Progress Comes from Dissatisfaction With the Current Reality

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Progress cannot be generated when we are satisfied with existing situations.." — Taiichi Ohno

You can’t move forward if you don’t grow and you can’t grow if you never leave your comfort zone. When possible, give your employees challenging assignments. Help them prepare by providing them a safe environment to learn from the mistakes that they are bound to make.

Making a change requires a leap of faith. Taking that leap of faith is risky, and people will only take active steps toward the unknown if they genuinely believe – and perhaps more importantly, feel – that the risks of standing still are greater than those of moving forward in a new direction.  Making a change takes lots of leaps of faith.


Leaders who protect the status quo through control must surrender to change in order to secure the future for their organization. Don’t be the leader who rewards herd mentality, and me too thinking. Don’t be the leader who encourages people not to fail or not to take risks. Be the leader who both models and gives permission to do the exact opposite of the aforementioned – be a leader who leads.


Moving beyond our comfort zones is how we can best learn and grow. The challenge is to resist our normal human instinct to seek comfort rather that discomfort. The key is to continually push beyond the comfort zone and drive continuous improvement to develop and strengthen your Lean thinking.

 

Audience Answers: Burning Platforms?

I have been sharing thoughts for a while, now it is your turn.  I wan to hear your feedback on some questions that I have been pondering.

Many Lean transformations stories start with a burning platform. The term is used to describe an extremely urgent or compelling business situation in order to convey, in the strongest terms, the need for change. The crisis may already exist and just needs to be highlighted. Using this process, you can get people's attention and build awareness of the need for change very quickly. 

We have all heard of them. Typically is has to do with a company going out of business (poor financial results) if they don't improve.

So my question is this: Does a Lean Transformation need a "burning platform" to be successful?  And, what happens when the company improves and the burning platform is out, how do you keep the pressure on.

I'd like to hear your feedback and experience with burning platforms.

Northeast Lean Conference: Lean By Doing - Recap

Last week I was able to join GBMP’s 12th Annual Northeast Lean Conference in Worcester, MA. The theme was on the tacit nature of implementing Lean, the importance of tying together the technical and social sides of Lean, the significance of management’s involvement and the ability of organizations to sustain the gains.

I thought I would share a few highlights from this year's conference.

The first presenter was Art Byrne who was instrumental in the Lean transformation at the company where I work. Art has transformed many businesses over his career and shared his formula which he described in he book Lean Turnaround. He found Lean was a strategy to run a business focusing on eliminating waste to deliver more customer value. A key element in his approach was Kaizen which is still done today at Wiremold (25 years later). Kaizen is powerful because it is key training vehicle to teach new thinking and gets everyone on board. Art explained the importance of moving from batch to flow production (where you work to takt time, 1 piece at a time, using standard work, via the pull of customer demand). I really liked his comment to all these black belts today: "

We are running a company not a karate class."

Another great speaker was Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Healthcare, who shared a power message on strategy and Lean transformation. He claims many organizations spend very little time on the things that will really transform their business (ie. Strategy). Their are 5 points of emphasis in his approach:

1) Establish a pre-defined goal and then run experiments (kaizen)

2) Let the people doing work do experiments

3) Standard work leads to improvement

4) Transparency creates the necessary tension for improvement (share metrics and plans)

4) Framework for Performance excellence (how the management system is executed)

With the back drop of saving lives (healthcare) he shared a compelling vision for all.

LEI's John Shook shared the Lean Transformation Framework they use when working with companies, divisions, and individuals. Practice does not make perfect it makes permanent. Perfect practice can make perfect permanent. Deliberate practice explains a substantial amount of performance variance. We need to design the entire work experience that individuals experience. The framework consists:

1. Purpose – align around the problem to solve

2. Designing, doing and improving the work

3. Develop capability, develop people

4. Management system – leader behavior

5. Basic Thinking
Here is a video describing LEI's Lean Transformation Framework.

Mike Orzen gave a thoughtful talk on creating a path to Lean. He claims 90% of transformations fail primarily because:
• Leadership delegates change
• Middle management is not onboard
• Lack of shared vision
• Unrealistic expectations/little patience/time is not allocated
• Key systems that drive the right behavior are not in place

Mike took a look at the top 3 Lean models: 1) Shingo 2) Toyota Way 4P 3) LEI transformation model
to see how they compare.  All have in common:
• Foundation of culture, long term vision and value mindset
• Focus on continous process improvements
• Respect for people and development of capabilities
• Continuous learning through structured problem solving, reflection, and kaizen

This suggests a pathway to Lean that all can use to transform their company.


There were many more great breakout sessions and lots of opportunity to network and connect with many great Lean thinkers and implementers alike.  This is one of my favorite conferences.

Next year's conference will be held September 19-20, 2017 in Worcester, MA.  The theme is on the integration of tools and culture.  Mark your calendar so you don't miss out on a great opportunity.

Lean Quote: Innovation in the Work We Do

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"I think of innovation along a continuum of 1) basic problem solving to keep the train on the tracks, 2) continuous improvement to make the tracks work better and better and 3) innovation to question whether tracks are needed at all." — John Shook

"Innovation is a popular – and important – concept," writes LEI Chairman and CEO John Shook. What is it?

An innovation is anything that is novel and valuable. Novel means new. Especially a new idea or method or something that has a “process” piece to it. Valuable – the link here with lean thinking is clear – means that someone, anyone perceives the new thing/method/process as having value. value from the perceiver’s perspective.

Lean thinking itself was an innovation (new and valuable) and an improvement over what preceded it (and what still exists in so many places) that contains within itself the means of further innovation and improvement. 

Consider the role of innovation in the work we do. We think of the iPhone as a tremendous innovation, like the internet, the automobile and now autonomous driving. But, the actualization of each of these, the underappreciated enabler that propelled them to change our lives was, first of all, the many technical innovations that preceded them (no iPhone without iPod, without Macintosh, without Apple II…). The innovation in the work to be done entailed in bringing these innovations to life is also important. 

Here’s an animation that tries to tell that story.