tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907548332657166762024-03-13T04:47:06.841-06:00Business Wisdom WithinA free advice post about business, process, continuous improvement, leadership, culture change, product development, management, Lean, Six Sigma, quality, and generally making things better.ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-7285098759693277272014-02-27T10:05:00.003-07:002014-02-27T10:08:35.279-07:00Focus Not on the Problem…<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a truism of life that our energy goes where our focus
is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we fixate on a problem, our
energy goes into the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, if we focus on the solution, our energy goes into solving the
problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
In the last few years, I have
had the luxury of sharing a fair number of problem-solving challenges with
colleagues and friends in several businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While reflecting upon that collection of experiences this
week, I observed a single distinction between those organizations that struggle
to make headway against a perpetual storm of broken processes and those that
succeed in making things better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
That difference is each
organization’s attitude about improvement and where the personnel focus their
attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those organizations
that are stuck and fixated on problems always have problems that don’t seem to
get fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alternatively, those
organizations that focus their intent upon a solution, even if it isn’t a great
solution, make strong forward progress and develop a successful habit of
solving problems and making work life and business better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
I’ve often said and written that
what is true in life is true in business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I believe the phenomenon I describe is an example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick your favorite sport or hobby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere in there is a direct
correlation to focusing on solutions instead of problems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Here are some examples that
might seem familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who
pilots a motorcycle, (or slalom skis) has heard the phrase, “You go where you
look.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are trained to look
through the turn to a point down the road, or racecourse, where we want to go
and our vehicle goes there under our guidance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you look at the ground right in front of you, you crash.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
It’s the same in baseball or
golf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to be sure to hit
the ball precisely, we are directed to keep our eye on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that doesn’t mean anything to your
experience, try this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a
family member speaks to you while the TV is on, look at your family
member.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be easier to
ignore the TV and listen to your family if you are looking at him or her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Our efforts are directed, both
consciously and unconsciously by our focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the examples I gave above, our focus is controlled by our
gaze, but the phenomenon translates beyond just our eyesight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, the idea of focusing on a
solution instead of a problem should not sound so much like an empty platitude.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
The challenge, if we accept the
concept, is to recognize when we are fixated on a problem and to adjust our focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some examples of things said
and done at organizations fixated on problems instead of solutions, to fuel our
thought.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>“I don’t think we can find root
cause here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t we just ignore
it and move on?”</li>
<li>Conversations among team members
continuously revert to complaints or observations about what results the
problem produces.</li>
<li>Debate centers on what affects
the problem has, or how often it occurs, or who is affected.</li>
<li>Personnel continuously find ways
to work around problems.</li>
<li>Personnel talk about how to make
a defective part, system, or form, work even though it is defective.</li>
<li>Personnel talk about problems or
complain about them, but don’t act to change them.</li>
<li>Over-analysis:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we keep pulling out tools or holding
meetings to find new ways to tear apart or describe a problem, but don’t make a
decision. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Compare those behaviors to these
that were far more common in organizations that focused on solving the problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>A definition of the problem is
quickly established and discussion focuses on root cause and potential
solutions.</li>
<li>Debate centers on which solution
to choose.</li>
<li>Complaining is not tolerated;
instead it is redirected with phrases like, “What are you doing about it?”</li>
<li>People don’t work around or
follow broken processes; they stop and fix them.</li>
<li>Personnel talk about what they
want to do or are going to do instead of talking about what is stopping them
from succeeding. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
The trick to knowing when we are
focused on the problem instead of a solution is not so explicit as a list of
catch phrases or specific actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We must listen and observe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If our words and our actions center on working with a problem in place,
we are focused on the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When our words and our actions center on a future state where the
problem is gone, then we are focused on a solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
To migrate from the former state
to the latter, begin with yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Take notice of your own words and actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you catch yourself talking about problems instead of
solutions, make a conscious effort and habit to re-state your thoughts, right
there and then, to something solution focused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do the same for your colleagues and personnel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Understand that our words and
our actions result from our thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our thoughts represent our focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we catch words and actions focused on the wrong thing, we can use
that moment to redirect the thoughts behind them to a more constructive
posture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay alert and observe carefully
the words and actions you and your fellow teammates produce this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they seem more focused on problems
than solutions, start actively redirecting that focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been a clear distinction between
organizations that solve problems and improve and those that wallow in
dysfunction in my experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Focus yourself and your organization on the right destiny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-84008074303357485452013-03-01T20:11:00.000-07:002013-03-01T20:12:18.216-07:00How to Plan Business Performance Change, Part 3
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Successful performance change comes from changing
behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only must we
deliberately configure those things that influence behavior, we must have a
plan for managing and monitoring the change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is a useful tool for planning and tracking behavior
changes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part 1 of this post series discussed the importance of
behavior on business performance and, particularly, on the strategy of making
behavior the primary focus of our plans for directing and facilitating a
business performance change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part
2 introduced a few of the major influences on behavior that we can control to
help drive the desired behavior and outcome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here we will examine a relatively simple tool for planning
the behavior change process.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leadership and communication are the most important tools
for driving behavioral change and developing a culture that we have
thoughtfully designed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consistency
is the key to helping everyone perceive the new way of doing things and
adopting it and adapting to it quickly and easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tool below is a single-page communication and planning
tool that we can use to quickly and effectively share the plan for, and the
progress of, our change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the lessons that I share on my site are things I
have picked up from my own observation and created myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the things I share are lessons
and tools that others have shared with me to help me grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This particular tool is one very
similar to a matrix used by a former employer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I have taken some minor liberties for the sake of this
post and for making it easy to communicate the important elements, it is not my
own creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I knew who the
genius was who introduced it to the company, I would gladly give him or her
credit and acclaim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It evolved somewhat from its original introduction format
and I was given to understand that it was modified from a plan for personal
outlook and behavioral modification that the “originator” picked up at a
self-help workshop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as what I
present has evolved to meet particular needs for others, so should you feel
free to modify it to meet your business and communication methods.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you customize the tool, be careful not to lose sight of
the important elements, which I will point out, nor to sacrifice the effective
beauty of this tool’s efficient communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when applied exactly according to template or as
presented herein, it can lose its effectiveness when it is
overcomplicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep it simple,
make it fit to a single page, or a single poster if absolutely necessary, and
keep the language clear and concise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There will be room for detail and explanation elsewhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Figure 1 and Figure 2 show an example of the tool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a simple matrix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this example I have notionally laid
out a plan for introducing a Design for Reliability methodology into a product
development organization and culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Make a screen shot or copy of the figure to which to refer while I break
it down below.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Figure 1:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Example Behavior Change Planning Matrix</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Figure 2:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Optional Baseline Row of Matrix</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<![endif]><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->The first thing that
becomes apparent is that the matrix clearly focuses on behaviors as the primary
topic and that the change or development of those behaviors is planned in
stages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, a glance at the last
column demonstrates that we do not expect behaviors to settle in and become
habit overnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Change is a
process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We can build the matrix top-down or bottom up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this example the beginning and
baseline, starting place are at the bottom and the utopian state is at the
top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it suits your way of
thinking and your organization’s habits to build it with the beginning state on
top and the final state at the bottom, feel free to build it that way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The baseline row of the matrix can come in handy to clearly
communicate what behaviors we are trying to build upon or leave behind, but it
doesn’t otherwise contribute to the plan and it does take up valuable
space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recommend it if you must
establish a common agreement about the current state and what is well or poor
about it, or if you are finalizing some earlier initiative to stabilize the
organization and want to build upon that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Otherwise, it is not especially valuable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I strongly recommend at least three levels of cultural or
behavioral development, a beginning stage, a developmental stage, and a “achieved”
or success stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the example
above, a rather lofty vision is described in the highest level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many leaders like to set a vision of world-class
virtue and encourage followers to aspire to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agree with this approach and encourage it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I like the idea of developing to a level that we are
improving upon what we were taught and making the entire process or concept or
methodology better than we learned it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is a good goal for the top level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we set those high expectations then we definitely want to
drive and strive for them, but we should understand that the development of the
behaviors is successfully fulfilling its business needs at the level below,
which we describe as “success” or “habit” or “fulfillment” or some other
similar state in which the organization is truly executing and living by the
behaviors we set in motion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
best way to think about how to fill this level of the matrix is to answer the
question, “What does ‘done’ look like?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Build your answer into this row.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Below the success or fulfillment stage is a stage wherein
our people are developing their proficiency with the new skills or methods and
becoming more comfortable with the behaviors that we expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This takes time and leadership and
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where the
learning curve is taking place and we, leaders and personnel alike, are
learning from our mistakes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The beginning stage is where we introduce the new behaviors
and set expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Part 2 we
discussed the importance of having leaders, both natural and leadership-role
leaders, spearheading the change and demonstrating the new behaviors for others
to witness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the stage
where that element must be set in motion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is also the stage where much of the training and communications
concerning expectations takes place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The baseline row simply describes the current state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can include our strongest traits as
building blocks, or we can display the behaviors we want to leave behind, or
both.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Examining the columns from left to right, the first is
simply assigns a name for each stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Use language that fits your organization’s personality or culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Active verbs send a signal of activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the example above is a title for the
stage as well as a few key words describing the objective or focus for the
stage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second column describes the specific behaviors you need
to establish or expect to see that enable and power your business performance
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the early stages they
are often behaviors linked to training and learning, or otherwise becoming
familiar with the new skills, methods, rules, processes, and behaviors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the matrix moves through the development of our new
habits we modify the behaviors in the second column to describe the process of
developing from learning, to practicing and developing proficiency in the
second stage, and finally to demonstrating that the new behaviors are habitual
in the third stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As mentioned above,
the final stage might describe a state where the population is improving upon
the new behaviors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third column is our feedback section of the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This column focuses on describing how
we know that the behaviors are happening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Alternatively, it may be used to identify metrics that we believe will
inspire and drive the behaviors we want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Be careful with the latter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many times our metrics don’t necessarily drive the behaviors we want,
but inspire behaviors we don’t imagine until they manifest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we use metrics to inspire behavior, I strongly advise
coupling them with simple audits or data points that will only measure how
often the behaviors we expect are actually taking place, and in the manner we
expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that leadership
is a better tool for guiding the development of behavior than are metrics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fourth column lists the support elements that must be
installed in order to facilitate the new behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This might include training materials, equipment or
equipment configuration, policies, data systems, processes, templates, software
systems, committees, positions or new roles, experts, and etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Part 2 we discussed how systems and programs that don’t
cooperate with our new expectations and behaviors can and will inspire resistance
and often sabotage our initiative for change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This column is a place to record and communicate the
necessity for various programs or systems important to the change process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The development of programs or systems often must change and
can afford to develop along with the progress in our behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Line the element up with that
understanding and vision in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes we want to identify the obsolescence of certain systems or
programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is also a valid
line item for the fourth column.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fifth column is, in my opinion, the least important, but
also the most unavoidable in most business cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is true that where there is no deadline, there is no
urgency, and we can’t allow our initiative to languish and die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we must recognize that any
dates or deadlines that we put in the target completion column are arbitrary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We, none of us, really know how long it is going to take for
the behaviors in our organization to develop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it takes less time than we think to train everyone,
but more time to lead everyone through the development of skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes getting everyone through
training seems to go on forever, but people adopt the new methods immediately
because they are a vast improvement upon the status quo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My advice is to set targets in the last column, leaving room
for a change process to occur, and then encourage everyone to demonstrate that
they have moved to the next stage before the target date arrives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Offer positive incentives or inspire
friendly internal competition to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If it’s not possible to meet the target you set when you dreamed up the
matrix, accept it and adjust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Concerning tracking progress, use any method you like, such
as color, or strikethroughs, or check marks, to note on your matrix when one of
the behaviors, measures, or systems, or programs is successfully completed,
established, or fulfilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fight
hard not to let anyone backslide and force you to remove your mark from the
matrix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that happens, make a
big deal about it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the items in each block of each row are checked off you
can claim that you are truly in the next stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you find yourself checking off behaviors in the next
stage before you have completed the systems in your current stage, then this is
your warning that your pace of system and program development is not keeping up
with your organization’s development of new behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your systems don’t develop fast enough, you can run into
trouble and can sabotage your so-far-successful culture change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be very alert to this and adjust
quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your programs and
systems develop faster than your behaviors, there is less threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, it becomes your opportunity to
drive your leaders to push harder to facilitate the behavioral change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s briefly discuss the titles of the various blocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our templates for this matrix we may
set specific titles for each block if we like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could name the behaviors, measures, and programs blocks
at the beginning level, “Communicating Expectations,” “Setting Expectations,”
and “Establishing Program Elements,” respectively, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be useful since it creates a
standard or pattern and everyone becomes accustomed to the typical change plan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, we can also use the titles of each block to
concisely communicate a theme or objective for each piece of the matrix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some category ideas for the behaviors
might be as follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Creating consistency</li>
<li>Improving understanding</li>
<li>Building proficiency</li>
<li>Setting new expectations</li>
<li>Sharing best practices</li>
<li>Setting new standards</li>
<li>Learning new methods</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some block titles for the feedback (measure, metrics) column
blocks might be as follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Setting expectations</li>
<li>Monitor the initiative</li>
<li>Monitor growth</li>
<li>New focus</li>
<li>Consistency</li>
<li>[Behavior] observation</li>
<li>Observing progress</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some block titles for the systems or programs column might
be as follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Installing program elements</li>
<li>Support and Leadership</li>
<li>Expansion and leverage</li>
<li>Obsolete elements</li>
<li>Establish elements</li>
<li>Building the infrastructure</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point is to use the block titles to create a meaningful
context for the very brief phrases of key words that are inside each
block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, the idea is to
make the matrix fit on a single page of some practical size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a communication tool as much as a
plan and tracker of progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore,
every character should fulfill some meaningful purpose.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The magic to the matrix is not the matrix (unless you
appreciate the elegant simplicity of putting an entire plan for cultural change
or development onto a single piece of paper); the magic is in your plan, which
is only communicated through the matrix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Use the matrix and the elements listed in Part 2 of this post series to
inspire and list the important elements of your plan, but make a very careful
plan around the ideas the matrix and the list mentioned inspire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your plan will no doubt require much more detail than the
matrix above can contain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, if your plan requires developing or modifying a data system within
your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, that very system element will
require some careful thought and planning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may produce as much supporting information, or as many
diagrams, lists, charts, or dashboards as you need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just keep the matrix simple so that it fulfills its purpose
as a means of concisely communicating your plan to everyone affected.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be creative, take your time, be careful, and most of all,
make the matrix work how you need it to for your needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just a tool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use your own language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make it bolder and more colorful than
the generic black-on-white shown herein.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Make it interactive with links from key words to deeper levels of the
plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just don’t sacrifice the
elegance by making it overly complicated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Behavior is key to performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To change the latter we must modify the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems to be a crucial understanding
that is left out of the various business improvement methodologies we seek,
learn, or introduce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please give
some serious thought to how, as you introduce your new methodologies, whatever
they are, you will plan and facilitate the necessary behaviors that will make
your successful institution of the methodology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Behavior change is certainly more complicated than a short
list of behavior-influencing elements and a single-page matrix can
capture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I hope that the list
of elements I provided in Part 2 and the matrix tool described above give you a
solid starting place for planning the behavioral needs mentioned in Part
1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The thoughts I’ve provided are
those that most often mean the difference between success and failure in my own
experience in driving change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a look at your methodology, initiative, or program
plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there are elements
described in this three-part post that you have not addressed, use the ideas
discussed to fill in the gaps and be successful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-22684160009617411762013-02-21T16:16:00.000-07:002013-03-01T20:12:23.997-07:00How to Plan Business Performance Change, Part 2
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We don’t successfully drive business performance change just
because we reorganize and declare some management objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We change performance by changing
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider several
important elements that influence behavior while drawing up your
behavior-change plans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Part 1 of this post thread, we discussed a number of arguments
for why our business performance only changes when our fundamental behavior
changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Specifically, we must
address the way we respond to challenges or stress, our decision-making habits,
how we address and solve problems, and our general daily conduct.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, the various business performance improvement
programs such as Lean or Six Sigma, just to drop a pair of names, and the
consultants that introduce them to us, don’t really address how to plan the
behavioral change throughout our organization that will enable these programs
and systems to truly succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much
more than training, some new metrics, and reorganization is necessary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For this part of the discussion, let’s look specifically at
some of the cultural and business elements that influence behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These elements must be included in a
plan that specifically addresses changing behavior.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is a short list of the elements to discuss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will seem fairly obvious at first
glance, but I dredged this list out of a pile of notes concerning the failures
and roadblocks that I have fought to correct or remove in my own change-driving
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, even
though they are obvious, or because they are obvious and we take them for
granted, we fail to address these elements in our change efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This list includes the most commonly
recurring themes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Model Desired Behavior</li>
<li>Training</li>
<li>Coaching and Mentoring</li>
<li>System Alignment and Configuration</li>
<li>Traditions and Beliefs</li>
<li>Environment</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is important to point out that when we discuss behavior
we are ultimately addressing our business culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The elements listed above are like ingredients in a
stew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most stews will have common
ingredients, but every chef’s blend and recipe will be different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use the list herein as a starting
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give some thought to your
organization’s own unique needs and cultural flavor to completely flesh out
your plan for behavioral change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Model Desired Behavior</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps the most important element to set your change up for
success is for your leaders to model the behavior you want to drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m amazed at how often this need fails
to manifest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than once, I’ve
been involved in an initiative to install Six Sigma into a business
organization and the management teams were the last organizational elements to
be infused, rather than the first.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the leaders are either too busy or too resistant to
attend training and start speaking the language, how should we expect everyone
else to be motivated to buy into the change?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How well will that change actually manifest if the leaders
don’t understand what everyone else is talking about or trying to do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can people behave differently if their
leaders are still stuck in the old ways?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, it
happens frequently.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leaders must be the first to adopt the new ways, not the
last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaders must both push
and pull the new behaviors through the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the leaders don’t demand it, it won’t seem
important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the leaders aren’t
doing it themselves, it won’t be important or practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To change the behavior of our people, the change must seem
both inevitable and possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
must be easier to change than to remain the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It becomes easier to change, even desirable to do so, and
harder to resist if the organization’s leaders have already made the change and
demonstrate it daily.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One final thought regarding modeling the desired
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word “leader” is not
limited to those people in management or leadership authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Leaders” are those people in the
organization that others go to for advice and support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may be senior engineers,
unflappable project managers, or the new college graduate with infectious
optimism and a surplus of enthusiasm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By all means, start your change with your management,
particularly the executive management, but also start with the other leaders in
your organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the leaders
adopt the new behaviors and methods, everyone else will follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your leaders become part of the
resistance, your change is doomed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Training</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many times, when we endeavor to introduce new behaviors, new
guidelines aren’t enough; we also need new skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is especially true if we are introducing one of the
popular programs such as Six Sigma, Lean, Outcome Driven Innovation, Axiomatic
Design, Value Engineering, SMED or any of a long list of program names.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes too there are concepts or new
language we want to introduce.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you plan your change, make a list of the new skills,
concepts, or terms that your personnel will need to learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a plan for how to introduce the
new skills, ideas, and language to your personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be sure too that your training goes a step further than
typical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As part of your training, include some demonstrations and
expectations of the new behaviors that accompany the new skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t just introduce the new terms and
skills or tools and think that your training is done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Model and demonstrate how and when you expect those new
tools and skills are to be used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Use your training to establish expectations as well as introduce new
methods.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coaching and Mentoring</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Remember this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Training is necessary, but it is not a solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Training doesn’t make a person skilled;
practice does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, training
doesn’t make us automatically want to do things differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must follow our training with
coaching and mentoring, and we must push and pull the use of the new tools and
methods until they become habit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biggest mistake that occurs most frequently is that
organizations and change leaders train personnel and think that because people
are trained they will now do things differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t happen that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make a plan for how your leaders, who are of course modeling
the correct behavior, are going to coach and mentor their teams and personnel
through the indoctrination of the new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make each leader establish his or her own plan for how he or
she will do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leaders should
be able to quickly and clearly articulate their plans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Actively discourage an unwillingness to participate, but
don’t discourage or punish mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we are learning, we make mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learn better when we make mistakes and analyze them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one will want to try something new
if they are afraid of making mistakes while on the learning curve.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Accept that mistakes will happen; coach people through
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mentor people through their
first few tries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Focus on
establishing the behavior more so than results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The results will manifest if the behavior changes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
System Alignment and Configuration</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whether we mean them to or not, our systems often inspire or
even dictate behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
we work around the systems that don’t cooperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we feel trapped in a particular sequence of steps
because the system dictates that things must happen that way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider what systems, policies, processes, machines,
software, or logistical chains will be engaged by your new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unfortunate answer is probably,
“all of them.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spend some time
investigating them with the user experts of those various systems and determine
if they are configured to work with your new behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they are not, make changes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It can be tedious and seemingly unrewarding to dig into your
various systems in such a way, but when software or policy stand in the way of
behaviors you are trying to drive it can be not only frustrating for you as a
change agent, but also for those people trying to meet your expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be crippling to allow a system
or policy to roadblock progress.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Traditions and Beliefs</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Traditions or beliefs are not something we generally think
about when discussing our businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Especially in western corporate business culture, we prefer to assume
that everything is about the numbers and logical associations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our organizations are made up of
people, however, and every organization has it’s own flavor or culture, which
is comprised of common behavior established by tradition and belief.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Addressing tradition and belief takes some careful
consideration and long thought in my experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Break down you plan for addressing them into three parts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>What traditions, habits, or beliefs do you need to get away
from?</li>
<li>What traditions, habits, or beliefs do you need to keep?</li>
<li>What new traditions, habits, or beliefs must you install?</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change means that some of the things we currently do, we
must stop doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Identify these
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put words to the beliefs
that drive them so that you can recognize when the cause for the old ways is
inspiring resistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a plan
for the old ways to go away peacefully.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Try not to challenge or refute existing beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Belief systems do not need proof to
inspire devotion; they only need faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we challenge beliefs we tend to inspire people to dig in and fight
harder to maintain those beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of saying that old beliefs are wrong, suggest that a new belief
might enable additional success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Offer new beliefs instead of challenging old ones wherever possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some beliefs and traditions are good and you want them to
remain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, your
family-owned business might have some well-established family-focused values
that you do not want to damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Identify the habits and traditions that define your strengths and that
you want to protect or maintain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Identify the beliefs and values that drive those habits and
traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make plans to
reinforce those beliefs and values as you go through your change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make plans to ensure that the important-to-preserve
traditions are continued and exercised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The best way to ensure that your change doesn’t
inadvertently dissolve important cultural elements that define your business is
to plan for the protection and perpetuation of those elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t let them be sacrificed by
accident.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we set expectations for new behaviors, consider the
beliefs upon which those behaviors are based.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Design traditions that will reinforce expectations and
inspire good habits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New
traditions might include reward and recognition or otherwise display the
success or benefits of your new business methodology.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Environment</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We often just assume that our environment will change as our
business and behaviors change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
assumption alone implies a link between environment and behavior and our
intuition about that link is not wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If there is a link, then why should we not use it to help drive
the behavior change?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Environment can be significantly influential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes environmental influence can
be closely tied to the systems considerations mentioned above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider the following.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>If your new focus is to encourage intimate, focused teams to
drive rapid problem solving, do you have enough meeting rooms or workspaces for
these teams to meet and synergize?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></li>
<li>If your new focus is on efficiency and single-task resource
planning, is your environment conducive to such, or is it noisy and full of
distractions?</li>
<li>If you are trying to drive creativity and innovation, is
your work environment inspirational, or is it sterile and dull?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider how your work environment does or does not fit the
new behaviors and methodologies that you driving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider the messages on the walls, the arrangement of
personnel, lighting, colors, noise levels, access to important systems,
equipment, people, or interactions between groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make plans to proactively adapt your environment to your new
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only will it positively
influence the change, it will communicate an additional message of devotion and
dedication to the new way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Summary</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you lay out your plans for a business change, be sure
to establish purposeful plans for driving behavioral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At a minimum, include elements of leadership modeling
behavior, training, coaching and mentoring, system alignment, traditions, beliefs,
and environment in those plans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you take the time to work with your leaders to include
these elements in your plans for business behavioral change, you will address
many of the failures and roadblocks that prevent so many other organizations
from successfully installing the programs they expect to improve business
performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is well worth the
extra planning to address these common sources of change failure and instead
use them to drive success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Part 3 of this post thread, we’ll discuss a framework for
mapping and articulating your change plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can also be used to track progress and monitor the change
as it occurs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-28037853124209645052012-06-14T11:26:00.002-06:002012-06-14T11:26:28.292-06:00How to Plan Business Performance Change, Part 1<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not enough to simply reorganize your team or business
and declare some management objectives to truly change business
performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our performance stems
from our behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Changing
behaviors takes careful planning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
History, politics, and warfare have many lessons we can
learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without getting carried
away, consider the history of political revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why revolution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It represents occasions in history where the fundamental performance and
behavior of a large group changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Look there for the keys to successful change for our own businesses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my research and reading about political revolution, not
once did revolution occur or succeed because a revolutionary leader declared,
“Here is how we will organize ourselves and here is the message we will tell
the population.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, it is
absurd to think that those actions would drive a successful revolution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, those are the actions business leaders take,
over, and over, and over again to declare and promote and drive change
initiatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Granted, business
change seems much less drastic than political revolution, but I argue that the
fundamental keys to success are the same.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In examining political revolution, those that successfully
changed the government were driven by a general demand for a change in
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were culturally
driven, motivated by a desire that things not be done the same way anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The organization and “management”
dictums were secondary, or even an afterthought.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Therefore, if we want to successfully change the way our
businesses perform, we must compel that change at a behavioral level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If political history isn’t your bag,
then consider it logically.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The performance of our business stems not from policy, from
who reports to whom, or even really from the directions and priorities we give
our managers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fundamentally, our
business performance is determined by how our personnel and managers and
leaders make decisions, respond to problems, and how they do their daily
work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we want to change
performance, we must change how decisions, responses, and work are made or
done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you still aren’t convinced that behavior is the right
place to focus, then consider the dictionary definition of the word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are three.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, esp. toward
others</li>
<li>the way in which an animal or person acts in response to a
particular situation or stimulus</li>
<li>the way in which a natural phenomenon or a machine works or
functions</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think about those definitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now consider them in the context of your business or your
team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>How does your team respond to stimulus such as pressure to
do things faster?</li>
<li>How does your business respond to demand greater than it is
prepared to meet?</li>
<li>How do your people conduct themselves when faced with a
problem?</li>
<li>How does your business culture conduct itself on a daily
basis?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are trying to improve efficiency, or reduce
variation, or eliminate waste, or increase innovation, is not that thing that
you are truly trying to affect the way that your business, your teams, and your
people respond, function, or conduct themselves?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Absolutely it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, If you report to a new boss, will that change your
fundamental behavior or the way you do your work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not by itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly you will adjust how you respond to your leader, but not
necessarily how you conduct yourself otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not unless your boss demands such a change from you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Likewise, if you have a new metric, or a new priority, will
that change your daily conduct?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Will it change the way you solve problems, or a decision to do what is
easy rather that what might have better long-term benefits, but is not rewarded
in any way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Metrics, priorities,
and management dictums can enable certain behaviors to be easier or harder, but
they don’t fundamentally change how we do things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we want to change our performance in the work place, we
must change behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must
change how we respond, how we function, and how we conduct ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behavioral change is the key to true
performance change and it doesn’t come from new organization, new metrics, new
vocabulary, or management direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even training is not enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the biggest mistakes is to expect that because someone
is trained in a new method that they are good at the new method and that they
will use the new method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answer
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I sent you to auto
mechanic school, would you be suddenly expert at fixing your own car?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you fix your own car or would you
still pay someone else to do it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m sure answers to the last question would vary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same happens in the workplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Answers will vary, and unless the general movement of the
greater whole is toward doing what the training promoted, most will not change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the general phenomenon is for
people to resist change, not adopt it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Therefore, training by itself is not effective and driving change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is necessary, but not a solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, if organization, metrics, vocabulary, direction, and
training are not enough, what does it take?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes leadership through interpersonal influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires pressure such that it is
easier to change than to remain the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It requires relentless communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes planning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of this post are links to others in which I have
shared thoughts concerning interpersonal influence, pressure to change, and
communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the following
posts, Parts 2 and 3, I will endeavor to articulate a framework to plan actions
and elements that will help drive the change in behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In particular, there are several
elements of your action plan to consider, and there is a process that must be
enabled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In case it isn’t obvious, the point of this post, Part 1 is
to harp on the importance of focusing on behavior when planning change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over and over we have all seen that
organization, management direction, metrics and training are not enough to manifest
the performance improvements our initiatives promise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead we move from one disappointing initiative to another
and fuel the disease of passive resistance whereby our personnel play along
politely while waiting for the initiative to die, and deliberately don’t change
how they do things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Break the trend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Proceed to Parts 2 and 3 to examine a framework for planning
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, however, take the
most important step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accept and
understand that to truly change performance, we must change behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When planning your change initiative,
your plans must focus foremost on behavior.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> <a href="http://www.bizwizwithin.com/2012/06/change-agents-must-get-personal.html" target="_blank">Change Agents Must Get Personal</a></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.bizwizwithin.com/2012/04/leading-change-changing-beliefs.html" target="_blank">Leading Change, Changing Beliefs</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.bizwizwithin.com/2011/03/understand-what-drives-behavioral.html" target="_blank">Understand What Drives Behavioral Change</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.bizwizwithin.com/2011/03/learning-is-process-not-event.html" target="_blank">Learning is a Process, Not an Event</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-72929084570982226062012-06-07T12:42:00.000-06:002012-06-07T12:42:33.950-06:00Change Agents Must Get Personal<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Real change doesn’t happen just
because we reorganize and declare a new initiative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Change occurs with behavior, which requires leadership and
interpersonal influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
influence change, agents must address change at a personal and interpersonal
level.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have all experienced it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our leadership gets an idea to drive some new way of doing
business or driving process improvement and the business gets reorganized, management
gets new orders, and some people, if not everyone, gets some training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we are told to go forth and make
the new way happen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we start using a new vocabulary, and maybe some of our
metrics change, but in the end, the results we were promised don’t
manifest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, our leadership takes
action, primarily focused on the middle management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who obviously disregarded or challenged the new way
are reprimanded or eliminated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Others who were caught giving lip service, but not truly buying in are
given similar attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, the results promised don’t manifest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually, the debate over whether the
new way even works runs tired and we either decide that it doesn’t or that the
results we have are the best we are going to get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, our leadership either reads a new book, or it
changes over and a new declaration for a new future is made and the cycle
starts over again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m sure that, even as over-simplified as my description is,
it sounds familiar to just about everyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is it that these programs and initiatives and ways of
driving success seem to work for the founders, and for a few rare businesses
that follow the founder’s methods, but fail so often for the rest of us?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fundamentally, the change never takes place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, we reorganize, and we address
management directives, and even management personnel, but the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">change</i> doesn’t occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, the business is still doing
business as usual.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I reorganize your business so the people are reporting to different
leaders, does that fundamentally change how they do their work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I give orders to your management to track new metrics and
to use a new vocabulary, does that make the people do their work
differently?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
fundamentally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I give everyone
in your business a week’s worth of training, does it make a person do his or
her work in a different way?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
necessarily or probably not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does make everyone in the business start to do things
differently?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(play game show music
here)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The clue is in the words,
“the way we do work.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To some
degree we can change people’s “ways” by changing process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, not all work is governed by
strict process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most office work
is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ways,” is another way of
saying “habits” or “tradition” which are all words that are intimately tied to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">behavior</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I choose the word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">behavior</i>
very specifically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some
dictionary definitions so you can see why.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, esp. toward
others</li>
<li>The way in which a person acts in response to a particular
situation or stimulus</li>
<li>The way in which a natural phenomenon or a machine works or
functions (think process)</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Behavior governs how we act, or decisions, or responses, and
ultimately how we do our work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If it is our business cultural behavior or habit to focus on
doing things quickly and in the easiest manner possible, would a reorganization
and management directive cause everyone in the business to suddenly focus on
predicting stability or making long-term decisions about quality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may have new metrics and vocabulary,
but the habits don’t change just because we gave a week of training and went
back to work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Habits and behavioral change take place because of pressure
to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That pressure can come
in many forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As change agents,
we can help the leadership plan those pressures through process change and
leadership expectations, but we have only one real pressure available to us in
our daily or hourly work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is
our interpersonal influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
good news is, it is a very powerful pressure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interpersonal influence is also that part of the equation
that is lacking in most change plans that focus only on reorganizing and making
management directives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those fail
because they don’t address the interpersonal level of change, which, of course,
is where the real change happens.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change contexts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Changes in personal fitness are often much more effective with the
incorporation of fitness coaches or workout buddies who hold us to our
commitments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Weight loss works
much better if our spouses and families are on board with the change in diet;
it fails readily when they are not part of the change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The same phenomenon happens in the workplace when driving
behavioral change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Saying that we
are going to change isn’t enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We must apply pressure to change though interpersonal influence and
leadership at every level, executive leaders, middle managers, change
drivers/program experts, and peer-to-peer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve spent a great many words making the case for the
importance of the interpersonal level of change because it is fundamental to
successful change and to achieving the performance promised by the change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s spend a few words discussing the
key success factors of interpersonal influence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, let’s just focus on positive, constructive influence;
we’ll ignore negative influence which should be stamped out of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Positive influence can only be obtained
through trust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We don’t try new things unless we see the thrill or benefit
of it, or unless someone we trust influences us to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the former is hard to perceive,
the latter is crucial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore,
whether an agent of change is a leader of personnel or an individual
contributor, the key to influencing others to do things differently, to try
something new, is trust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The following trust equation has been stated in several ways
in several different presentations and resources in my library.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll offer it in my favorite terms
without any credit to whom might have laid it out first since I can’t say for certain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Trustworthiness = credibility +
character</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a simple equation, but not easy to always fulfill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also a very personal thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has everything to do with the person
or the team of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has
nothing to do with organization charts or management metrics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You wouldn’t trust a surgeon to work on your child if that
surgeon had never performed the operation before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That surgeon may or may not be capable, but without the
proof of it, you wouldn’t consider him a credible or trustworthy solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, if that surgeon had a reputation
for cutting corners or for allowing insurance company bureaucrats to make
risk-based, cost-cutting decisions for him you would question his character and
doubt if that surgeon should work on your child.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I like the word “credibility” because it addresses both
information and skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other words
that have been used or proposed in its place include, proficiency, capability,
and competence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take your pick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point is, for change agents to be
influential they must be trustworthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you are an agent of change, you must be trustworthy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chose your change agents carefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must have character that is
honest, earnest, and endearing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They must also be able to demonstrate that they know what they are
doing, teaching, or convincing others to try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means that they must demonstrate more than just a
certificate indicating they have received some training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must prove competence to be
credible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the change planning must include some projects or
programs that will vet the new way as well as the change leaders who will be
driving the new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My advice is
to be bold, not conservative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick
something big and important, something that affects the business and its
personnel significantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Involve
everyone that is necessary and give each a do-or-die expectation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make it matter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When those people successfully execute the new way, on
something really big, it fulfills several criteria that will increase the
trustworthiness of everyone involved, change agents, leaders, executives, and
the program itself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>It shows commitment on the part of leaders to make it work
(character)</li>
<li>It demonstrates that those involved are capable of making it
work (credibility)</li>
<li>It demonstrates that the new way works (credibility)</li>
<li>When mistakes occur, and the leadership accepts that the
team is learning and helps the team overcome the mistakes it earns trust
(character)</li>
<li>When the execution team communicates lessons of both success
and mistakes it shows genuine learning, wisdom, and honesty (credibility and
character)</li>
<li>When the leadership sends forth the survivors to do it again
it shows faith or trust in those team members (credibility for team, character
for leadership)</li>
<li>When those who die instead of do actually suffer
consequences, it demonstrates commitment and follow-through (character) and it
applies a little of that outside pressure mentioned above</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another element of the interpersonal influence and trust
combination is this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">People who do not trust, cannot be trusted</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you lay out the management
directives for the business change, make the statement in italics the prime
directive and mantra of management behavior.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Understand that any time we do something new, and we change
our habits, there is a learning curve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There will be mistakes and re-dos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we discuss our new programs we often understand that, though we
might wish it to be different, the change will not happen overnight and that it
must occur in waves or cycles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
talk about it, but our behavior doesn’t demonstrate that understanding when we
begin executing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We elect to do simple and easy projects first, like testing
the water with our toes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
shows doubt in our own declaration of the future way, a lack of trust if you
will allow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a team fails to
achieve the metrics performance targeted in a specific time, we punish the
failure rather than reward the achievement we did make, discuss lessons we
learned, and mentor further changes or understanding to facilitate better
performance the next round.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t
demonstrate a lack of faith (trust).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Show faith that it will work and that your team is capable, and then
coach them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make it clear that every change agent, be he or she a
manager, an executive, or individual contributor, is to exercise an
understanding that learning is taking place and trust that those who truly
endeavor to change will succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Focus on improving the behavior, on coaching, mentoring, and
learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The metrics will come if
the behavior changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust in
those who try and those who learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trust that if the behavior changes the results will manifest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have seen over and over again that simply reorganizing
and changing metrics is not enough to truly change business performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To truly change performance, we must
change behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behavioral change
is made through interpersonal influence and leadership.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The key to interpersonal influence is trust and
trustworthiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chose agents of
strong character and set them up to successfully demonstrate credible
competence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, demonstrate
faith and trust in order to inspire personnel to try the new way without fear
of failure and to encourage them to try to succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To achieve results, the focus must not be on metrics or results; the focus must be on
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plan your change by
adjusting executive and management behavior around trust and commitment, on
learning and coaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coach each
other first, and then begin coaching personnel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apply the ideas above and break the cycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stop the insanity of repeatedly failed
initiatives and change programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, plan the behavioral change, enable it with the reorganization
and management directives, and execute the change through character and
credibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See the dramatic
change that is possible and achieve the results you seek.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-85256131022546822362012-05-30T13:42:00.000-06:002012-05-30T13:43:10.641-06:00Change Agents Must be Bold<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change initiatives often come more from vision and desire,
than from a solid plan. Change
agents, either organizational leaders or selected agents of the vision, must
act boldly in the absence of detailed planning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though it is very common for business initiatives that drive
change in business culture or direction to lack detailed planning, I find it
difficult to concisely explain the phenomenon. There seem to be a great number of reasons for it, and many
of them show up all at once inside of any given organization.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are a few.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Leaders don’t always know how to plan a
behavioral or cultural change</li>
<li>Leaders hire or assign experts, but that
expertise is geared more toward technical know-how than change management</li>
<li>We know what we want, but the path from A to B
is not always clear</li>
<li>Changing organization structure and metrics is
relatively easy, but performance comes from changing behavior, which is hard</li>
<li>Most of us have never been trained how to plan
performance change through changing behavior</li>
<li>Leaders engage consultants to advise, but
consultants don’t intimately know or understand the business culture</li>
<li>Sometimes we don’t realize that we need to
change in order to improve, so we don’t plan on it occurring</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m sure that with the above food for thought, the reader
can add his or her own insights to the list. The bottom line is that when we drive an initiative to
improve business performance, something must change. Our leaders expect and demand the change, but we often don’t
have the benefit of a plan for how that change will occur.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agents of the internal business change can represent a wide
variety of roles. We can be the
executive leader, middle managers tasked to make it happen, or we can be
individual contributors tapped on the shoulder to exercise our skills and
influence to facilitate the change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not one of the roles mentioned is truly positioned to build
a detailed change plan alone. The
executive is often too far removed from actual challenges and behavior to build
an insightful plan. Middle
managers are stuck asking for permission and managing multiple authorities and
expectations. Individual
contributors have no real authority at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, as change agents in any of these roles, or any other,
what are we to do? I suggest two
courses of action to take. Both of
them require boldness and initiative and a great deal of interpersonal
influence. (Don’t worry; the simple fact that you were chosen implies that you
have lots of each.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, work with your organizational leaders and
contributors to identify holes in the current plan and begin filling them. I know that it sounds obvious, but
because of uncertainty on all fronts about what to do, we often don’t feel
comfortable doing it. Our impulse
is to wait for instructions or to pray for inspiration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be bold. Be
courageous. Be understanding. Understand that the reason we don’t
have the direction we would like is probably because those around us are just
as uncertain about what is required as are we. Approach them humbly and with a plan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It does no good to point out problems and stand and wait for
solutions. Chances are, if we are
the first to see the problem, then we understand it or feel it more than anyone
else. Therefore, we are probably
the most qualified to propose a solution.
Do so. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While we are waiting for others in the organization to catch
up to meeting our needs for direction, or to digest our proposals for how to
fill in the planning gaps, we can’t just twiddle our thumbs. We are still trying to drive a change
and momentum is vital. We can’t
pause.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Therefore, the second thing we must do is build our own
plans. By all means get insight
and advice from peers, internal customers, leaders, and most of all from your
own experience. In a directional
vacuum, build your own directions.
Then communicate that direction aggressively.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chances are we have been told what is desired. Probably, we have been given some
interpretation of our personal responsibility for that desired outcome. What we are likely lacking is a clear
explanation of our authority, the tools or methods we can use, clarity of how
resources or personnel will be made available or will cooperate, or what
tactical strategy or priorities we should act upon. Does that sound familiar?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the first suggestion implies, don’t wait for those gaps
to fill in, ask. When no clear
answers are forthcoming, make up your own answers. Be bold. Be
courageous. Be forthright with
your answers and communicate your plan to everyone in your immediate circle of
influence: your leader, teammates,
collaborators, and internal customers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is an example of exercising both suggestions. “Agent Q” is a contributor without
direct reports, is tasked with improving certain business metrics. That is the extent of the direction
provided. Where should Agent Q
begin?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent Q’s first frustration is that the business metric
itself is not clear. Different
leaders seem to interpret it differently.
So Agent Q gathers an understanding from the various leaders and
diagrams them for a consultation with his direct leader. In that consultation he demonstrates
the confusion and, therefore, the challenge and proposes the simplest calculation
of the metric to be the standard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent Q’s manager agrees to help and provides his own
insight to the metric and who to approach first among the executive leaders to
establish the standard. While that
negotiation is going on, at least Agent Q and his manager are on the same page
about the metric. While it may
still change, Agent Q is not prohibited by confusion from proceeding, and personal
risk has been mitigated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next, Agent Q faces the dilemma of executing something to
make some changes and some progress toward the metric. A number of managers have thrown out
suggestions, but no clear priority exists, and no resolution or starting place
has been dictated. Agent Q must
decide for himself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He knows that he must explain and support his decision. He makes a tool. He establishes his own means of listing
the various projects identified and sorting them according to a reasonable
measure of their probable impact to the business metric. Then he gathers a little data and
quickly ranks the projects.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With a means available to rank projects according to value,
Agent Q uses that to interrogate the business and it’s systems. By investigating the causes for the
metric and current performance, he comes up with his own set of potential
projects to improve business performance and adds them to the list.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, he goes back to his boss and shares his insights. The work done is not weeks or months of
work, it’s hours or a couple of days; just enough to sketch out a proposed
plan. Agent Q’s manager provides
some additional insight and even provides some direction. The picture Agent Q was able to present
inspires the manager’s sudden decisions and direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Agent Q now has some direction and priority agreed upon by
he and his manager, and probably by higher-level committees once the
prioritization is shared and explained.
So, with the metric clarified, priority established, and some
assignments made, Agent Q is ready to engage. Unfortunately, no one has thought that far either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Agent Q goes to the process owners he must engage to
make the improvements at the top of his priority, how will they react, and how
can he count on their cooperation?
The good news is that the clear metric and explanation of how the
project will improve the metric should go a long way toward opening the
door. If that doesn’t work, Agent
Q will need to work the management chain for assistance. Again, the clarity of metrics and
priority should help that process too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the face of, more-or-less, telling the management chain
above him what he needed, or what must be done to facilitate his success, Agent
Q is not the least daunted by the fact that no standardization exists for the
tools or methods his training compels him to use to solve the problems and
execute his projects. He simply
begins by experimenting, sharing with his peers, and eventually the group
settles on some best practices.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life as a change agent is certainly more complicated, at
lease in dialogue, than the example above. However, the reality of what needs to happen and what can
and does happen is relatively simple.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Change agents, for many, many reasons, often do not have the
luxury of a detailed plan for success.
Sometimes all we have are a vague vision, some technical training, and a
deadline. When we don’t have the
direction, priority, resources, or agreement we need to proceed successfully,
we must create our own. There’s no
whining in leading change (we get enough of that from those who resist). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be bold. Tell
your leadership what you need.
Propose plans and courses of action if you aren’t dictated some. Share your insights unreservedly. Don’t wait; master your fate. Exercise your interpersonal influence
to the greatest degree. After all,
your influence is probably what landed you the role.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-83943222801722170612012-04-17T23:06:00.001-06:002012-04-17T23:06:50.996-06:00Leading Change, Changing Beliefs<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What we believe greatly influences our decisions and our
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beliefs can drive us to
resist or enable us to accept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you are trying to drive change in an organization, consider how to manage
everyone’s beliefs to enable the change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beliefs are things that we accept to be true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say, “accept” because what we believe
does not necessarily need to be proven, or even provable, they just need to fit
within our personal realm of experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are also very, very powerful motivators.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People go to war over beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that, should it be any wonder that peoples’ beliefs
about their business, their teams, their leaders, or the changes we are trying
to implement can be powerful forces?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we are going to succeed with driving change, particularly if change
includes an alteration of habit or behavior, we must somehow deal with peoples’
beliefs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are some examples of beliefs that can greatly affect
our ability to drive change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>“If I pretend to play along, it will all go away soon enough
and I can return to doing things the way I always have.”</li>
<li>“These guys don’t know what they are doing.”</li>
<li>“This new change won’t work.”</li>
<li>“There isn’t any way to solve this problem, it’s too big, it
has been around too long.”</li>
<li>“I don’t trust you.”</li>
<li>“These methods don’t really work.”</li>
<li>“I know better than he does, and I don’t like what he wants
to do.”</li>
<li>“If I don’t cooperate, it will fail.”</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyone who has tried to lead a significant change in
process, procedure, or behavior has encountered most or all of these and
more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the greatest threat
to any change is the passive-aggressive behavior: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the behavior by which people appear to play along while
consciously or not-consciously resisting or sabotaging the initiative.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard people either
confess to the behavior or actively plan or try to recruit others to the
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally, because I’m
often the recipient of such antagonism, I find it highly deplorable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also recognize that it is so typical
that it must be natural to a degree.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The resistive behaviors, including the passive-aggressive
ones, are driven by fear, discomfort that accompanies change, and by
beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key to managing the
behaviors is to manage beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One very important lesson that I have learned is this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Do
not try to change another person’s beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Absolutely, do not try to convince another person that
his or her beliefs are wrong.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Telling another person that his or her beliefs are wrong, or
that they need to change, is a quick way to turn that person into an
enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any cause for change
already has more enemies than friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t need to make more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We also don’t need to waste our energy engaged in an argument that we
can’t win.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead, it is better to seek first to understand our
people’s beliefs, then challenge them to experiment with a new one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accept their beliefs and the fact that
they have them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Affirm them if
possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we have made the
effort to understand, we can then ask others to do the same.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such a strategy offers several benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By understanding our people’s beliefs
it gives us a better perspective of their feeling and behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It enables us to approach them more
wisely and address their concerns more effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also helps us to understand what cultural and historical
obstacles we must overcome.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we actively take the time to understand others’ beliefs
and why they have developed them, we bring ourselves closer to our peers,
subjects, or constituents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
helps to dig deep and ask questions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>“Why do you believe that?”</li>
<li>“Is that a simplification, or is it really that black and
white?”</li>
<li>“Do you perceive any alternatives?”</li>
<li>“Do you like it that way, or do you just think that is how
it has to be?”</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we can go the final step and affirm their beliefs, or at
least affirm their explanation for why they believe what they do, then we have
just demonstrated a willingness to put ourselves in their shoes for just a
short time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we have made the effort to understand, and to try to
experience what another experiences, then we have earned the right to ask
another to do the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
can we better address their concerns and discuss their beliefs, but we can also
reasonably ask them to try to see things the way we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, we might learn something about
our won plans in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember, it’s not a ploy to negotiate; it’s a real opportunity to
understand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We don’t want to ask them to suddenly change what they
believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do, however, want to
ask them to try what we believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is a big difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We believe that an alternative process, procedure, system,
or behavior will make work life better for a great many people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask those people to try it with you and
see if it is so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t suggest
that their existing beliefs are wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do suggest that they could try something new, genuinely try it, not
passively-aggressively pretend, and then participate in determining how it
might be genuinely improved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because beliefs are built upon our experiences, by
experiencing a new way, we can begin to formulate beliefs about the new way
that are post-experience derived instead of pre-experience supposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must get our people to
participate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, if our changes
are truly beneficial, and our people experience that benefit, they can begin to
construct positive beliefs about the changes we propose, the methods by which
we design those changes, and trust that our interests also serve theirs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beliefs are a powerful force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not try to attack that force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will devour your initiative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, acknowledge it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try to understand it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then politely ask your people to try what you believe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will find that your change
initiatives meet somewhat less resistance and that what remains is not
insurmountable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-33869668281198945912012-04-11T16:59:00.000-06:002012-04-11T16:59:17.297-06:00Design for Six Sigma the Wrong Way<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The right way to use Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is to
proactively mitigate or eliminate variation in product quality and performance
and, by association, production processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wrong way to use DFSS is to turn it into a rigid,
inflexible product development checklist that forces every project to execute
exactly the same tasks, every time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The purpose of the Design for Six Sigma method is to
proactively predict and minimize the variation in our products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particularly, we want to minimize
variation in performance and quality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When things vary we are inviting something to occur that is
outside of acceptable norms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something
will be too big, or too slow, or too weak, or too late, or too red, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that happens we must expend
energy, time, resources, and money dealing with or correcting the fact that
something was too something.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This recognition that variation is a root cause of
unnecessary expense or cost or waste within a business is the philosophic
principle behind the Six Sigma methodology and DFSS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Six Sigma declares war on variation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Design for Six Sigma is the battle plan
for eliminating variation from our products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we institute Six Sigma and DFSS we naturally come to the
realization that product development is a business process that experiences a
great deal of variation, and also unnecessary expense because of those things
that tend to vary out of control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Naturally, we aim our Six Sigma and DFSS tools and methods and skills at
that process and we fire away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Be
gone thou wicked process variation!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our intent is good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our insight is good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, our most common solution is poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often, we make the mistake of turning
our DFSS problem-solving framework into a product development process and
checklist with a declaration that every project shall follow the process
exactly the same way every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That should eliminate the variation, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wrong!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Put your problem-solving expertise to work on that for a
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where does the variation
come from?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two sources.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Variation in the various tasks and processes and behaviors
that we engage to design and develop products</li>
<li>Variation in the scope and complexity and needs of each
product development effort</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there is variation in our engineering change order
process, or in our supplier selection process, or in how we establish and
document our requirements, or how we organize our drawings and documentation,
that variation will greatly impact our performance with regard to developing
product designs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such variation,
by all means should be reduced or eliminated and our ability to execute will
improve.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, no two product development projects should ever be
the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They should always be
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should never expect
to do the same project twice because every new product should be new and
different from every other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scope, complexity, technology, expertise, people, time,
resources, suppliers, and production processes for a new project will be and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> be different from the other
projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind of variation
is good!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, let’s back up just a little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How, by dictating that the DFSS method is now a process and
associated checklist that, by policy, shall be followed the same way for every
project, did we reduce or eliminate either of the two sources of variation we
identified above?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All we accomplished by establishing such rigidity is force
every little, simple project to suddenly become a great big project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oops!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t even know if we really put in the right details for
our really great and complex projects to be done well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lastly, we just made everyone
associated with product development really turned off about DFSS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does that sound right to anyone?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I the only one to have experienced
this?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By all means, we should attack the sources of wasteful
variation we identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should
absolutely apply our Six Sigma and DFSS expertise to reducing variation in how
we execute engineering change orders, supplier selections, requirements identification
and management, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doing so will
definitely help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we must
understand that these things will continue to vary because our project demands
will always vary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember, it is good that our product development projects should vary
in scope and complexity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that
in mind, our DFSS execution should not be fixed and rigid, but should also
vary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some projects will require designed experiments, some will
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some will need statistical sample
sizes and new process capability studies from suppliers or new manufacturing
processes, but some will not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remain vigilant and protect and promote the understanding that DFSS is a
skill and a tool set to help us solve the problem of designing products that do
not vary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We use only the tools
and methods we need, not all of them every time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a good look at your own DFSS practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did your organization get the right
message, or did it make the common mistake?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be embarrassed to answer truthfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s happened to the best of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recognize it and work your influence in
your organization to help others recognize it and help you correct it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have not instituted DFSS because you are afraid of
stifling creativity or driving an overabundance of rigor, understand that it is
not DFSS that creates what you fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is how people and organizations institute it that creates what you
fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Used properly, it is a
powerful tool with excellent stimulus and tools for enabling and driving
creativity and improved designs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is only when DFSS is used the wrong way that it becomes a burdensome
roadblock to execution or innovation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-84590064958941185512012-03-17T10:31:00.000-06:002012-03-17T10:31:45.056-06:00Beginning the Lean Journey<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So you are just beginning your first venture into the realm
of business and process improvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Read this post offered up by friend and colleague D.R. Callentine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He describes his own experience and discovery as one
just starting out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His message is “right
on the money.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
After a certain point of reading books, attending
seminars, and even dipping the toe into the pool a few times, you will realize
you just need to jump in and get started on your Lean journey. The first thing
you will find is that the flood of information, terms, forms, templates,
software, books, tools, and every other form of product marketed to assist you
on this bold excursion will have you swirling around and around as you attempt
to understand, organize, and apply it to your business situation. I feel
your pain as I am caught up in this confusion as I write this. However, as with
anytime we are lost and looking for direction, it helps to keep our eyes
focused on one firmly anchored point, even if it's unclear if that point is our
actual desired direction or destination. Once firmly fixed in our sight,
we can begin making progress and then evaluate and correct as we push forward. In
that same sense, it doesn't really matter whether you standardize on and
embrace DMAIC, 6 sigma, 8Ds, A3, 5Ys, or any of the other methods a bunch of
guys came up with ahead of you. However, what is important is to realize
that whether you embrace these items or create your own version, you will need
to find a standard, common way to approach this process. You can use
their language or invent your own so long as everyone understands what is being
said. One thing to consider though: inventing your own language will
require an interpreter should you need to converse with anyone outside your
company or should anyone move to your company from another organization. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Let's get back to establishing that single fixed point to
aim at. There are so many whizzing by, how do you choose? First let
me say that most of these marketed items, though not intentionally, will make
you feel as though there is something you still need to learn about basic
problem solving, process mapping, or simplification. Don't let that
feeling gain a foothold and don't abandon your skills as a problem solver
thinking there is something you lack. Instead, I suggest focusing on a
single, stationary point to help you navigate the maelstrom of information and
helpful suggestions. Many of the marketed solutions are so big and broad
or complex that it is difficult to truly focus on them. The point I
propose is simple. Though it seems small, it is prominent enough to see
from a great distance and shines bright enough to penetrate the densest of
hazes. May I suggest you focus on this single statement: "Variation
is the Enemy". </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
"Huh," you say? How on earth does that
help me make sense of all this stuff? How do I organize and decide what
things to buy, adapt, create, and learn to make meaningful progress? Well,
let's just look at all these tools and simply ask, "What is the problem
all these things are trying to solve?" At first glance it might
appear that they are all trying to solve different problems. Some help
you identify problems. Some help measure. Some are means of control
or feedback or analysis or mapping or identifying waste. Well, perhaps
that is how they are to be used, but the fundamental problem they all, every
last one of them, is trying to solve is this: standardization. They
are all attempting to get you to standardize on a method for doing all these
other great things. They are an attempt to eliminate variation, the true
enemy, as you engage in the battle against waste, problems, and defects. It's
not that any of these items do anything fundamentally different than what you
instinctively already know how to do (though some will no doubt give you great
new ideas such as statistical analysis or how to implement a control plan). They
all are simply trying to get you, and the others in your company, to go about
it in the same way. They are all selling a methodology for conforming to
a process. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
So, as you are trying to grab hold of the swirling mass of
buzzwords, just remember, "Variation is the enemy". Before you
can streamline the messed up processes in your organization, before you can
effectively identify and eliminate waste, you need to take just a few moments
to establish the process by which you will do this. What is the problem
you are trying to solve? The first one should be this: how do we as a
company effectively and methodically identify and eliminate waste? Like
any problem, you follow a simple and methodical approach. It may be slow,
but it works every time. Occasionally the problem and its solution will
be obvious, but you will still want to capture it, measure it, and control it
following some kind of standard. So, keeping in mind that variation is
the enemy, evaluate the various tools and approaches on how effectively they
will satisfy this truth. You might start by asking yourself, what is the
biggest need I have in attacking this monster? Do I need a sword or a
shield, a horse and a falcon? To evaluate the various tools, you might
ask, “Is it easy to understand and use? Will people have access to it?” If
people cannot find it, use it, or understand it, it is likely that this tool,
no matter how good it might be, will not be effective in solving your problem
(variation). Having a $100,000 piece of software that few have access to
and fewer still know how to properly use will only serve to add to your problems,
not address them. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
Start simple. Focus on standardizing and eliminate
the variation in your company. Find simple, basic, understandable tools,
or adapt them so they work for your situation. There is no single tool
that will work for everything, so keeping it simple to use and understand will
make it all the more powerful as your company will easily embrace it and unconsciously
begin the journey to eliminate variation and, ultimately, wasteful practices. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
D.R.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-71847581679040010372012-02-26T22:30:00.000-07:002012-02-26T22:30:08.572-07:00Making Deposits to the Creativity Bank<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Creativity is the power that enables invention, innovation,
and good problem solving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It often
defines the success of our products, services, or business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take some time and give some serious
thought to how you ensure your business has a solid pool of creative juices
from which to draw.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think for a moment about the products, services, business
models, or businesses that you most admire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are any of them obvious, humdrum examples; or are they
ingenious and different?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Creativity is a resource that those we most wish to emulate exercise in
abundance or with authority.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What do you do for yourself or your business to develop your
creative, problem-solving talent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Have you considered the potential impact that creativity and creative
people can have on your business?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If not, do so now and read a little further.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we distill the challenges of business success down to a
single, simple axiom, it might be thus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Success in business comes from our
ability to solve problems.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
products and services sell because they solve problems or otherwise improve
things for our customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Successful business models solve problems for organizing, managing, and
executing business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Successful
marketing solves the problem of reaching new customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Successful sales solve the problem of
convincing customers to buy our offerings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Successful process improvement solves the problem of making
what we do easier, more efficient, and more effective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything we are about, in every sort of business, is
solving problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To solve
problems we must understand problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This requires observation and learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we understand problems, however, we must have the ability
to visualize a practical solution as well as the ability to manifest what we
imagine into a real solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
ability to visualize a solution and make it into a real thing is all about
creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have I got your
attention?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I perceive that creativity is as much a learned skill as it
is a natural talent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who
engage in creative activities with other creative minds do indeed pick up some
of the method and ability through observation, mentoring, and exercise and
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the very least, recognize
that people who are really good at solving puzzles or playing games generally
are those who practice solving puzzles and playing games the most.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regardless of where we individually start on the creativity
and problem-solving talent scale, we can increase our ability with
practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Keep a finger on this
thought because we will return to it)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While some of us may have a talent for creativity, it is a skill that
can and should be nurtured and developed, just like any other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ability to draw on our creative
talents, on-demand, and turn our ideas into real solutions is absolutely a
skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This skill is what we
should be trying to maximize for our businesses and ourselves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are a wide variety of things we can all do to increase
the creative capacities of our teams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s discuss them in three contexts:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>How to improve our existing capabilities</li>
<li>How to increase or acquire more capability</li>
<li>How to look to the future </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
To improve our potential for creativity at work, we can
address three things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can
practice and exercise, we can improve our tools, and we can increase our access
and understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way,
these things we can do for ourselves, personally, as much as we can do them for
our teams.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To exercise creativity at work, encourage and enable
creative problem-solving games and exercises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite tool is to engage others, in small groups, in
thought experiments or games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick
a real or imagined business problem, common problem, or political problem and
pose it to your colleagues.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, go to lunch with two or three peers and
challenge them to help you solve the problem of keeping more industry local
instead of transferring it to other regions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let the ideas flow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Discuss the challenges, roadblocks, and behaviors and attack them with
possible solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t have
to actually solve the problem at lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The point is to exercise your skills to understand the problem and
envision solutions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is another idea that works well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Challenge your product development team
to develop a better pencil sharpener, or your marketing team to promote your
daughter’s cheerleading squad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Offer a prize for the best and most creative solutions, such as a prime
parking space or the privilege of throwing water balloons at you at the company
picnic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to exercise, go shopping and invest in problem-solving tools and methods for your business and your teams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tools and methods don’t solve problems;
creativity solves problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, tools and methods can help us to understand problems, organize
information, communicate problems and solutions, and increase the efficiency
and effectiveness of our problem-solving efforts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Creation is an inspired activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, even inspired inventors and artists have tools and
methods that help them to create and to feed the inspiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the problem-solving tools and
methods available to our businesses do the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examples many of us have heard would be
Lean, TRIZ, Six Sigma, Value Innovation, Value Engineering, or Axiomatic Design,
just to pick a few familiar titles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To maximize our creative talents and skills, and make the
best use of our tools, we can increase access to the problems as well as the
talents and improve our communications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s no good to have great problem-solving talent and skill if that
talent and skill isn’t directed at the problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Begin a practice of sharing real business problems and
customer problems with your business personnel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sharing business challenges with more than your elite
business experts has several benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It gets your greater team thinking about the big picture, enhancing
their interaction and understanding and expanding their perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It works like the other thought games
mentioned above and encourages problem-solving practice and exercises
skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, it vastly
increases the brainpower and creativity invested in solving your problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, sometimes someone who is not
confined to tradition or paradigm can solve the problem better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An idea for a great product or service
doesn’t have to come from engineers or marketing teams.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is something very powerful we can do in addition to
exercising and enhancing our existing creative capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can acquire more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are two ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can contract it or partner with it,
and we can hire it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t balk at the idea of engaging outside expertise to help
you solve problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today there
are a plethora of consultants and agencies with a myriad of expertise from
solving process problems to inventing new technologies and products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These resources possess highly focused
and practiced skills in specific problem-solving arenas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would be hard pressed to mimic or
replicate those skills within your own organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need a short burst of creative genius to solve a specific
challenge, go engage it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want to increase your internal capabilities, hire
creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you hire new
personnel, I hope that you do more than run through a checklist of experience
and credentials and check for a pulse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do you actively, purposefully seek creative talent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a point, from here on out, to ask
candidates to demonstrate or describe their most creative solutions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As much as we can exercise our creativity, as mentioned above, many of
those among us with the greatest creative talents and skills have developed
those skills since childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is relatively easy to teach someone how to use specific software platforms, or
to mentor them in specific systems or build their experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes much more work to teach
someone to be creatively excellent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are better off hiring highly creative problem solvers
that might be missing a couple of credentials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not needing to train someone in a specific credential is
convenient, but bringing on the ability to solve difficult problems effectively
is very powerful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now consider a bigger picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if you could ensure that your future employees received
training and mentoring, encouragement and skills in creative tools and problem
solving so that you could hire them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t often recognize it, but it is taking place in our children’s
schools all the time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The art, science, and shop programs in our schools <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">engage professional educators for the
specific purpose of teaching our youth how to be creative and encouraging them</i>
to exercise and develop their creative potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We often consider these programs secondary in importance to
the “standard” academics of reading, writing, and mathematics, but I’m not sure
that it is correct to do so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sure reading, writing, math, history, social studies, etc.
are all very important, but it is our alternative courses that show us how to
look at problems differently, how to observe and study, how to use limited
materials at our disposal to invent or problem-solve, and how to think beyond
the obvious or the pre-programmed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In our schools we have professionals whose responsibility and passion is
to show us how.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Without going off on a tangent about public school systems
and the challenges therein, I want us to consider what we have discussed above
concerning the power of creative problem solving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A</span> single Web post is not enough writing space, or attention
span, to discuss the whole spectrum of possibilities and challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead I will encourage you to take
some time this week and think very devotedly about the real power and
potential, and where our development of these skills comes from.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To fuel your thought I offer you the following observation
that should be valid regardless of your national loyalties or regional
location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S. economy and
industry has led the world for generations in significant part because of the
innovative and inventive nature of it, because of the creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of that
creativity-turned-economic-success came from investments made to it during cold
war arms races and space programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some of it was enabled by a root culture that values creativity and
encourages entrepreneurial success.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you decide that investing in the greater future is
something that you would like to do, then I offer a handful of very pragmatic
ways you and your business can make a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your business has the collateral to make a significant
contribution to your local school district, it can be a real game changer for
that district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be afraid to
discuss with the district leaders how the contribution should be allocated and
used.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are interested in encouraging students to consider
your business as an employer, focus on the colleges and high schools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to make the greatest
difference in your community and your youth, infest at the elementary school
level where interests and talents begin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another way to support local creativity programs is to set
up a scholarship through your school district Parent-Teachers’ Association
(PTA).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your business can specify the
nature of the scholarship and partake in the selection of the recipients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can’t provide a scholarship on
your own, you can work with the PTA to pool your contribution with other
businesses’ to provide the scholarship.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If significant tax write-offs are not in the cards for your
business, there are some very affordable options to consider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a wide variety of programs
for schools of all levels that support arts and science, but which require some
sponsorship to be made available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two that I can recite are Young Rembrandts and Science Matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After-school, supplementary programs may be facilitated by
volunteers or trained professionals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Either way, the supplies and materials must be made available from some
budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For some schools the
school budget can carry the program or the PTA can, but for some it is simply
not possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally, these
programs can be funded for a single school for a few hundred dollars.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly, your business could consider sponsoring a chess
club, science club, art club, or other after-school program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Send one of your personnel to the
school once a week, maybe your personnel rotate the responsibility/privilege,
to facilitate the club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many
schools would be very accommodating of these volunteer-led activities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your business makes a program or scholarship available to
youth in your area, it might go unnoticed by many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then again, a student, or a sibling, or a parent might
very well notice and remember that your company demonstrated its belief in the
power of creativity and, since they share the same value, might make an effort
to become part of your company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
know that is a lot of “mights” but it is hard to put tangible benefit numbers
to our investments in society and culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Certainly, we can see that even volunteering personnel’s
time at a school can cost your business some little amount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scholarships and district program
sponsorship can cost significantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even the small investments in tools, methods, and exercises can be
considered a cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t look at
them as costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are
investments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each one, large or
small, is a deposit in your creativity bank account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day, you will be very glad for your investment when creative
solutions by skilled problem solvers begin saving you other expenses, improving
your business effectiveness, or developing your breakthrough product and
service offerings.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How far you want to go in terms of investing in creativity
is up to you, but I strongly urge you to meditate on the ideas I have posited
in this post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The creative
capacity of your business might very well be your greatest and most powerful
resource.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take measures to maximize
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exercise and encourage
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hire it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contract it when you need more than you
have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider where it comes from
and how a small investment on your part might make a big difference to your
community and potential future resources.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-82204251304159893572012-02-06T11:15:00.000-07:002012-02-08T11:14:27.547-07:00Lean in the Office: Digital Workspace<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the office environment, our work does not take place on
our desks, but on our computers and in our digital networks. Break the Lean paradigm of the
manufacturing environment and apply the same principles to your digital
workspace for surprising gains and reductions of wasted time and money.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have one of those Lean manuals or books that tells
you to apply Lean to your office environment by re-organizing your bookshelf
and establishing a set place for your stapler, or especially if it says you
should organize your office work teams into U-shaped work cells, chuck it in
the trash! There are many of these
resources, and they have all missed the real opportunity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Think about it for a moment. How much time do you waste looking for your stapler? I don’t even deal with paper
anymore. I don’t need a stapler,
and on the rare occasions that I do, I can find one quickly enough. How often do you waste time because you
must pass work to another coworker and their desk is far away? Since your work is in a digital format,
do you do anything other than post it in a digital workplace such as a cloud or
shared file folder, or do you e-mail it?
Does it matter if your coworker is in a U-shaped cell with you, or if
that coworker is in another country?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Naturally, since our work is now digital, we can ask the
reasonable question, “Does the Lean methodology even apply to office
work?” Let’s examine the question
and the answer by assessing waste in our offices. Do you spend time waiting for something so you can get work
completed? Does work spend time
waiting for someone to get around to accomplishing it? Do you spend time doing stuff that
doesn’t actually produce meaningful information or furthering progress toward
profit for the business? Of course
we all do; so the waste is present.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is that waste significant enough to apply a methodology
toward eliminating it? Let’s
look. Suppose the burdened rate
for a random office employee is $50 per hour. In the office, it’s probably much more than that for a
salaried professional, but we’ll stick to the number for the sake of a
conservative and simple examination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s say that the average office employee expends 2 hours a
day looking for information, waiting for information, doing things that don’t
actually produce or improve information or constructive work, or otherwise not
producing. Again, it’s probably a
conservative estimate. Let’s add
up one year of that outlook. That
makes 2 hours times $50 per hour or $100/day for 5 days each week for 50
weeks. My calculator says that’s $25,000
per employee per year. Say your
office has 100 employees. That
makes for $2,500,000 a year in wasted man-hours. I don’t know about your business, but that looks like a very
big opportunity for Lean problem solving to me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my experience, in large businesses and corporations,
there is more opportunity to eliminate waste in the office than there is on the
production floor. Yet, most Lean
practitioners get stuck in the manufacturing environment and don’t see or
realize how to apply the same methodology to the digital workspace. Let’s get us all started.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, let’s look at the classic Lean wastes. Then we can look at how they manifest
in the digital world. This should
get us started. Armed with a basic
paradigm shift, we can quickly apply the same tools and methods to eliminating
a whole new world of waste.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The classic Lean wastes are as follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Defects: work
that is not right the first time and either creates problems or requires rework</li>
<li>Inventory: work
that is waiting around for someone to process it</li>
<li>Waiting: people
that are waiting around for work to get to them</li>
<li>Transportation:
work that is being passed from one point of contact to another – usually
leads to waiting and inventory</li>
<li>Motion: people
that are going through effort without improving or furthering the work</li>
<li>Over Processing:
people doing more effort than is necessary to complete the work</li>
<li>Overproduction:
producing more work than is necessary </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look at each one in turn and how it manifests in a
digital workspace. With such a
perspective we can begin to see how Lean tools and methods can be applied to
eliminate the waste.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Defects:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Defects come in many forms in the office, more so than the
manufacturing floor. In the office
a defect is any piece of information that is not correct or is not
understood. That’s right, a misunderstanding
is a defect. Think about it. A misunderstanding requires that one
party re-explain something to another at best. At worst, it creates work that was unnecessary because some
decision or other work must be reversed or undone because of the
misunderstanding.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To this end, stop the practice of using e-mail to
communicate. It is a poor
communication method, prone to communication defects. Use e-mail to deliver information. Use the phone or an in-person conversation to communicate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Use the poke-yoke principle on digital work. For digital forms, use pull-down or
“button” options to fill out or complete the form. Make it as difficult as possible to create a
misunderstanding or to require interpretation and, therefore, back-and-forth
questions, or to fill out the form incorrectly. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eliminate duplicates of information. We’ll talk about this again when we
discuss Overproduction and Over Processing. As soon as there are two versions of some piece of
information one will get further processing and another will not. Therefore, one will become
defective. Think about how often
you have worked from the wrong version of some information and how much
additional work was needed to fix the problems that created.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly, information that arrives too soon or too late is
also defective. If it is too soon,
it becomes inventory and may be out of context by the time it is
processed. If it is too late,
well, we all know that well enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inventory:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A common place where we find work waiting to be processed is
our e-mail inbox, and our veritable to-do list. Any place where we post or send information to be reviewed,
improved, added to, completed, or otherwise processed is a stockpile of work
waiting to be done. Apply the
pull-system, load leveling, and visual workspace tools to this problem to
change behaviors and reduce the wait time for work in inventory.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Waiting:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all wait for information so we can complete our
work. U-shaped work cells don’t
reduce this effect. My two biggest
pieces of advice to eliminate this waste are as follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Minimize the use of e-mail as a communication medium. It is a poor medium for discussions to
begin with. Also, e-mail is prone
to the inventory problem. You will
wait because your work is waiting in an inbox. Use the phone or go talk to a person directly to let them
know you need something or to discuss what you need. Many times you can get the information right away, during
the contact.</li>
<li>Stop the practice of multitasking. I’ve written before about how multitasking is a vicious
circle of waste. We multi-task
because we are waiting and, knowing that people will wait, we assign multiple
tasks or projects to people. The
problem is that while we are working on one task, other work is waiting for our
attention. Stop the cycle the best
you can.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Otherwise, use your value-stream maps and look for inventory
and other waiting opportunities in the way work is processed and try to
eliminate them. I say them, both
inventory and waiting, because one usually leads to the other and they
exacerbate each other. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Transportation:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This manifests in the form of a hand-off. Understand that the work itself may not
actually move in a digital environment.
It may be posted in exactly the same place in the digital system, but
the person that must work on it might be different. Every time this happens, the work becomes Inventory; it is
waiting for someone to process it.
Look for these hand-offs and decide if they are really necessary. Eliminate them as much as possible. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Posting to a single location is much better than e-mailing
work around. It is much safer and
reduces the opportunities for some of the other wastes we are discussing. Reviews, approvals, and signatures are
the most common causes for hand-offs.
Do these things in person if possible. Eliminate them as much as possible. If your office is still requiring a
physical signature on a piece of paper, get over it and invent or adopt a
different way that requires less movement and waiting for work.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Motion:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Motion is more than people leaving their desks and going to
a meeting. That is the least of
the sources in most offices. The
meeting itself can be waste in the category of Motion because people are
sitting around meeting and are not getting any work done. Eliminate meetings for the sake of
communication as much as possible.
If the meeting it the fastest way to transfer information correctly then
so be it, just make it as efficient as possible. Meetings are a batch process and, therefore, not Lean. Meetings during which decisions are
made, work is processed, or morale is enhanced are not waste.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking for information is wasted Motion. The faster we can access information to
do our work, the better. The
faster we can find our work so we can process it, the better. Organize your digital information to
eliminate searching as much as possible.
There is no one right way to do this. However, I have a personal preference toward incorporating
“mind-mapping” software solutions to aid in this arena. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are a number of mind-mapping solutions out there, some
are free, and others cost more than a grand for a multi-user license. These mind-map solutions allow a visual
map of information to act as a pathway to other maps or to information
locations. In short, they are a
digital aid to applying the visual workspace concept to our digital information
storage. Lean’s 5S tools are also
very useful for organizing our digital information.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over Processing:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you must touch the same piece of information more than
once, there might be an Over Processing problem. If work is repetitive, can it be reduced, eliminated, or
automated? An example is the
processing of order entry forms or engineering change requests. Look for ways to eliminate the time it
takes to fill out, review, approve, or otherwise process forms.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another place where Over Processing strikes are repeat
reports. If a worker must provide
the same information to multiple recipients in multiple formats, such can be
considered Over Processing. We can
argue that it is Overproduction just as well, but since much of the work of
producing reports may not actually work toward producing revenue or profit for
the business, it might not fit into the “production” category. Regardless of semantics, multiple
reports of the same information are waste.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make an effort to create a single weekly or monthly
dashboard (visual workspace) that everyone must learn to use. Let only the owners of the original
information post that information to the dashboard. Make is as quick and easy as possible to both update the
dashboard and to review and understand it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A caution concerning automation as a solution: if the result of the process is
unnecessary information, redundant information, defective information, or work
delivered faster than downstream processes need it or can use it, then the
automation is just generating more waste faster. Be judicious in the use of automation as a solution to Over
Processing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overproduction:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are several examples of making more work or more
output than necessary in a typical office environment. One of the biggest examples is multiple
copies of anything. Because it is
perceived as “free” or effortless to create multiple digital copies, we think
that it is no big deal, that it even makes things easier. Unfortunately, multiple copies
typically leads to people needing to Over Process in order to clean up those
multiple copies, or defects as one copy is modified and others are not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another example is too many projects. How often do you work on a project, a
proposal, a design, or a report, only to discover than your many man-hours
invested will not be acted upon or even reviewed? That is all waste.
Stop the practice of making reports no one reads, or asking for
proposals or information people don’t really want. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In some cases, particularly marketing plans or innovation
and R&D, we deliberately create multiple concepts so we can select the best
one for final development. If the
other options are forgotten or lost, they become waste. If they are stored away and never again
brought out, they are likewise wasted.
However, if they are somehow re-cycled or re-used in other efforts, or
their information and findings are made available for other solutions, they are
not waste.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Applying the Lean method:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The descriptions above are just a starting place for us to
perceive how the classic definitions of waste, according to Lean, apply to our
digital workspaces. By
understanding how the classic wastes manifest, we can then use the same lean
tools, such as pull systems, Poke-Yoke, Kaizen, 5S, automation, value-stream
maps, and visual workspace to attack waste in much the same way we do in the
manufacturing environment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The best part about applying the Lean principles in the
office is that you can do it for yourself as an individual, or for your entire
work team, or for the entire business.
Obviously, the greater the field of focus, the greater the opportunity
to impact business performance.
Start by applying it to your own inboxes and behaviors and your own
outputs. Once you get the hang of
it, expand from there to ever increasing scopes. You could very well become the office hero.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you would like more insights concerning how these tools
and principles apply to the office environment, please peruse some of my other,
related posts. I have written
several along this theme. Use my
Web page’s search field for posts beginning with the phrase “Lean in the
Office.” I will continue to write
more on this subject, so come back and search every once in a while.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-16147883548403663922012-01-06T12:10:00.000-07:002012-01-06T12:13:18.386-07:00Making People Care About Quality and Safety<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biggest challenge to any Quality or Safety program is
convincing people to take it seriously.
We cannot control peoples’ thoughts. To get people to care, we must demonstrate that we care,
that we expect them to care, and we must make it one of the cultural values of
the organization.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We cannot make people do anything. Least of all can we make people think or believe what we
want them to think or believe. We
can only influence and compel.
Therefore, it is through our actions that we will exercise the greatest
influence over our peers, our leaders, and our personnel. Even policy will break down if the
actions of the people, particularly the leaders, are contrary to, or diminish
the importance of, the policy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Understanding this, it is not enough to merely make quality
and safety part of your organization’s policy. Nor is it enough to simply say that quality or safety are
values of your organization. To
make people care about such things, we must make them important. We do so by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">demonstrating</i> that they are important, not by saying so. So much for the obvious, let’s talk
about some methods.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A cultural value is a principle or ideal that should not be
compromised. It is an ideal that
dictates beliefs and motivates actions and decisions. In political or religious terms, values are the ideals that
civilizations go to war over.
Consider this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want people to care about quality or safety, then
make them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">uncompromised</i> values of
your organizational culture. They
must be ideals to go to war over.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how do we go about demonstrating that and influencing
others to adopt the same ideal and beliefs? There are a number of things we can all do, from the
executive to the individual contributor.
Here are some examples and ideas.
Consider them and begin to add to it with your own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do not let a leader from another function veto or override
the decision of the Quality or Safety representative or group or policy. The minute a leader overrides a quality
or safety determination the quality or safety value just got downgraded to
secondary consideration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are subordinate to a leader who would make a decision
or take an action that is contrary to the quality or safety direction, make a
polite but firm point that doing so will have an adverse long-term impact. “Sir, if we do this then everything we
say and claim about quality will be perceived by our personnel and our
customers as a lie. We will never
get our credibility back.” My
example language is strong, but it is also truthful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When asked for your opinion or suggestion, take the “high
road” even when you know that it will not be popular or that it will make
things more difficult. It is a way
for any of us, regardless of station or responsibility to maintain and
demonstrate that quality and safety are values to be upheld, not poker chips to
be gambled or traded. If you think
that your voice is not influential, consider first that your were asked so it
must be of value, and second that no one will disrespect someone for standing
up for their values, but anyone will lose respect for crumpling under
pressure. Lastly, executives can
be, and have been, nudged into doing the right thing when an individual
contributor points out how obvious and plain the right thing is. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you witness something that is contrary to the quality or
safety agenda, simply ask, “why?”
“Why did you initial that drawing without reviewing it first? If you don’t have time, then why did
you agree to review it? Why would
you sign your name saying that the quality is good if you really don’t
know? Don’t you value your
reputation?” In short, it asks a
person why they don’t value what you value or what we all expect them to value
without telling them what they should do or believe. It works on leaders too. “Why would you ask me to do that? It doesn’t seem like the right thing to do to me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are reading this post, then we can fairly assume that
you already care about safety and quality and want to know how to influence
others. Keep doing what you are
doing and demonstrating that you care.
Proactively check yourself to make sure that other people’s poor habits
surrounding quality or safety haven’t also rubbed off on you. If you find something to correct,
correct it and vocalize that you are correcting it. “You know, I realized that I have been… …which isn’t right so I’m not
going to do that anymore. Would
you help me to make sure that I don’t?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you get into an argument over quality or safety and run
out of compelling rationale or it becomes clear that you are not going to win,
don’t accept the other’s opinion (unless of course they are right). Terminate the discussion with, “It’s
clear that we are not going to agree.
I’ve said what I believe.”
Stick to your values, but it’s not constructive to continue the
argument. You might not win this
round, but you will leave your mark on everyone present and they will remember.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you witness an example of someone doing the right thing
for quality or safety thank him or her on the spot. “It makes me feel good to see that quality is important and
that you uphold it.” It doesn’t
matter who you are, the comment will get a person’s attention and re-enforce
the right behavior. Actually, for
many it will mean more coming from a peer or even a stranger than it will from
a senior leader. For others that
senior leader attention will mean a great deal. Bottom line, whoever you are, look for opportunities to
compliment the good behaviors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you learn about an action or decision that works against
the quality or safety agenda after it has been made, talk privately with the
individual who did it. Suppose it
is your direct manager. “I’m
surprised by your decision. I
expected… I’m afraid that the
message everyone is getting is…”
Let that decision maker respond, but don’t feel compelled to be drawn
into an argument. Sometimes it is
most impactful to simply listen to the response and then go. If you don’t agree with the rationale,
then don’t say, “OK,” or “I understand.”
Just go. Asking the
question and voicing the difference between the action and your expectations
sends your message. If you
verbalize an acceptance of the reason, it becomes validated, which is not the
value. Stick to the value, but
don’t argue with your leader.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When faced with a difficult decision, default to the right
thing for quality or safety. Let’s
take the extreme example of supposing that the safe thing to do will somehow
put the business at risk or put the business out. People will understand if you choose to forego safety to
save the business (as long as you are lucky and no one is hurt), but they will
respect you for doing the safe thing even though the business fails. Don’t let the “either way I lose the
business, unless I’m lucky” logic rule your decision. What is better?
Losing the business for doing what was right, or losing the business
because you did what was wrong and someone got hurt? That should be the logic and the answer is obvious. Obviously, we can reduce the threat
level for most of our every-day difficult decisions, but if it works for this
threat level, it should work of every other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Be proactive with safety or quality concerns. When in the planning stages of an
action or project, verbalize the safety or quality agenda. Ask, “What are we going to do to ensure
the quality of the output? How are
we going to protect our personnel with this new practice?” Again, you don’t necessarily need to be
in charge of anything to bring up the concern and have your voice influence
everyone else to also think about the safety or quality agenda. Obviously leaders can be considerably influential
in this action. If you make it a
habit of bringing it up during every plan, that habit will transfer. People will begin to think proactively
about how to address your questions and, therefore, will be thinking about
safety and quality proactively.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Depending upon your sphere of influence, it can be either
quick or slow to begin making a difference in the way people think. It will be particularly slow if
surrounding leaders are behaving contrary to you since when push comes to shove
people will be inclined to appease leaders over peers. However, if you address the agenda
privately and politely with your leaders, you can influence them. Also, if you stick to what you and
everyone else knows is right, then you will garner respect and your sphere of
influence will increase.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are some cautions about what not to do. It is not good practice to argue with
leaders. Likewise, publicly
embarrassing or denouncing our leaders can be both bad for our careers as well
as our sphere of influence.
Speaking poorly about our leaders behind their backs (or anyone for that
matter) hurts our sphere of influence more than it helps and it too can be very
bad for our careers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may have noticed that there is a formula to the
suggestions presented above. They
basically focus on the following principles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Instead of telling someone what he or she should believe or
value, tell him or her what you believe and value</li>
<li>Instead of telling someone that what he or she did is wrong,
ask him or her why they didn’t do what you both know is right. Our own words ring in our ears longer
than another’s chastisement.</li>
<li>It isn’t necessary to force a confession or explanation to
make a point</li>
<li>We must be living examples of the value in order to transfer
that value to others </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last point is the true success and also the reason for
failure when it comes to upholding the values of quality or safety. When we allow others to compromise
those values, or when we fail to uphold those values then they lose
importance. It is true that
actions speak louder than words when it comes to communicating our beliefs,
principles, and values.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Above are a few suggestions for how to leverage your
personal influence on peers, leaders, or subordinates at your workplace. I hope that I provided enough to present
a theme and some suggestions for common scenarios. If you need more advice or want a mentor in the art of
influencing others, seek out skilled professionals with extensive experience and
practice, your local church, synagogue, or temple leaders. Religious leaders make it their life’s
work to influence others over whom they have no control. Whether you are a spiritual person or
not, or whether you disagree beliefs with a clergy person, they can still
advise well on the art of influence and the price is no more than you feel like
sharing with the collection box.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Declare war on behalf of the principles and values of
quality and safety. Go to battle
with the elements that undermine the values, but do not declare war on, or do
battle with the people. People are
those whom we are trying to save and win over, not our enemy. Our enemies are the mistaken or
misguided actions and decisions that people make.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Follow the suggestions or guidelines that I have
presented. Expand upon them with
your own. Talk it over with
like-minded peers or seek mentoring from other influential leaders. Whether you are an individual
contributor in your organization, a middle manager, or an executive, you might
be surprised to learn just how influential you can be with your actions,
decisions, and polite conversations regarding quality and/or safety. Exercise your influence and make a
difference.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-72176340544675660802011-12-12T13:42:00.000-07:002012-01-06T12:13:38.328-07:00Leadership is a Gift<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simply realizing and accepting that our leadership role is
given to us by those we lead can change the way we behave, the way we lead, and
make us better leaders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Go to a public library, school library, or your own at home
and pick up any book on the subject of any revolution. In that book will be a lesson on
leadership. The lesson is simple. People follow leaders only as long as
they are willing to follow those leaders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Granted, different leaders throughout history have come
across their leadership roles in many diversified ways. They have also maintained their
leadership with a broad spectrum of strategies ranging from divine wisdom to
tyrannical fear. Even in the extreme
cases, though, people follow only so long as they are willing to accept the
leader’s direction.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Therefore, whether we are leaders because we have been
assigned a leadership role, because we have been voted into position, or
because people simply come to us for guidance, we are leaders because those who
follow us have accepted that we are their leaders. Take that thought a step further, and we can say that our
leadership position, assigned or otherwise, fundamentally, is a gift from those
who follow us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That gift may be earned or unearned. That gift can be rescinded. All our followers need to do to take it
away is stop following.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a moment to consider the assertion that I am making.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What thoughts or questions come to mind when considering
that your leader status is a gift?
What have you done to earn that continued status? What are you going to do today to
deserve that status? What are you
going to do tomorrow?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By-the-way, this all applies to those of us who do not hold
a leadership title, but are leaders none-the-less because others seek our
guidance. Consider that others
seek your guidance because of what you do for them, or what you represent. Now consider how much more influential
you might be if you answered the questions in the previous paragraph.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gift of leadership can be exploited. Certainly many political and world
leaders, current and throughout history, have exploited the gift for their own
interests. Some business leaders
do so too and sometimes end up in jail for it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if we don’t exploit it, many business leaders fail to
live up to the leadership gift.
The lowest state of leadership is when people follow because they have
to. When people follow only
because it is slightly less trouble than refusing to follow, it isn’t really
leadership; it’s just getting by on complacence at best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many monarchies from the European Middle Ages have given us
the lesson that assuming that peoples’ purpose is to serve the leader is a poor
assumption. These leaders are
often the poorest examples. Many
of them are the leaders that also show up in those various history books about
a revolution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alternatively, those leaders whom we hold in the highest
regard operate, or operated, under the assumption that the leader’s purpose is
to serve his or her followers.
When we accept that leadership is a gift from our followers, and we
strive to be worthy of that gift, we naturally find ourselves operating in a
“servant-leadership” capacity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One who would exploit a leadership position will be concerned
with how to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appear</i> worthy, or at
least less unworthy than a competitor.
While appearances and resulting perceptions can certainly influence
reality, true leaders are foremost concerned with doing right by followers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know how it might be for others, but when I sit down
with the “leadership is a gift” idea in mind and ask myself what I could or
should do with that gift, I experience an explosion of ideas. It causes me to imagine ways in which
work, or life, or performance might be better for those who are counting on me
to make it so. I realize questions
about how things are or are not working, which I can seek to answer or get
answered, which then leads to more ideas for how to make things better. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It changes my focus from what I need from others to what
others need from me. I won’t claim
to be a superior leader, but I do know that people have told me directly that
they recognize and appreciate the shift in focus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The acceptance or realization that leadership is a
privileged responsibility given to us by those who would follow can inspire
insight into what we can do to really make a difference for those whom we
lead. At least it does for me, and
so I decided to share it here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-28484394433528332642011-12-05T14:16:00.000-07:002011-12-05T14:23:44.293-07:00Lean in the Office: Single-Piece Flow and FIFO<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though the literal applications of single-piece flow and
First-In-First-Out (FIFO) have limited opportunity in a project-oriented,
office environment, the phenomena of clogged process systems and waiting work
created by doing too much all at once are common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make your office and transactional processes more efficient
and effective by applying the principles, if not the literal practice, of
single-piece flow and FIFO.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Excepting repetitive, consistently similar processes like
order entry or engineering change requests, it is difficult to find places in
the office environment where Lean methods such as single-piece flow and
First-In-First-Out apply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even our
e-mail inbox is not a good place to practice FIFO because of varying priority
and urgency.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the Lean principles that drive single-piece flow
and FIFO can save us from surprising quantities of man-hours wasted and time
lost in a project-oriented, office environment where the tasks are not
repetitive, but always different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By examining the principles of single-piece flow and FIFO we can make
our offices more efficient and our projects execute more quickly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, let’s examine a common office or transactional
process where the single-piece flow and FIFO concepts can be applied directly
and effectively, but often aren’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It will allow us to examine how to apply the Lean principles in the
office directly, and also to examine the principles so we can make a
translation to other processes and examples.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the sake of discussion, let’s examine the processing of
engineering change requests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
your office doesn’t do engineering, this example might apply to any variety of
requests, including Information Technology (IT) service requests, or financial
authorizations, etc..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we are all on the same page, let’s consider the
engineering change request (ECR) process to work generically as follows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When an engineer makes a change to
design documentation, that change must be communicated to all of the processes
and data systems that have something to do with turning the design into an
actual product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Production and
material or supply ordering systems must be notified of the change and must
change accordingly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Typically the process begins with the engineer filling out a
form that explains the change and why it is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The form is submitted to the process
and enters the queue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
form is picked up, after waiting its turn, it usually goes through a process of
review and approval.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Someone checks to make sure that the form and information
are correctly completed and the process is enabled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone will review the request and make sure that it makes
sense and is appropriate – that it’s not going to create a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, the notification of the change
will go to everyone responsible for an affected system so the change can take
effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The data in the system us
updated to show the change and the revision code for the documentation is ratcheted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sounds simple right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you have an engineering function, how long does it take to actually
execute the process described; days, weeks, months?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your answer was multiple days, weeks, or even months, you
are not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s common.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now answer this, if you “walk” an ECR through the process,
stopping at each desk and approval with that form in your hand, can you get it
done in a single day, or less?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most of us would probably answer in the affirmative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are your alarm bells going off yet?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we “walk” our form through the process and get it done
in a single day, it shows us the process time or “lead-time” to which we are
entitled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, all of the
other days, weeks, or months that it takes a request to work its way through
the system are waste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go ahead,
you’re allowed to groan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How does something that should only take a few hours end up
taking weeks?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some common
occurrences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people processing
the forms may or may not take them in order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, many ECR processes allow for some variety of
urgency or priority preference to be placed on different requests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those with lower priority wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people reviewing the requests have
other duties too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other duties of approvers may seem, at any given time,
to be more important or urgent than reviewing requests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, they are probably more
interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, the requests
don’t get reviewed until something changes that perception of urgency or
importance or interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually
that requires that someone else makes it painful for the reviewer to
procrastinate any longer, which happens when the request has sat around long
enough to get a certain level of attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, when attention finally is directed to the requests,
they may or may not be handled in order.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Additionally, many ECR processes use approvals where
notifications would be more appropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For example, many request processes have a standard list of people that
need to review the request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe
the Marketing Manager is on that list because an engineering change could
necessitate changes or impacts to marketing materials, product catalogs, or
otherwise affect customers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, if an engineer simply replaces one screw with
another that costs less, that Marketing Manager could care less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, the request will go to that
manager for approval and sit there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every approval, appropriate or not, is an opportunity for that ECR to
sit in “inventory” and for the people or other resources associated to
“wait.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many standard
approvals does your request process require?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could write a whole book just on the subject of the
sources of waste for ECRs and how to streamline ECR processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For now, suffice to say that the
requests in the system create or experience a great deal of “waiting” or
“inventory”-time to use Lean lingo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK, so let’s look at the Lean solution to the inventory and
waiting problem called single-piece flow and FIFO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philosophically, single-piece flow and FIFO battle against
processing in batches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything
piling up in a queue or pile or batch is sitting and not getting done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, it’s experiencing
wasted time and opportunity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An ideal application of single-piece flow and FIFO for the
ECR process would look like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A form would be submitted to the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The form would be error-proofed or “poke-yoke” to a degree
to minimize the need to review the form and information, or eliminate the
opportunity for an error to be introduced, thus eliminating the necessity to
review the form for errors before processing the request.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Allowing that a review of the change is necessary and
unavoidable, the resources necessary to make the judgment would immediately
review and either approve or reject the request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Approved requests would enter the data system with the
changes and new revision code, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i>
the appropriate, parties would be notified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would take place just as fast as “walking” an ECR does,
if not faster.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The resources for review and approval and otherwise
processing the changes would be dedicated to the process in sufficient quantity
to more-or-less handle a steady flow of requests without letting a queue build
up that couldn’t be drained back down in a few hours or at most, a day or two.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, we all understand that for most of us, it’s simply not
appropriate to dedicate an engineering manager or two to the ECR process for
the sole purpose of reviewing and approving requests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t expect to pay someone with the right knowledge
or experience to sit and do that job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even if we did, in that role they wouldn’t stay knowledgeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their involvement in the whole business
and function of engineering is what makes them knowledgeable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, pragmatically, we must accept that our requests are
going to wait until that authority has an opportunity to break away from other
things to review and approve requests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can set guidelines or rules such as, requests have 4 business hours
to be reviewed before the alarm goes off, for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Every office culture would need to
develop its own appropriate rules and consequences)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, requests should be processed in the order they are
received (FIFO).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliminate the
system of urgency or importance preferences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It causes more harm than it solves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
See if this sounds like it happens in your office, in some
similar way or shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two ECRs are
submitted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is for a change to
a design already in production, one is for a design that failed testing and
needs the change to go back into testing, so it can pass and launch as a new
product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Marketing VP notifies
the ECR process team that he needs the in-development ECR to process with
greater priority because the failed test is pushing back the launch date and
the business depends upon it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the ECR team pushes the in-development ECR through first
and engineers begin making phone calls and visiting various approvers to
expedite the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly,
dozens of people are not getting real work done because they are trying to get
the ECR done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meanwhile, the in-production ECR is sitting and getting no
attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the
reason for the request is that the production floor is out of the material
typically used, and won’t get a re-supply in time to prevent the production
line from stopping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A source of
equivalent material is on hand, but the design documentation is too specific to
allow the substitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
engineer has evaluated the situation and determined that the substitution is a
good option and therefore, filled out the request to change the documentation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While the in-production request is waiting, the engineer and
production team talk with the test lab and inform them that they need to
produce a sample with the alternative material and run a verification test so
the quality documentation for product certification can demonstrate that the substituted
material has been tested and approved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They communicate the urgency and the test lab agrees to set up for the
test.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Subsequently, the in-development ECR is processed first, and
hits the test lab and wants to re-enter testing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The test lab has re-configured to run the other test
though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the test lab manager
goes to a number of different leaders and tries to get two different VPs to
settle the debate over whether the in-development project, or the production
floor change is the bigger priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This takes another day at least.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the mean time, the in-production ECR is finally processed
and the samples are produced for testing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They get to the test lab, get set up, and start running just in time for
the command decision to test the in-development project first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they stop testing and re-configure
the lab, which takes another day and begin testing the new-product-to-be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that’s done, they reconfigure the
lab, another day, and finally test the substitute material.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, the extra days going back and forth in the
lab and with the leadership has caused the launch to miss its big day and cost
the business a great deal of money moving press releases and accommodating
distributors, retailers, and customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Likewise, the substitute material was not verified in time to prevent
the production line from shutting down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the first ECR had just been processed with single-piece
flow urgency (immediately) and the second ECR processed right behind it, no one
would have waited for more than perhaps an hour, at worst a single day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Days would not have been wasted
debating priority, and days would not have been wasted jerking the test lab
around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both efforts might have
made their deadlines.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When everyone can count on the process taking one or two
days, instead of anywhere from 2 days to 2 months, people don’t go out of their
way to work around the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Working around the system for one piece, creates excess waste for every
other piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make the process
efficient and consistent and it will stay that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t allow anyone, including the VPs to work around it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The single-piece flow and FIFO methods eliminate or minimize
pieces of work stacking up and waiting in queues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything is handled with the same priority, and that
priority is “immediately.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes,
the ECR we are handling at the moment might not be urgent while the one behind
it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, get it done
immediately so that you can get the urgent one done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t make any ECR wait and no ECR ever will.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is a very simple concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Changing people’s discipline and habits and expectations to
implement it is not so simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
will need to pull out some solid change leadership methods to make it happen,
but it definitely works.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So would we apply the same practice to our e-mail?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can, but it isn’t always that
simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A request to put together
a presentation to be delivered in three weeks might come in moments before an
invite to an urgent meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
spent 6-hours working on the presentation and then read the e-mail about the
meeting, we would miss the meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That doesn’t make sense if the presentation isn’t due for three weeks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We might not fulfill all of the tasks delivered in our
e-mail in-box exactly in order, but we can read our e-mails in order of
delivery and prioritize tasks or respond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That way we don’t start at an interesting topic and process from there,
fail to finish reading our e-mail before going home, and end up missing an
important piece of information when it was relevant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s get even more difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about projects?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every project is different, they don’t take the same resources, or the
same amount of time, and we have resources to work on more than one project at
a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it make sense to do
only one project at a time?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look at that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The purpose of single-piece flow and FIFO is to eliminate waiting and
pieces of work sitting around without getting done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, the correct answer to the question of doing only
one project at a time must be the one that creates the least opportunity for
work to be sitting (inventory) or for resources to be “waiting.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The short answer is that an organization should do more than
one project, but a project team should not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is also where
I call the remedy a disease and the cure a cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me explain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your business might have enough resources to do more than
one project and probably does so deliberately so that it has that
privilege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is not in an organization
doing more than one project at the same time, the problem is doing too many.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recall the ECR process discussion above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We said the ideal state is dedicated
resources to the process, but that dedicating approvers is simply not
pragmatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We accept that the request
will have to wait for an approver with other duties to make time to review and
approve the request.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That reality
identifies the key to eliminating waste in the forms of inventory and
waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other duties are the
cause of waiting and inventory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
otherwise call the phenomenon of multiple duties “multi-tasking.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we work on a project, we naturally experience periods
where we are waiting on someone or something to do something in order to
continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We as human beings hate
to wait, so we find something else to do while we wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pick up another task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managers know this takes place and
deliberately assign multiple efforts to personnel so that while personnel are
waiting on one effort they can work on another and further the business
objectives in a planned way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Therefore, multitasking is a symptom of the waste of
waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We treat it like a remedy
and plan things such that resources are allocated to multiple projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, what happens when we pick up a
task and then our previous task returns to our workspace for our further work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do we drop the second right away and
pick up the first, or do we keep working on the second and let the first sit?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer depends on a lot of things including urgency, how
interesting one task is, how well we are paying attention, and how many of
these multi-task commitments we have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are
your assignments really limited to just two?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many work assignments are you juggling right now?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many of them are sitting while you
are working on one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many
people are waiting for you to do your piece so they can do theirs?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your answer to the last question is, “none because they
all have other things to work on too” then this last assertion is for you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Multitasking is not a cure for the
wastes of waiting personnel and sitting work, it is the cause!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take the following mental exercise very seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick one of the projects you are
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How long will it take for that
project to get done?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, imagine
that every member of that project team, including you, has no other
assignments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you didn’t work on
anything but that project for 8 hours a day, 5-days a week, how fast could your
team get the project done?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such a scenario may not sound very attractive to most
professionals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that we’ll
spend some time waiting and that our different assignments are probably part of
the appeal of our jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we
also know that things would certainly happen a great deal faster.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A pragmatic adaptation of the single-piece flow and FIFO
concept of the Lean methodology to a list of projects is as follows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assign one project to a single
team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let that project be that
team’s sole priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let team
members who are waiting invest their free time in improving the processes to
minimize that waiting phenomenon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let them help team members with their tasks to speed up work and
eliminate waste.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Allow managers to assign tertiary tasks to members of that
project team which they are allowed to do while they wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These can be research and development
assignments, non-urgent problem-solving challenges, or learning new
skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key is, they must be
assignments that can be picked-up or dropped at a moment’s notice when the work
for the priority project re-appears.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have worked with more than one organization to improve the
rate at which engineering design and product development took place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made a large number of process
improvements that each made its own contribution to the improvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I keenly observed, though, that the
closer we moved to the model I described of a single priority project
assignment and only tertiary tasks for multi-task work the faster everything
moved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have a human behavior of inserting one more thing in our
agendas until we feel the pain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you don’t see it, go to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite
appetizer, entre, and desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell
me that you put your fork down before you get that uncomfortable feeling in
your belly and that you didn’t exceed your necessary calorie intake for your
dinner meal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, we do it at
work too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We keep giving our teams
just one more bite of work until they complain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, the complaint of too much work occurs well
after we have multi-tasked our personnel into a zone where our projects and
tasks are spending more time sitting than getting processed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just spend one week with a piece of
scratch paper and take notes every time something that you could be working on
isn’t getting done because you are working on something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compare that with how much you actually
got done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take those numbers and multiply it by the number of people
in your office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Granted, it’s just
a ballpark number, but that should give an order-of-magnitude estimate of just
how much is sitting in your office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I dare you to try it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
will be astonished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dare you too
to estimate a dollar value.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Assigning only a single project to a project team and
allowing some tertiary work to occur as it may, might not be exactly the
application of single-piece flow or FIFO to which we are accustomed in the
production environment, but it fulfills the principle of eliminating the
opportunities for work to sit waiting to be worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an ideal case the project would never experience any
sitting time and the people working it would also refine their methods to a
degree where they don’t experience any waiting either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We may never find that ideal state in most of our business
environments, but I have experienced without a doubt that the closer to it we
get, the faster our projects get done and the faster their savings or revenues
or profits hit our bottom line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
can be a huge business saver.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a good look at your office habits and behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look for opportunities to banish
multi-tasking and to apply single-piece flow and FIFO either directly to your
request processes or similar opportunities, or in principle to your project
portfolios and teams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when
Lean can’t be applied directly, the principles hold true and can be applied in
the office and transactional environment for significant benefits.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-79034161700738979232011-11-19T15:35:00.001-07:002011-11-19T15:44:19.650-07:00Leadership Success is a Vision with a Plan<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the great responsibilities of any leader, at any
level is to set a vision and then guide his or her organization toward the
fulfillment of that vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good
leader not only has a compelling vision, but a plan for achieving it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of my favorite pieces of leadership advice is a Japanese
proverb that translates as follows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Vision without action is a daydream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Action without vision is a nightmare.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe it is a leader’s job to provide a vision and also
to drive a plan that achieves that vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A leader helps us to grow and prosper and also gives us the
guidance we need to achieve success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is relevant at a professional or scholastic level, and also on a
personal level.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As leaders we often have visions of a better future for our
organizations and our personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It can be very difficult to achieve those visions, however, in spite of
our determination or level of effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bringing those visions to fruition may be the most difficult challenge
in leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A carefully
constructed plan can be the key to pulling off the impossible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I learned a great deal about setting a vision and making a
plan to achieve it, in particular, from one former boss, now a good
friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if he even
realizes how much he taught me because the lessons weren’t passed on in
mentoring sessions where he sat down and taught me step-by-step.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, I learned how to put plans
together by learning to anticipate his questions and challenges to cover all of
the bases in order to garner his approval and endorsement of my proposals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My friend’s name is James and I could write a book or two
filled with what I learned under his supervision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me share some of the basic points about developing a
plan to achieve a vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
you will find them helpful as I have.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most
important aspect to achieving a vision is being able to communicate that
vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are hundreds of ways
to do so, but I find that two thoughts are especially helpful when trying to
plan that communication.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, try to communicate a from-to formatted message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether we communicate in words,
pictures, actions, models, or theatrics, or any combination of them, it helps
our audience find the same context if we first explain how we see the current
situation, then proceed to discuss a better future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, if we just jump right to the future, our audience
will not understand how it is different or better than what they perceive already,
or why it’s important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, try to formulate the vision in terms of a solution
to a carefully constructed problem statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good problem statement explains <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> is the problem, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">when</i>
it occurs, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> we know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is free of opinions and does not
include a solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You will notice that if you begin with a problem statement,
and then provide a proposal for a solution, you have just presented the from-to
format I proposed a paragraph before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The problem statement provides a way, a format, a guide for capturing
the message.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because the problem statement format is free of opinions, it
bounds the situation in terms of what, when, and how we know, and it describes
a problem, it makes a very credible statement that sets up the current state as
something clearly in need of improvement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It sets the tone and prepares the audience for a solution, or better-way
description of the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find
it to be a very helpful approach.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once you have the from-to, problem statement and solution
message clearly identified for yourself, you can proceed to making that message
clear and presentable, understandable for your audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might sound like a-lot of structure
around a simple message, but understand it only takes a minute or two, and if
your audience doesn’t get it, then no effort will be enough to make your vision
come true.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once our
vision is clear and communicate-able, we should consider what it would take to
make that vision come true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider what is different between the future state and the current
state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that because this
seems so obvious a thing to do, we don’t typically think of it as something
worthy of an exercise, but I strongly believe that it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make a list of everything that is different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Structure that list in terms of what
today is like and what your vision would be like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t just consider technology or end results in your list,
though those should certainly be part of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider also the following elements, especially the human
elements.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Will a different organization (communication structure) be
necessary?</li>
<li>Will new technology or systems be required?</li>
<li>Will new skills be required?</li>
<li>What are the new behaviors?</li>
<li>What processes or policies must change?</li>
<li>What information will be required?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
You might think of others, but please notice how many of the
elements I listed concern how people behave and interact, or the rules and
guidelines that direct people’s actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Achieving a vision is about driving change, which is about creating new
behaviors and habits along with new skills and methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the most important elements
of any change, and they are often the most overlooked.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we have a list of everything that is different, or at least the critical differences, we
should start thinking about how we will go about getting from today’s state to
our vision’s state for each element on the list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of it will come with acquisition of new tools,
technology, or methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of it
will come from changing perceptions, priorities, behaviors, and beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The former are easy, the latter are
difficult and are the real leadership challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the former will require some of the latter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we put together our individual plans for each element,
answer each of the following questions. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Who will do it?</li>
<li>How will he/she/they do it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Training, mentoring, development of new systems, etc.)</li>
<li>When must it occur?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is there a priority, or must one element come before another?</li>
<li>Why is this element important?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last question is very helpful to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only does it help to verify my
plans for driving change, but it gives me a short statement to use to
communicate to everyone involved why we are focused on that element and why we
must start changing our ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Why,” will be the most often asked question once the change process starts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having the answers in your hip pocket
is very useful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we have completed the above, we have a list of
actionable tasks or projects that we must achieve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congratulations!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With such a list of actions, we are well ahead of most leaders trying to
drive a vision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we have
our list of actions, particularly for visions of large-scale importance or
change, it often helps to break each element and its actions into phases to
become bite sized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider identifying
up to 3 or 4 milestone steps for each element or project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, suppose the vision is to get engineers and
production teams truly collaborating on product development projects, so that
new designs integrate into production quicker and with fewer post-launch design
changes or defects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say the
element or action to achieve is for production line leads to be integrated into
the design team and contributing to the design discussions and decisions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps the first step is simply to see that the production
leads are invited to the team meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The second step might be to observe that design decisions include a
sign-off from the production lead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The third step might be to observe engineering teams actively seeking
production teams’ insights and advice for design elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fourth step might be to observe
that production teams are contributing to designs not only by identifying
production constraints but by also suggesting innovations or improvements in
production that might enhance designs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know that these example statements sound a little vague
and difficult to pin point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll
talk more about that in a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The important point that I want to make is that change is a process, not
an event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make your plan with that
understanding in mind and try to identify milestone points in the shift of
behaviors and methods that will indicate the change is taking place, or that
will provide specific behaviors or targets to shoot for along the way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a list
of actions and projects, broken into perceivable milestones or steps, we can
now think about how we intend to monitor progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This typically leads us, like it or not, into identifying
some metrics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can keep these
private to minimize the effect of metrics driving behavior, or you can make
your metrics clear to everyone for the express purpose of driving
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a leadership
choice and prerogative. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When constructing your gauge of progress and success, make
sure you have a meter for every element on your list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, I like to use the following two questions to guide my
metrics development.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, I ask myself, “What does ‘done’ look like?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This helps me identify what to
measure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be % of people
that have been trained or the number of people demonstrating some behavior or
using a new system, for example.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, I ask, “What metrics will drive the desired
behavior?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously the corollary
question might be, “What behavior will this metric drive, and is that the
behavior I really want?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
no avoiding the phenomenon of metrics driving behavior, so we must carefully
consider how to make that phenomenon work for us and not in undesired
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep a close eye on the
actual behaviors that manifest and be ready to change your metrics if necessary
to keep things on track to your ultimate vision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the
above 5 suggestions planned out, our plan is nearly complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In truth, our plan for driving from
today’s state to our desired future state is now mapped out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, there is one important element
or behavior that we must exhibit as leaders in order to achieve our
vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is unrelenting focus.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If our followers perceive that we have taken our eye off of
the ball, they will also relax their focus on the vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must not let this happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key to demonstrating our focus and
determination is a communication plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we are always talking about it, then they will know that it remains
important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When constructing your communication plan, there should be
two parts: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>regular or scheduled
communications, and spontaneous or unscheduled communications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both are important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is human nature to selectively tune
out those rhythmic noises that become a droning in the background.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Decide how often it is best for you to address your
organization and report progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put
your scheduled communications on your calendar and don’t forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might have different frequencies
and different reports for different audiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plan them all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t be afraid to say if you are pleased or displeased with
the progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either way, be sure
to communicate what comes next and what you expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If things are going well consider pushing harder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Communicate your intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will let everyone know that you
are still focused and that progress and your vision are very important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If things are not going well, it can be encouraging to mix
some good news or reports of small victories with your message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make sure that everyone understands
that your vision is achievable, and let everyone know that failure is not an
option.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spontaneous communications are powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When something expected or unexpected
happens, such as when a milestone or metric is achieved or someone achieves a
spontaneous breakthrough, communicate it to your audience that same day if
possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spontaneous
communications provide a level of excitement and attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When you go out of your way to report an achievement, your
audience will perceive both that you are watching closely, and that you are
excited that things are coming to fruition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much more powerful than waiting until the next
scheduled droning to report the status of a metric.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Something that I do to help trigger these spontaneous
communications is to flag milestones or events on my action list that warrant
immediate communication when they are achieved. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, I set up reminders to myself every few days to
screen for opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll put
it in my to-do list or my digital calendar as a quick, “Did anything happen
yesterday or today that should be broadcast?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By triggering myself to run a quick inquiry, it causes me to
find and act upon opportunities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A last thought about the communication plan:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the more personal the conveyance, the
more important and meaningful the message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you communicate via e-mail, expect that most will not
read your message right away, some won’t read it at all, and few will take it
seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you do a Webcast,
you will get greater attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you do an assembly, you will get even more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As much as possible, use in-person communications, or at
least an interactive communication with your own voice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There you have it:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>six fundamentals to planning the achievement of your vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, any plan will need to be
adjusted once you get started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every great military leader throughout history has provided a quote to
communicate the fact that no plan survives an engagement, once battle
commences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t get discouraged,
adapt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As leaders, our people expect us to take them toward a
brighter future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fulfill that
expectation by taking a little time to lie out a plan that will take you and
your organization, however huge or humble, to the future you envision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-91643863466401234832011-11-04T11:18:00.000-06:002011-11-04T11:18:19.163-06:00Beware the Seductiveness of Models<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m sorry, I don’t mean super models; I mean mathematical
and decision models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all use
models to make our business decisions or to predict performances or
outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must beware that we
don’t forget the limitations of models and rely on them to do our thinking for
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do so invites disaster.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Models are the basis of decision-making and prediction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when we rely on our intuition for
our decisions, we are using models constructed by our subconscious minds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’ll come back to this thought
later.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In engineering, Six Sigma process
improvement, or business many of us have become skilled in developing empirical
or statistical models to help us understand cause and effect, predict outcomes,
and make important decisions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The collection of data to develop models is a very powerful
means of gaining insight and can empower us to make much wiser decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is the power of the Six Sigma
methodology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am a big advocate
of doing so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we must
always be wary of the limitations of our models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we allow our models to make decisions for us, like
policy, or allow models to do our thinking for us, we can be surprised and
disappointed, even harmed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are several causes for the 2008 recession triggered by
the collapse of the investment and loan industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One cause that has been repeatedly identified is the use of
certain loan-risk models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
models attempted to predict human investment behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also became the standard
calculations for determining whether a loan should be awarded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In most cases, the users of the models didn’t understand the
assumptions or limitations of the models; they just plugged numbers into a
spreadsheet or Web page and received a risk result output.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For all I know, some users may have
received a simple yes/no result or the equivalent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the seduction of models.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We build them to help us make better decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, we often forget that we
built them to help us understand performance, behavior, and cause and effect,
not to substitute rational judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Models provide us with tendencies and
probabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t provide
us with the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A model is not
a crystal ball.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend of mine found the following quote and uses it
repeatedly in his training regarding statistical modeling of data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have since taken its meaning to
heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sir David Cox, co-developer
of the Box-Cox power transform, said, “All models are wrong; some models are
useful.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you get nothing else
from this post, meditate on that quote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It can be a life, or business, saver.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s examine why Sir Cox would say such a thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, models are based on data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This makes them powerful because they
are, generally, based on facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
also means that they are based on incomplete information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s rare that we collect every
possible data point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
generally not practical or possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next, as we begin trying to build our models we often
manipulate things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to get
a model that can explain the data, we often make a conscious decision to remove
outliers from our data set.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
makes our models much more reliable, but we have a human tendency to forget
that the outliers were there, and therefore, they can very well show up
again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, our models wont
predict it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We also try to simplify our models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve built models from designed
experiments or historical data that involved dozens of factors or coefficients
(possible causes) and potential interactions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, in order to have a useful, practical
model, we eliminate the “insignificant” factors and simplify the model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, if we can eliminate 80% of
the math and inputs necessary and only lose 3% of the model’s accuracy, doesn’t
that seem sensible?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly, models are based on historical or experimental
data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means that our models
explain what has happened in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As soon as we use those models to predict the future, we have knowingly
stepped out of the inference space of the model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, all models are wrong.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve already stated that I am an advocate of using
models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously having something
that accurately predicts the outcome 80% or 90% of the time is very
useful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, some models are
useful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Models, especially continuously updated models, of stable
production processes, chemical reactions, or material use can be very accurate
and reliable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even so, they don’t
account for the impact of bored veteran operators of the process or overly enthusiastic
new operators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t account
for the human influence over time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Models that try to predict human behavior, such as
investment risk models, are not so accurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a model of human behavior can explain 60% of the
variation in the data set, it’s a very strong model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of us wouldn’t think about making predictions or
controlling production processes from a model that explains less than 90% of
the variation in the output.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
must consider what we are modeling as part of our judgment call.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly, the further away in time we progress from when
the model was created, unless we continuously update the model, the more likely
that our model will no longer represent the behavior of the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Environments change over time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Operators change or get bored, other
inputs or factors can come into play, or contamination begins to generate
noise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is true for production
processes and especially true for human behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human behavior can change just because the World Series of
Baseball is taking place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how do we protect ourselves from being seduced into
letting our models misguide us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have four recommendations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
others will comment and add to this list.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Recall that all models are wrong; along with decisions,
include a risk mitigation plan</li>
<li>As mentioned, continuously update and reassess models with
real-time data, or as near as possible</li>
<li>Make an effort to observe the process yourself; take note of
changes in behavior or environment</li>
<li>Always give your decisions and predictions the common-sense
test</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first two hints, I think, are self-explanatory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s discuss the second two in a
little more detail.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I mentioned, in time, things change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t forget that metrics,
intentionally or unintentionally, drive behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as we start collecting data on an operation, people
will start trying to find ways to make that data look better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something is bound to change, either in
the inputs that affect the data, or in the way the data is collected and
recorded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, over time, people’s behavior can change, or other
changes within the environment, such as relocation of equipment, seasonal
temperatures and climate control, or changes in volume can affect the process
and how well the model fits its performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By observing or taking note of these, we can be alarmed to
the possibility that our model might not steer us as accurately as it once did.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The common sense or intuition test is often touted, but just
as frequently underestimated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
can’t explain why our common sense or intuition might disagree with the
recommendation of an empirical model and, therefore, we discredit the one we
can’t support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t do this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your intuition disagrees with the model’s recommendation,
give some thought as to why this might be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you observed something changing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you anticipating an outcome or a
change that the model would have no way of predicting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you have seen it before?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best way to reconcile your
intuition and your empirical model is to examine the model’s assumptions and
make sure they still make sense, and to refer to suggestion 3 above and look
for something that might have changed, which your subconscious has noted, but
your empirical model has not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do not discredit your intuition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, director of the Center of
Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human
Development in Berlin, Germany (or he was at the time my resource was written<sup>1</sup>)
has studied the way our intuition works and helps to make decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our intuition builds models from our
experiences in much the same way that we build empirical models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intuitive models can be very simple or
very complicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can also be
very reliable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If your gut is telling you something different from your
empirical model, it very well might mean that you have observed something that could
interfere with the empirical model, you just might not be able to put your
finger on it right away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
worth an investigation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Use models to make decisions and predict outcomes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are very powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t be seduced into false confidence
or into forgetting common sense or the value of human judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Models are there to help us understand
so we can make informed or wise decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are not a substitute for human judgment there to do our
thinking for us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>1. </o:p>Gigerenzer, Gerd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New York, New York:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2007</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-42095274780855937952011-10-18T13:55:00.000-06:002011-10-18T14:18:30.956-06:00Accelerated Leaders or Manufactured Disgruntlement?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A popular trend among businesses, particularly among large
corporations, is a program to accelerate the brightest university graduates to
leadership positions within the company.
Beware the adoption of such a program without considering the pitfalls.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not sure how the trend of Accelerated Leadership
Programs, Accelerated Development Programs, Management Acceleration Programs,
and all variety of other names, became such a trend among large
businesses. Someone must have
written a book that leaders have taken to heart, or perhaps the universities
have inspired the program and encouraged businesses to adopt them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve witnessed several of these programs and experienced
some of the challenge, personally, of trying to manage everyone’s
expectations. My experience leads
me to perceive that while the intentions of these programs are genuinely
constructive, the challenges are many and the successes are few.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Generally, the programs work like this. A company or corporation will leverage
its reputation at prominent universities to recruit the best and brightest
graduates. The recruiting criteria
vary, but the goal is to acquire the top of the graduating class. The lure for the graduates is the
invitation to work within a prominent company and the promise of an accelerated
path to a leadership position through a regimen of assignments designed to
provide a broad exposure to various business operations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The company gets the top of the class from a highly
respected school to fill its ranks and the recruit for the program is promised
a structured path to prosperity and the fulfillment of his or her ambitions
with considerably less left to chance.
It’s a classic win-win set-up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll be first in line of promoters of the vision that a
company is as good as its people, and that filling the ranks of the business
with the best available talent is an important strategy. I also believe that those of us who
work hardest in school should be sought after accordingly. The challenges with this win-win set-up
are many, and often sensitive, and I’ve witnessed more failure and
disappointment than wins.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first challenge is fairly obvious. At the time that students are
graduating, there may not be a need for their particular training at the
company. In order to keep the
program alive, and to maintain its relationship with the university, the
business must recruit a certain number of new graduates anyway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is one of the reasons that these programs are popular
with large companies and corporations, and less so with smaller
businesses. Only the large
businesses can make room for and budget for a steady stream of new talent. This same challenge goes a little deeper.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The programs, to drive a broad understanding of the
business, typically send participants to new assignments every six to twelve
months. Again, there may or may
not be a need for personnel and the business function often is told to take on
new staff, need or not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now there is a problem of finding or creating meaningful
work for the assigned program participant. One of two things generally happens. Either the program participant is given
someone else’s work, and that other employee is now uncertain and unhappy, or
the program participant is given the undesirable, incidental work that college
interns dread, but will do for their resume.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In this situation, at least three people are made
unhappy. The manager feels
put-upon and dreads dealing with the surplus manpower. The recruit feels under-appreciated and
is disappointed that he or she is not being taken seriously. Existing personnel in the function
resent that their work is taken away, or resent the fact that a
fresh-from-school team member thinks that he or she is entitled to something
that they have worked hard for years to achieve.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are inclined to the view that the manager should be
able to handle this balance and that it’s not such a big problem, consider the
following. The program participant
may only be assigned to that unit for six months, no more than a year. Now, consider your own skill sets and
experience. Did you learn to
effectively perform your job in less than a year? Do you realistically execute a project of any complexity or
genuine business import in less than a year?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you had to spend six months training a new person how to
do the job in the first place, only to watch them depart as soon as they
received only the rudiments of ability to perform the role so you could start
over again with the next participant, would you really give that program participant
one of the important jobs? If you
had to choose between disappointing a program participant you might never see
again or disappointing your own personnel whom have worked for you for years,
and hopefully will continue to do so for years, whom would you risk
disappointing?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We’ve touched on another problem with most accelerated
programs. I’m a big believer in
breadth of knowledge, particularly in leadership. However, a certain amount of depth creates credibility. After a certain time, and a certain
number of assignments, typically about three year’s worth, that accelerated
program participant will be expecting his or her first leadership
position. Assuming that the business
can just up and create one, then let’s look at how much that program participant
knows about the leadership role he or she is assigned.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How well can that individual mentor, coach, train, or lead a
team if that person only has about six months of prior exposure to the
role? Granted, many of us have led
teams where the team members knew the job better than we, and we learned to
rely on their advice. However, were
any of those leadership opportunities our very first opportunities, or did we
get them because we demonstrated some leadership ability and those teams needed
a leader more than they needed an expert?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, suppose that the accelerated program participant in
that first management position, has been led to believe that they have what
they need to lead that group. What
if the group disagrees? We now
touch on another challenge.
Sometimes those program participants get a little arrogant. Often, that arrogance is fostered.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes the participants are fed, or otherwise receive,
the message that because they are on the program, they are better than fellow
employees, or they deserve more than their fellow employees. At the very least, they are told that
they deserve a leadership position after moving about the corporation for three
(or however many) years. After
all, they did do all of those assignments, something that more mature personnel
with established families might be less inclined to accept.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Certainly, these program participants have earned something
for accepting assignments and a lifestyle that few others might desire. But do they deserve to lead a
team? And of course, no one likes
investing so much in personnel, just to have things not work out the way we
envisioned. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, all that breadth of exposure and time in the business
has created a person who is not particularly good at any role for the salary
that is expected, and if they aren’t a natural leadership talent, we don’t have
a use for that person that completes the program. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is a common conversation between Human Resources and
managers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HR: Can’t you
take this ADP participant?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Manager: I need
someone that can lead this project and see it through, not someone that I have
to train and who will leave me with an unfinished project in six months.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HR: Can you take
this ADP anyway and we’ll still find you the leader you need?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Manager: I
could have two entry-level people for what your ADP costs me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
HR: But we’ve
invested so much on this participant already.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Manager:
Honestly, I don’t think your ADP is the kind of person I want on my
team.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now we have come to the crossroads of our examination of the
program and we must challenge the execution of the vision and the business’
values. The purpose of the program
is to recruit the best and brightest talent into our companies, to improve the
company and it’s long-term performance.
If we stick to that motive, then the best thing to do for our company is
to put the best leaders in place when we have need for them. If we pass up an excellent leader to
install a program participant in order to keep a promise, then we compromise
our own values. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obviously, if the program participant does demonstrate some
solid leadership skills and is a good choice for the leadership position in
question, then we don’t have a problem.
But what does a manager do when they must decide between a questionable
program participant and a known solid leader candidate? Most of us will decide on the known
performer. This means that either
we break our promises to the program participants, or we accept that we might
be jeopardizing the business by putting people in leadership positions that
might not be capable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fundamental flaw in the whole accelerated program is the
promise of a leadership position.
It’s simple. Good grades do
not make a good leader. Neither
does breadth of knowledge. Sure,
these may be helpful indicators or qualities, but they are not leadership. In fact, if we have fed arrogance and
accelerated aspirations to our program participants, then we may have very well
fed them values that we do not want in our leaders. Oops!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of these programs fail because we have not given our
program participants the experience and training they need to succeed. Chances are, they have moved from one
petty project to another with little to show for their sacrifice, and they know
it. On top of that, we haven’t
given them any real leadership training or education, coaching or
mentoring. Finally, when it comes
time to give them the leadership position for which they have held out through
all of the frustration, we either don’t have one to offer them, we set them up
for failure, or we break our promise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The end result is that these participants, if they don’t
leave before the program is over, leave shortly after it is. We end up investing all of our own time
and energy and expense training some other company’s great new employee with
leadership potential and we don’t have those best and brightest in our own
company after all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve worked with and managed a number of accelerated development
participants, and many of them were very bright and did show genuine potential,
and they are to this day people that I would install on my team again at the
first opportunity. Unfortunately,
many of them are no longer with the host company that invested so much in
developing them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve painted a pretty grim picture of these accelerated
leadership development programs.
I’ve experienced and witnessed everything that I have described. However, I have also witnessed a few
successes where the participants did go on to prove to be good leaders early in
their careers and they did stay with the firm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What was different that allowed these participants to
succeed? I’ll give you a short
list of what I observed, then we can discuss how to adjust your program to
drive success instead of failure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Program participants learned that the projects and jobs
everyone performs are difficult, require a great deal of skill and experience,
and that not just anyone can do them (as opposed to believing that everything
is quick and easy and that the participant can do anyone’s job just as well)</li>
<li>Program participants actively learned leadership traits and
skills from good leaders while they completed their assignments</li>
<li>Program participants learned that they can’t and don’t know
everything and learned when to ask for help or advice</li>
<li>Successful participants accepted longer assignments in areas
of interest rather than shorter assignments to check boxes; they were
challenged not assuaged</li>
<li>Program participants were patient enough to wait for the
right-for-them leadership opportunity</li>
<li>Program participants were coached, and mentored rather than
ignored until the next assignment came up</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The vision for the program is an excellent one, so let’s
figure out how to keep great talent rather than train it for our
competitors. Based on the elements
that drove success for the few that I know, here are some suggestions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, don’t promise a leadership position as a guaranteed
result of participating on the program.
Instead, promise a variety of assignments and leadership coaching and
training that will help the participant be ready for leadership positions
sooner. Make it clear that
readiness to lead will be on them, not an automatic reward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Establish a budget and a series of assignments that are not
dependent on need or opportunity within the functions. If the corporate fund pays the program
participant’s salary, you’ll have people begging for them, rather than turning
them away. Also, assign program participants
to leaders and managers with the best coaching and development skills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make it a formal part of the program for leaders and
managers to directly mentor program participants in the skills of
leadership. They may need guidelines
and coaching to make this happen in a meaningful way. You want your up-and-coming leaders to learn how strong leaders do lead
well, not how less-than-great leaders do things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Establish a bona-fide track and set of positions for the participants
to follow. Let the first few
assignments be established, not options.
If positions for program participants are perpetually part of the
staffing plan and they never open or close, but simply receive a new rotation
every year, then you create less stress around finding places to assign participants. It’s better to have managers begging
for participants to fill empty roles, than HR personnel begging managers to
take unwanted participants.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make assignments no shorter than one year. You might make exceptions for spending
time experiencing roles that professionals generally don’t experience or for
roles where the point is to simply see and experience the role, but not to
learn it. Examples might be
spending two or three weeks rotating among the production jobs on the plant
floor, or a few days working in customer support at a call center, or two or
three months in the field installing equipment. I’ve done some of this myself, and sent a few of my
personnel to do some of these things too.
It’s good exposure that provides humbling insight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, we must, in addition to teaching program
participants some leadership skills, also teach them some useful trade
skills. Learning how to do project
management, or engineering, or logistics and procurement, or marketing, takes
time. One does not learn how to do
these jobs in less than a year. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make sure that by the end of the rotation, that job function
would be happy to have that participant as a permanent member of the team and
would pay that person’s salary at three-years-experience grade to have them
back. Don’t let them leave an
assignment with a “good-riddance.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, manage your participants’ attitudes. Constantly discuss the participants’
expectations and the company’s and managers’ expectations. Make and execute plans to close the
gaps. Keep the participants’
expectations rooted in reality.
Let them know that their good grades and continued excellent performance
earn them the opportunity to participate and learn. Don’t let them tell you that by tolerating the program, they
have earned a high-profile position and salary.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An accelerated development program is a good strategy as
long as it fulfills the vision of installing the best and brightest talent into
your business. Good grades in
school are an indicator, but not a guarantee. Recruit the top of the class and let the program be both a
training ground and a proving ground.
Don’t make promises your business can’t keep, and be sure that your
participants are getting meaningful, constructive experience. Finally, help those participants find
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> places for them within your
business, not just a role that was promised before you ever go to know them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-68527082664394355922011-10-05T11:52:00.000-06:002011-10-05T11:52:19.708-06:00A New Kind of New Hire
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each generation has its quirks and behavioral trends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our HR professionals pay close
attention to these.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Combined with
economic influences, our Generation X is producing a whole new type of new employee;
the re-invented recruit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a recruiter, nor a Human Resources generalist, but
my business and my role grant me exposure to businesses, problems, and people
across a broad spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
appears to me that, more and more often, a whole new type of new recruit is
showing up at business doorsteps and our old hiring habits might be causing us
to pass some excellent opportunities by.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The new employee opportunity I’m seeing, specifically, is
what I will call the re-invented recruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are individuals who have re-invented their career visions and are
looking to do something different.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout time, there have always been those individuals
who have left their trades or career paths for periods of time, then tried to
return only to find themselves falling into the classification of
“unemployable.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may have left
for any number of reasons:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>health,
to take care of family, sabbatical, missionary work, or even lay-off.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The problem has always been that when these individuals, who
have been out of the workplace for more than a year, find it difficult to break
back in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Potential employers will
look at that gap in the employment record and wonder if these individuals have
lost their work ethic, if they have behavioral or focus challenges that caused
the gap, or if they will be able to resurrect or learn the necessary skills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is also the doubt in the back of a potential
employer’s mind about the salary expectations and staying power of these
re-entering veterans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concern
is that the candidate might be accustomed to more pay than the position offers,
but will take the position in order to re-enter the workplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, will that new employee jump ship
as soon as they find another job closer to the one they left a few years ago?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In any case, trying to re-enter the workplace after an
absence of more than a year can be very difficult for someone more than 30
years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, our current
economy and Generations X and Y are creating a whole new group of re-entering
employee candidates and our old concerns should not be applied to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Baby Boomer generation was famous, or notorious, for
ambition and chasing that next step on the corporate ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, many U.S. corporate cultures
still harbor an expectation that up-and-coming leaders should move their
families to anywhere the corporation asks them to go in order to get the
exposure and experience the corporation values in its leaders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Generation X, however, is not so inclined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generation X is much more heavily
biased toward families with two working parents, many of whom possess equal
earning potential and career stability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Try to get one of those parents to move his or her family because a corporation,
with little or no apparent commitment to its employees, expects them to move
for a new role and you will likely be disappointed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Generation Y is motivated in different ways yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generation Y is more interested in the
community or global contribution of their roles than in titles or pay than any
generation prior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also the
most technologically enabled and comfortable and will look at moving as an
outdated idea of the workplace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Naturally, I’m oversimplifying, but my point is that the
current generations in their 20’s through their 40’s have some behavioral
trends that, combined with current economic pressures, are driving them to
re-invent their careers rather than battle to get back into a role that either
no longer exists in their area, or that was never overly inspiring or
prosperous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are re-invented
recruits.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can identify of a hand-full of colleagues and friends
immediately, without thought, that fall into the re-invented group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the more that I think about
it, the more I realize that a great many of my colleagues fit this category,
including myself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My neighbor has been a homemaker since her first son was
born and is just now re-entering the workplace as an employee of a local
charter school, something for which she has no prior experience other than the
volunteer work she did at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another friend of mine moved with her husband to be nearer to his family
and ended up becoming the Marketing VP of her father-in-law’s company.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I met a couple a while back, who turned out to be fellow
alumni from my engineering school, and who walked away from engineering to open
a coffee shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are now
successful restaurateurs and own several businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my high-school fellows got his degree in
high-altitude climatology and decided later to get into the role of software
and database developer. Now he has a leadership role in a small start-up
that has nothing to do with the weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My brother-in-law is another successful software developer with a
chemical engineering degree.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll be willing to bet that my readers can also identify a
plethora of colleagues, friends, or coworkers who have re-invented themselves
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s common, but the old
problems of getting started still exist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many who re-invent do so because an opportunity presents
itself and they jump at it, or they just go with the flow and find themselves
doing something they never anticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That would be me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
some re-invented recruits made a conscious decision to do something different,
took the time to learn the skills, and now wish to begin their new careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately for these individuals,
old biases and concerns pose a huge problem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have a friend who is one of the deliberately
re-invented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He worked as a
construction and renovation laborer for many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He now has a degree in software development, something that
was a hobby of his prior to the degree, and is now trying to get his first
official software-development position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, he is losing the battle to other fresh college grads in
their early 20’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is in his
late 30’s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He even shared with me one “bite-me” letter that blatantly
explained, in undisguised words, that the role is open for younger employees
and that his age was the reason he was not selected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was from one of our bigger aerospace corporations by
the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, he has an
obvious case of discrimination in this specific letter, but to what end?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He certainly won’t go to work for the company now that such
values have been demonstrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neither will I, for that matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He could try and get a settlement or to paint a black mark for the
company by filing a formal complaint, but the business obviously has more money
to spare on legal actions than he does.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My point is that our concerns about hiring seasoned
individuals into entry-level positions clearly persist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I would caution us against
allowing these old habits to cause us to pass over potentially exceptional
employees, or worse yet, inviting discrimination cases against us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve already pointed out that many of our colleagues,
friends, and coworkers fall into the category of the re-invented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I expect that many of those that you
can think of are certainly worth their pay or are even exceptional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s take a quick look at the common
concerns and see if it really makes any sense to choose a fresh graduate in his
twenties over a graduate from the same class in his thirties or forties.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obviously, they all graduated in the same class, so one is
not going to have a skill set advantage; or is that true?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it possible that the more seasoned
individual might have some skills from prior careers that would apply to the
new one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about some
leadership potential, skills dealing with customers, or greater proficiency
with basic, fundamental work systems?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Supposing that skills are indeed equivalent, that leaves us
with selecting on personality and performance potential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our natural tendency might be to choose
the younger candidate on the grounds of fresh ideas and more energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s look at that carefully.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which candidate is more likely to roll with the punches,
know how to deal with daily frustrations, and have the stronger work ethic, the
one who might not have worked more that a summer internship, or the one who
already has 20-years of experience working hard in environments of diversified
personalities and difficult bosses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s also ask this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
would the individual who decided to walk away from one career and gamble on
another, probably a career about which they have discovered some passion that
drove the decision in the first place, have fewer new ideas than the younger
graduate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Might they have more
instead?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last, lets look at the “energy” argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a hard one to pin down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all know young sloths and old
fireballs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not much of a
reason to begin with, but we can even play devil’s advocate with it too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The current generation exiting college,
nation-wide, is less healthy and more obese than the generation of executives
they would be working for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
it’s an equally weak argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s probably best for us to just not even bring up the “energy”
argument at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s concern for compensation expectations or staying
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s think about that
carefully too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have access
to the seasoned candidate’s prior employment list, it will tell you if they
stayed with an employer for several years, or if that candidate jumped
around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It they stayed, you have a
good indicator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What indicator do
you have with the younger candidate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As for compensation, be assured that the seasoned candidate probably has
the more realistic expectations and knew what to expect when the decision to
change careers was made.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are facing the decision of re-inventing yourself, or
if you have just done so, then be forewarned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The old biases persist and you will need to battle against
them to get the attention of potential employers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you get that attention and feel that they may be gauging
how you will stand up against the younger candidates, be ready to make your
case with some of the arguments I presented above.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you are reviewing candidates for entry-level positions,
instead of passing up a candidate because of an old, irrelevant work history,
put that application in your pile deserving a second glance because it does
have the other work history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Chances are that the re-invented recruit has more to offer for the same
salary than a younger recruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
least give yourself the opportunity of talking with the re-invented
candidate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might be surprised
by their passion as well as other, bonus skills and work ethic they have to offer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-45510467930371375062011-09-29T18:10:00.002-06:002011-09-29T18:10:39.933-06:00Quips and Quotes Concerning Change
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes a single phrase says it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some of my favorite mottos and
quotes concerning change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Poetry is, in my opinion, one of the highest literary
arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally speaking, poetry
conveys a great deal with very few words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Under that specific criterion, the haiku might be one of the highest
forms of poetry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I won’t claim to be a poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor will I claim to be a quotable genius, or even
quotable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when trying to
convey fundamental ideas in very short moments of time, I have found myself
using the same phrases over and over because they convey a message in an
instant.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are some of my favorite things to say regarding the
subject of change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any one of
these could be a post unto itself, in fact some of them have been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I offer them up to my audience for its
consideration or comment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Change is a process, not an event (Also, learning is a
process, not an event)</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Change according to plan is progress, change without a plan
is chaos</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Don’t let the quest for perfection get in the way of
delivering good enough</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Change is like removing a band-aid; you can peel it off
slowly, a little at a time, or you can rip it off all at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just a matter of how you like to
take your pain.</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision
is a nightmare.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Japanese
Proverb</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Change has two parts; a From, and a To.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t start to change before you know
what each of those parts is.</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Don’t change unless there is a reason to do so</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Change necessitates learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learning inspires change.</li>
</ul>
<br /><ul>
<li>Change is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Smart change comes with a plan.</li>
</ul>
<br />Please feel free to comment and add your own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the mean time, I hope that one or
more of the ideas above prove useful.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-45439660489421821292011-09-28T18:41:00.000-06:002011-09-28T18:41:19.463-06:00Considering the Cost of Change
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We make business decisions all the time that we expect to
improve our business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we make
these decisions, however, we often neglect to consider the change these
decisions mean for our businesses and what the short or long-term costs of
those changes might be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a common theme throughout many of my posts to this
blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That theme is the pain
associated with change and how to manage it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something we don’t consider when we make business decisions,
however, is the cost of making and managing that change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know that this will sound obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any time we make a decision to do
something differently than we already do, we have just forced a change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duh, I know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if it’s so obvious, why do we neglect to consider the
cost of that change when we make our business decision?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me provide a few quick examples to set the tone, then we
can discuss common themes to look for and ways to minimize the costs to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> T</span>hese examples come from my own
experience, tales from colleagues, or the news.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boeing just delivered the first 787 Dreamliner, three years
late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a number of
contributing factors, but the primary reason that the delivery was late was
that this was the first product by Boeing that was largely outsourced. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because the 787 Dreamliner is primarily constructed of
composite materials, Boeing contracted other experts to manufacture the body parts
that Boeing would have traditionally produced and assembled in-house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The decision to outsource drove a major
change to how Boeing did business and the impact of that change was felt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We can’t always put a finger on the cost of making changes,
but Boeing reported that this aircraft development cost more than twice what a
typical new jet development would cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cost of development of the Dreamliner “topped
$32-billion due to delays… new jets typically cost closer to $15-billion.”<sup>1</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope I never make a business decision
that costs $17-billion dollars more than I promised.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For several years, I worked for a corporate sector where
change was the norm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every year
the leadership changed as leaders jostled to fulfill the various career
portfolio requirements to take the next step on the corporate ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, goals and objectives and
agendas changed every year as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What was the drive and big thing one year, would be old news
and bygone the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The good news
is that we all became very accustomed to change, even adaptable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bad news is that nothing
stabilized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was difficult to
prove that any change made any difference. On those occasions where we could
prove we had made significant strides, whatever we had set in motion soon
became forgotten or reorganized within a few months.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I once talked with a business owner who had to pull himself
out of retirement to fire the CEO he had installed and rescue his business from
disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In short, the
corporate-minded and groomed CEO he hired didn’t know how to lead the
family-owned and grown business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The new leadership didn’t understand or drive the same values the
business was based upon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My first opportunity to manage another leader, leading a
team, didn’t work out so well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was skilled at leading other individual contributors, but I experienced a
learning curve with regard to balancing leadership of another leader against
getting in his way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we are
leaders, changes that challenge our own experience and skills affect others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I devised a simple, versatile product development methodology
that would allow a diverse business with several different engineering
functions, of different disciplines, in several global locations to follow the
same product development process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The standardization would enable a vast improvement to collaboration and
product innovation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a veteran of process and business behavioral change, I
knew better than to pull the trigger without first developing a solid plan to
address the risks and plan the change process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took me longer to address everyone’s concerns and
negotiate the OK to launch the new methodology than it took to teach it to the
engineers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the process
had been vetted so many times throughout the negotiation process that many of
the engineers knew it well enough to use it before we received permission to
launch it and officially teach it to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A close friend of mine works for a business that recently
changed the business model from in-house production to outsourced production
and in-house assembly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was
done to address a need to significantly increase capacity to meet customer
demands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To facilitate management of logistics and resources they
also implemented an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (another drastic
change to business-as-usual).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Before the business model change, this business boasted on-time delivery
metrics in the upper nineties percent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Now on-time delivery is the business’s biggest problem with some
deliveries more than 90-days late and a recent month reported no deliveries at
all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s enough examples for now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can we learn from all of these examples?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is my list, feel free to add to
it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Change requires new skills, new processes, and new
behaviors, which don’t fall into place overnight:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>change is a process not an event!</li>
<li>Simple decisions (such as changing business models or
leaders) can drive enormous changes</li>
<li>The bigger the change, the greater the pain</li>
<li>Change is necessary, but constant, uncoordinated change is
just chaos</li>
<li>Do not underestimate the importance of your business culture
when calculating a change</li>
<li>If you need permission to make a change, the negotiation
effort will increase exponentially with the number of people that must approve
it</li>
<li>It costs more to change without a plan to handle it, than it
does to invest in the plan, but it takes work and expense to build a plan</li>
<li>When a leader experiences a change and isn’t accustomed to
the new way, everyone pays for it</li>
<li>Change invites risk, make a plan to mitigate and manage
risks</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I won’t address all of these individually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many cases the same activities that
address one lesson will address several.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bottom line is this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Decisions often dictate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When you make a decision, consider the extent of change that decision
will demand and be sure you have a plan manage that change.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At a minimum, we need a risk mitigation and management plan
to go along with any significant change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Assume that things will not go smoothly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prepare your personnel and your customers to expect the
change and all that it implies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The more you plan for the change, the smoother it will go, but we can’t
plan forever either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All changes require new behaviors in some way or
another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be sure you have a plan
to train and instill those behaviors, and a way to enforce them
appropriately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An e-mail or a memo
is usually not a sufficient solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Changes that drive different ways of doing what we do
require new skills and new processes along with new behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not assume that because your team is
good at what it does that it will automatically be good at doing something
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that sounds
unnecessary to say, but we do it all the time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider the business described above that is struggling
with on-time delivery after changing from in-house production to outsourced
production and a new ERP system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why should we expect someone who is excellent at in-house operations to
suddenly be good at outsourcing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember, new models mean new skills and processes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make sure that your risk mitigation and management plan
includes elements to introduce new skills and processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be done by hiring personnel
with the skills or by hiring consultants to teach them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These same sources of experience can
help drive process and behavioral change as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me briefly sum up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you make a decision, consider the extent of change that the decision
demands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s better to invest in
a plan to drive the change than it is to deal with the consequences of the
change process as it happens naturally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Make sure that your plan includes risk management, new skills, new
processes, and new behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make
sure that plan also fits your current business culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that everything will fall
into place once you have made a decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Change is costly, one way or another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can influence that cost with a plan, or you can find out
when the dust settles, the choice is yours. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hepher,
Tim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“After 3 Years, Boeing
Dreamliner Becomes Reality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Reuters</u>,
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/">www.reuters.com</a> 25 September 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-50706610986728032392011-09-21T10:57:00.000-06:002011-09-21T10:57:24.902-06:00Ideas Across Industries
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some industries or industry segments are better at certain
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your business needs to
become better as certain skills or practices, look to other industries for
examples or help.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the availability of the Intranet and all of the free
information it provides, we still experience boundaries around our particular
industries and those industry practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These moats seem to be particularly prevalent when it comes to skills
and skill-related practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Herein, I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own experience. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I want to encourage all of us not only to look at those
practices which we know we need to shore up, but to take a look at those
practices for which other industries are well known and ask ourselves if we
could benefit from the same expertise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look at two vastly different industries: consumer
product development, and health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One practice that has already migrated from consumer product development
into health care is the practice of Lean methodologies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No doubt, some of our enterprising Lean entrepreneurs, after
an experience in health care of their own, immediately saw an opportunity and
began making demonstrations and proposals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a good thing too, in my opinion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Based on that, we already know that what is good practice in
one industry can be a good practice in others, even when the industries are
vastly different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, I
would like to ignore or bypass any discussion of that here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look at something that the health care industry does
very well, that many product development and manufacturing businesses might
emulate to significant benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The health care industry is very safety-minded and has a “Never Again”
program to ensure that embarrassing and damaging mistakes don’t repeat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Never Again mentality of health care drives practices
that in product development industries would be laughed at for overprotection,
but no patient seems to complain about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ll give you an example from my own recent experience concerning
arthroscopic surgery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After episodes where the incorrect joint was operated upon,
surgeons and surgery teams now practice an extraordinary error prevention
process when performing arthroscopic surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, I believe these practices are used for virtually
every form of surgery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I had my own procedure performed, every nurse,
anesthesiologist, and my surgeon asked me which shoulder I was having
reconstructed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own family
doctor made a point of instructing me to write “NO” in big letters on my
opposite shoulder before going to the surgery center that morning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The surgeon wrote his own code words, including “NO” on my
shoulders to prevent any last-minute memory lapses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lastly, once I was prepped and ready for surgery, the entire
surgical team took a “time-out” to make sure that everything was in order
before beginning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The surgeon pointed to everyone in the room, one at a time
and asked what procedure they were performing on what shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anyone thought differently than the
answer another gave, they were to speak up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s better to double check than to make an assumption.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition, each instrument and consumable was carefully
counted and logged before and after the procedure to ensure that every
component could be accounted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is done to ensure that something isn’t left where it shouldn’t be, such as
inside of a client.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take a quick look at your own business or team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you exercise the same rigor around
machine start-up, or testing, or pulling the metaphorical trigger on launching
a product?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would it save expensive
or injurious mistakes if you did?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In manufacturing, we are greatly interested and incentivized
to ensure the safety of our coworkers or employees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, I have never witnessed a production floor with the same
safety consciousness that my surgical team used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe that the manufacturing and product development
industry could learn from the healthcare industry on the subject of safety and
accident prevention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also believe that we in the manufacturing, and
particularly the product development, industries have more to share with health
care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I have talked with
a few of my doctors in the last year and learned that they do not receive the
same style of training that some engineers and project managers do regarding a
very important subject for health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is risk management.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In product development, we try very hard to manage and
mitigate risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Risks that turn
into problems cost money, sometimes a great deal of money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of us receive formal training in
risk management and make a habit of using tools such as design scorecards or
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to identify and mitigate risks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I asked my care providers about their training in risk
management, it became clear that there are fewer formal methods used or
training provided in healthcare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course the reason I asked is because I have often used my own risk
management training when consulting with my care providers and frequently we
have changed the plan from what they recommended based on my risk management
questions and my concerns about mitigation or contingency.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, just as some product development centers are
better at conducting risk management than others, some doctors and hospitals
are better than others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a
family member of mine had an intravenous scope procedure performed the doctor
refused to initiate the procedure until a cardiac surgeon was standing by in case
of emergency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was good risk
planning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another family member of mine, a few years before, was not
so lucky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hospital doctor
performed the same type of scope procedure and knocked free a piece of plaque
in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The free plaque
induced a stroke, which the hospital was not prepared to handle, and my family
member took a helicopter ride to another hospital in a larger city, which was
better equipped to handle his induced emergency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t make it out of the second hospital.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you might imagine, the doctor at the first hospital will
probably never forget the conversation he and I had afterward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, the healthcare industry
could benefit significantly from some of the risk management tools, methods,
and practices we in engineering use everyday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they had a likewise mindset focused on preventative
maintenance like many of us in manufacturing, our healthcare and insurance
costs would be less as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have dozens of examples I could share, but my point is
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just because we think we do
something well, or that it is not intuitive that another industry should be
better at something than we, it doesn’t mean that we can’t learn better methods
or practices from someone else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we want to break into knowledge and methods from other
industries, we need to get outside of our normal networks and methods of
introducing new skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider
that our usual methods for introducing new knowledge or skills into our
businesses are to either hire someone who has them, or to contract a consultant
to teach them to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inevitably,
those people that we hire or contract are people with experience in our own
industry, and therefore they do not have insight into the better skills of
other industries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Believe it or not, it’s easier to make contact with experts
in other industries than we might at first assume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first way to make contact is to identify some of the
regulatory or standards committees in those other industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These committees are made up of experts
from businesses throughout industry so they are made up of the people with whom
we probably need to talk, and they also generally have Web sites with contact
information.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simply contact the liaison for the committee and explain
your need and ask for some advice concerning with whom you could or should
discuss your problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes a
member of the committee turns out to be the one we talk to, and sometimes we
just get some suggestions for consulting firms with the expertise we seek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either way, we score.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another tactic we can use is to do an Internet search for
press releases concerning companies in those other industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we can identify a company in another
industry that we believe institutes the skills we seek, we can easily find
recent press releases or Internet articles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From those articles, we can often find someone at the
executive level identified along with a way to contact that individual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hand written letter from one of our
executives to the one identified can often open doors and initiate a dialog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply offer some congratulations
concerning the subject of the press release and plainly state your desire to
learn how they exercise the skill of interest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve worked on a team that set up a number of benchmark
studies with other companies and the above tactics were often used when our
professional networks couldn’t make the connections for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s surprising is how often other
companies, particularly if they do not compete with us in any way, are very
open to letting us pay a visit and see their operations and best practices.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It may be a leap, but I suspect the same hospitality and
willingness to share would be extended to teaching someone in a completely
different industry the skills that we seek.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just don’t expect anyone to share something that they
consider a competitive advantage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I urge us all to take a good look at our own practices and
then look outside and see if another industry, maybe even one we wouldn’t
intuitively expect, might not be better at an important skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go ahead, get out of your comfort zone
and your usual industrial network, send some letters, or contact some
committees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine the business
benefits, even the competitive edge you might gain by learning how someone else
does better than we.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-47341114741791811372011-09-09T16:31:00.001-06:002011-09-09T16:31:14.550-06:00Hiring Business Improvement
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t underestimate the impact that personnel selection can
have on business performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be
sure that, beyond selecting the right skill sets, that you select the right
personality to match your business culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the
Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a Human Resources (HR) professional, and though I
have worked with HR functions many times on performance improvement efforts, I
won’t claim to be an expert on employment policy or employee selection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, as a business improvement
analyst and manager, I have become keenly aware of the importance of Culture
when it comes to business performance improvement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simply put, culture is a group’s collective behavior based
on a common set of beliefs and values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In terms of business improvement and business performance, the key word
of the culture definition is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">behavior</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Often, the cause of business or process performance issues
can be linked to behavior, even if it’s just the “that’s the way we always do
it” attitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost always, the
biggest roadblock to successful process or business improvement is behavior and
the effort of changing it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We often neglect to consider the impact that a new
employee’s behavior or attitude can have on our business performance,
especially if that new employee holds a leadership position of some kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t think of the hiring process as
a business improvement opportunity, but it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you still aren’t convinced of the importance of behavior
for business performance, consider that almost every HR function in the U.S.,
at least every one with which I have ever interfaced, will utilize one form or
another of behavioral interviewing methodology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some large corporations have even outlined personality
traits they prefer and make it policy not to hire someone who does not fit
within those guidelines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Target<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">Ô</span></span> is one such company.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, when it comes time to make our selection, particularly
in technical functions like engineering or programming, we often focus almost
entirely on skill set and experience instead of personality or behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we do, we miss an opportunity to
preserve or improve our work environment and culture, and sometimes regret our
decisions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suspect the reason that we of a technical mindset tend to
focus so highly on skill and experience is because we have a habit of
considering facts and data; it is not in our nature to concern ourselves with
the “people” aspects of decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do yourself a favor and break this habit the next time you make or advise
a new employee selection decision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I worked in a business at a time when the business needed a
new Director of Engineering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
business made a decision to hire someone from outside instead of promote
someone from within because the leadership felt that changes were required to
drive better performance within the engineering function.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can appreciate the decision to make some changes and to
try to bring in some skills and experience from elsewhere to infuse the
business with some new ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, when they selected their new director, it appears that they did
not adequately evaluate or consider leadership style or behavior as part of the
selection process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new
director was a failure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By way of example, I still remember his exact words when he
introduced himself to our department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Whatever you guys are doing, it’s wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to show you how to do this right.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t even know what we were doing
when he made the judgment statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He hadn’t been on board for a week yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say, he didn’t win any confidence from his
personnel that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things went
down hill from there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This new director had experience and credentials from
another corporation with a strong reputation for product development prowess
and business performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
boasted skills with the methods our business was trying to implement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From a background and skill set
standpoint, he made sense as a new leader for our group.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, his management skills were lacking and his
leadership was, in my opinion, poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He tried to replicate his previous employer’s behaviors and methods in
his new employer’s culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
two didn’t match.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end, he alienated his peers, disgruntled his
personnel, and the performance of the engineering function dropped
sharply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I won’t say he was a bad
guy, but I am absolutely saying that he was a poor fit for the role and the
culture for which the leadership selected him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was terminated several months after he was hired.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I give you the above, profound example, but I’ve seen the
same mistake cause problems at every level of a business, from the assembly
floor to the top business leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider the impacts on the entire business when a team, function, or
the entire business has to deal with a new player who simply can’t adjust to
the game.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m a big fan of growing and promoting personnel who have
performed well and fostered tenure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, I’m also keenly aware of the impact of behaviors that don’t fit
well within new roles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t promote the technical genius of a senior engineer to
the role of manager, if that technical genius simply doesn’t have any
leadership acumen, or can’t make decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that’s the step that individual wants and needs to make,
then you must groom his or her behavioral habits to enable success first.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I once was invited to help a retired business owner
resurrect his family business because the corporate minded business expert he
hired to replace him when he retired did not successfully lead the existing
company culture and neither did the management personnel he hired.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A rift between management and the workforce manifested and
the previously very successful business lost significant profitability and
general business performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
owner fired the new executive after a small few years and left retirement to
try and repair the damage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even if your next new hire isn’t a leader, and is an
individual contributor, don’t underestimate the impact that an individual’s
personality will have on a group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Keep in mind that skills can be taught and experience can be shored up
much easier than personality or behavior can be changed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are all much happier when we bring on personnel that just
seem to fit right in with the incumbent group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The transition happens more quickly, and the team’s
performance hums when the team gets along happily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep this in mind the next time you select a new employee,
and choose wisely.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stay wise, friends.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-36957297332344959152011-08-31T11:43:00.000-06:002011-08-31T11:43:16.184-06:00Don’t Let the Quest for Perfection Delay Decision <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t fail to make a timely decision because you are caught up trying to make the perfect decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a good decision and move on.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">In my experience, the single greatest source of waste in most businesses, particularly in the office environment, is the phenomenon of indecision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time of this writing I have already posted several thoughts on decision-making aids or techniques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also published a post some time ago titled, “Don’t Let the Quest for Perfection Stop You From Delivering Good Enough.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, I’d like to explore the ideas of decision-making and quests for perfection together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Are you an optimizer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An optimizer is one who seeks to get the maximum possible performance or benefit or the best trade-off for every problem one tries to solve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m an optimizer.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In fact, most of us in technical professions or that grew into a leadership position from a technical background, such as engineering or software development, are optimizers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our desire, our obsessions, with maximizing the potential of a solution is perhaps what drove us into technical fields to begin with.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Being optimizers makes us excellent designers, developers, or problem solvers, most of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, it often makes us poor decision-makers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Why would I say that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should seeking the optimal solution be a bad way to make a decision?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, often it is just not practical or possible to explore our options or generate the perfect plan in the time we should be making a decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our optimizer personalities paralyze our decision process and we either fail to make a decision, or we do it too slowly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you are not sure if you fall into this category, here is a quick quiz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A “yes” answer to one or more questions might indicate that you are prone to optimizer behavior at least sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way, most of us are.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li>Do you like to weigh all the options before making a decision?</li>
<li>If one expert gives you advice, do you still seek advice from other experts?</li>
<li>Do you prefer to “sleep” on important decisions?</li>
<li>Do you stay awake at night because a pending decision has your mind occupied?</li>
<li>When you have bad news to deliver to an executive or a customer, will you carefully plan your words for more than a day?</li>
<li>Are you uncomfortable making a decision on the spot, without having some time to consider it first?</li>
<li>Do you second-guess your decisions?</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">If there are a few readers who actually answered “no” to all of those questions, then those readers are probably thinking something like, “Good grief you ninnies!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get a shot of courage and just make a decision!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way, that response from our peers, our leaders, and our own personnel is exactly the response we earn when we fail to make a timely or confident decision.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ironically, most readers probably answered “yes” to more than one of those questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, we are either poor decision-makers, or we are at least prone to decision paralysis at certain times, usually when the pressure is highest and it counts the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that I fall in this group.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The good news is that there is a simple cure for optimizer decision paralysis (sounds like an illness, ODP).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The key to good decision-making is consistently making <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good </i>decisions instead of wasting time and energy seeking optimal decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Face it, most times the optimal decision just isn’t available or can’t be found in time.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The solution is really that simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Changing our own behaviors and habits is not easy, however.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here I offer some ideas or thoughts that have helped some of my colleagues and me break our optimizer habits and generally make better decisions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understand the damage of delayed decisions:</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we take time to make our decisions, everyone, and every process that needs that decision is waiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting is one of the cardinal wastes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things that could be getting done aren’t getting done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, our people who also feel the pressure of delaying begin to try and predict what the decision will be and work toward that prediction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they guess wrong, then all of that work is defective and is wasted.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Aside from the fundamental wasted opportunity, work, time, or man-hours that result from indecision, there is the stress that is induced by indecision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pending, un-made decision is a source of stress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only does it create stress for us, but also it stresses everyone else who is waiting for that decision.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It is important for us to conceptualize the waste and stress we create with indecision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doing so helps us accept the idea that a good decision now is more valuable than a better decision later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This acceptance helps us overcome our obsession with seeking perfection.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give yourself a deadline:</div><div class="MsoNormal">By all means, if a snap decision is not necessary, and you are not comfortable making a decision on the spot, then give yourself some time to think through the options or seek some expert advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you do, though, pick a time that same day by which you will make your decision.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Get what information you can by that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider the risks and potential of the options you can identify and make the best good decision you can with the information you have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get it done, and don’t bring it home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The longer it waits the more it damages you and your team.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learn from hindsight, but don’t regret:</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sometimes, when we look back on our decisions we think of a way we might have done better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phenomenon happens even when we take a long time and try to make that perfect decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It happens no matter what, so don’t worry about it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you discover that there might have been a better decision, learn from it and bank it for next time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s been said that wisdom comes not from our good decisions, but from our mistakes and the lessons we learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turn it into wisdom and remain comforted that you made the best decision you knew how at the time with what you understood.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If it helps, consider some of your better designs or process solutions, or programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you kick yourself because a few years later you see how that solution you were so proud of might be improved upon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that you simply accept that you could do it better today because you are more experienced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Treat your decisions the same way.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prepare your armor against the “woulda-coulda-shoulda:”</div><div class="MsoNormal">Taking #3 a little further, don’t let yourself be intimidated about making a decision because you are concerned that someone else might see a better one later and point it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, refer to the advice given in #3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second have a few responses handy to deal with the too-late advisors or critics.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li>“Where were you when I needed that suggestion?”</li>
<li>“I didn’t think of that at the time, but I’ll remember it now.”</li>
<li>“I did what I thought was best at the time; next time I’ll know better.”</li>
<li>“I feel it’s better to make a good decision quickly than to be indecisive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took my best shot at the time.”</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">If the statements are true, then no one should shame you for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even great decision makers can discover better options after the fact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t let fear of the phenomenon inhibit decisiveness.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seek only one expert’s opinion:</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you are in a meeting with your team and a problem comes up, it’s great to ask for suggestions and to take all that are given into consideration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, if you don’t know enough, or know how to make a decision among your options, and you seek the help of an expert, ask only one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not ask one, and then ask another.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A peer did so recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He needed advice from a subject matter expert and so he asked the most senior expert first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Expert A, gave him the best solution according to his understanding and experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of acting on it, this peer went to the next expert and asked him what he should do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Expert B said, “What did A say?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do what he said to do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This guy got what he deserved.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are not willing to take the advice of the expert, why did you ask him in the first place?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you ask two, and they really are experts, then chances are they will probably provide basically the same advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they don’t agree, then you are no closer to making a decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must choose which expert you trust most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you went to that one first, then what was the point of seeking the second again? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Not only is it a complete waste of time, but also you undermine trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you think your mentor expert feels when he or she finds out you second-guessed his or her advice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of the trust damage that is done and for what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they could both tell you the same thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You also look like a complete gutless ninny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There is an old saying about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A man with two watches never knows what time it is.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you consult someone, start with your first choice and end there.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you find a good decision, stick to it:</div><div class="MsoNormal">Shift your mission from finding the best, most optimal decision, to identifying a good decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you find a good decision and you still have time in your urgency budget to explore further, then go ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just keep it simple and compare new options to the one good one you already have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you find a better one then that’s great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, go with what you’ve got.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Make your priority the identity of a good enough solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is usually much easier and quicker to find than the best solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need to make a quick, snap decision, then go with the first good solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one will fault you for making a good decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People will find fault if you take too long looking for the best decision.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Consider this final thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all want to make the best decision possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us who focus on making good decisions will sometimes also find great or optimal decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us who obsess about making optimal decisions rarely satisfy that desire, and often fail as decision-makers because we do not decide soon enough, and we are not confident in our solutions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you struggle to make decisions, or if making decisions keeps you up at night or causes you stress, then consider some of the insights shared above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep the 6 suggestions above in your pocket and go over them the next time you need to make an uncomfortable decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can help.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Decision-making is not always easy, but it doesn’t have to be stressful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a good look at those whom you perceive to be good decision-makers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chances are they exhibit most or all of the behaviors identified in the suggestions above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pick up the habit yourself and become more confident, more admired, and sleep better.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stay wise, friends.</div><!--EndFragment-->ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-90385844787502832392011-08-24T14:18:00.000-06:002011-08-24T14:18:45.961-06:00Leadership Lessons From Elementary School<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sometimes the lessons we expect our children to follow, we ourselves easily forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just because an activity is good for children, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable for adults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make a point of regularly reinforcing your organization’s values and refreshing habits for safety and conduct.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">The school year just started up for my local school district and I spent a day last week volunteering at the nearest-by elementary school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a great experience, and there was so much to do with getting things organized for the new season that I didn’t get a chance to help inside any of the classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did, however, get to observe a great deal.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The thoughtful planning that went into the first few days of school impressed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly the faculty had an agenda to refresh the student body’s memory concerning values, behavior, and code of conduct, as well as introduce the students to new faculty members and assets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It immediately occurred to me that businesses could benefit from following suit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me share with you some of what I observed and you can see if my belief is warranted.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The first observation that I will share is that there was an orientation provided for new parents and students to lay the groundwork and explain important details such as how student drop-off and pickup operates at the school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also introduced some of the benefits and programs the school has to offer, including volunteer programs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Following that trend, during the first two days of school, each kindergarten class was systematically introduced to the cafeteria and given a dry run to learn how the lunchroom process works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This meant that teachers and other faculty didn’t need to use actual process time to teach newcomers how to follow the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As you might imagine, if the kindergarteners could not follow the lunch process with at least some success, not only would they experience a stressful, morale-destroying lunch in which they didn’t get enough time to eat, but all of the downstream followers of the process would suffer as well.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Next, I witnessed that the school has a new counselor this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To introduce the new counselor, each class in every grade had an appointment with her in the hallway outside her office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During this appointment she introduced herself and then proceeded to review the school’s four values concerning respect, responsibility, safety, and being fun to be around.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It was killing two birds with one stone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the students got to meet the new counselor and all of the students participated in an interactive discussion and refresher on the school’s values and how to demonstrate them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Last, the school has a new playground this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each class had an opportunity to play on it as a single class, outside of regular recess times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During these special play times, each class also received instructions of the safety and conduct rules that go with the new playground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As they played, these new rules were enforced and reinforced.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, I know, it’s great and all to learn that an elementary school somewhere has its act together with new school year orientation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does this have anything to do with our business challenges?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s examine exactly that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Running through the school observations in order, most businesses do some form of orientation for new employees where these employees get to learn the rules and are provided with accesses and instructions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, does your organization also introduce the new employee to the other elements beyond just the basic instructions for how to log onto the system?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Does your organization’s new recruit orientation introduce that individual to the company’s softball team, or a bible study group some of the employees have formed?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does orientation explain fringe policies such as support for volunteering within the community or using company assets after work for networked collaboration projects or games?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Many organizations have clubs, options, or opportunities, but don’t tell new employees about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a missed opportunity!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should we let a new employee find his or her own way through the social network in order to discover these opportunities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doesn’t it make more sense to accelerate a new employee’s indoctrination by introducing him or her to these social elements where they might meet others with similar interests?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Second, when new processes are introduced, or when new employees are integrated, does your organization provide some dubious instructions or a quick lecture and turn new users loose on the system, or do you make time to perform hands-on instruction and dry runs in an environment where mistakes and the natural learning curve do not impact everyone on the system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly the latter is more ideal, but everywhere I’ve ever worked has executed the former.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When new leaders are introduced, do you get an e-mail with a few lines copied from that leader’s resume, or do you get introduced to that leader in person?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve experienced both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hat is off to every leader who insisted on shaking the hand of everyone in the business and attempting to commit a face and name to memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaders especially need to be people we can approach, not titles on an org chart.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Does your organization regularly discuss values and code of conduct with personnel?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mean the convenient-for-HR e-mail directing us to watch a video and take a quiz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s, in my opinion, a bunch of nonsense and a waste of energy and time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, are personnel actually reinforcing values and proper behavior by reviewing a mandatory memo or video?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you multi-task while you are letting the video play so that you can get work done?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, you did the same exercise last year at the same time, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What behavior does that reinforce; that work comes first and values second?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not trying to make you ashamed of your actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The leadership inspired your actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the leadership doesn’t have the time to meet with you to discuss the business’ values, then they have already sent that message that work comes first and values second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We multi-taskers are just following suit and checking the box.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, how do you really want it to work in your organization?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Follow the school’s example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make sure that you and other leaders invest the time to interactively discuss the organization’s values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mean a lecture through which everyone sleeps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean a genuine two-way discussion with examples and questions and answers flowing from both directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When that happens, values suddenly become important.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The same point can be made for safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you make time for employees to receive focused instruction on the safe and proper use of equipment or workspaces?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do they get an opportunity to practice and demonstrate their learning at a time when experts are on hand to mentor and correct them, before they make a dangerous mistake during normal operations?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Is it focused, interactive instruction, or do they get a memo and check a box as we discussed with the review of values a paragraph or two above?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s funny, but we expect elementary school children to follow along and accept these deliberate exercises and dry runs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact we plan it that way to be sure that we are getting through to each and every child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet we expect adults to read an e-mail and get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sure, as adults we are expected to exercise a little more self control and to remain focused a little longer, but those expectations don’t change the fact that interactive, focused discussions, personal contact, and low-pressure practice runs are a better way to transfer understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, whether we are 7 years old or 70, our learning behavior is the same.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In fact, our learning behavior is programmed into us in elementary school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our attention spans are trained to run in 50-minute cycles; something that is reinforced by television programming and office meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We become adapted to an instructor telling us and showing us how to do something, and then mentoring us through our own early attempts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We come to expect that someone will tell us what we are expected to learn, for them to teach it to us, and then for us to prove that we have understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We expect milestones, levels of achievements, and kudos for success or consequences for a lack of effort.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If we are all accustomed to learning this way, why do we not use the same strategy and method in the workplace to transfer knowledge?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answers are many.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li>We didn’t put that much thought into it</li>
<li>Adults don’t need so much effort to understand simple concepts</li>
<li>Adults don’t need someone to hold their hand and are offended if forced to take that hand</li>
<li>It’s not efficient</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Sure, the list could go on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But take a look at those reasons and decide for yourself if they are genuine reasons or if they are just excuses for doing it the easy way instead of the right way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell me that those “reasons” really hold water when the concern is safety or values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll challenge you to hold my gaze while you do it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Take a good look at the organization over which you have influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could it use a refresher on proper procedure, safety mindset, or organizational values?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need to bring on someone new, or need to introduce a new process, or just need to demonstrate some leadership presence, take yourself back to elementary school.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Plan your actions around transferring knowledge to, and indoctrinating, some elementary school students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not suggesting that you need to patronize your personnel or treat them like children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am suggesting that the plan you make that would work for children will be a better plan for your adults.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We learned a lot in elementary school, more than we realize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can still learn from the practices that take place in those hallways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take some time this week and look at your own organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would your ways work in grade school?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, make them better by changing them so they would.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stay wise, friends.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment--> ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1490754833265716676.post-32849802233445310022011-08-17T16:36:00.000-06:002011-08-17T16:36:55.543-06:00A Scatter Plot is Worth a Thousand Statistics<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive Summary:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">If your organization has adopted Six Sigma or other statistical decision-making practices, then you are probably familiar with p-values, Cp and Cpk numbers, and R-squared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are great comparators, but a simple chart often tells a much more comprehensive story than the statistical value.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Rest of the Story:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">When I first became educated and effectively “dipped” in the Six Sigma methodology, and began using statistics to compare processes or outcomes, one very basic rule was drilled into my consciousness and subsequently into my behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mantra was P-G-A, which stood for Practical, Graphical, Analytical.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In short, it was a process or procedure for analyzing data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, we must simply look at the raw data, just the numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we don’t see anything suspicious, we should graph the data and look at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often times, the graph or chart alone will reveal what we need to learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last, we take the time to perform the statistical analysis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It seems that this particular practice is no longer emphasized, or at least it’s not often practiced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems like people jump right to the statistical analysis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The problem is, that if there is a problem with the data, the statistical numbers might not tell you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sometimes takes an experienced eye to see the statistics and suspect that they don’t match common sense expectations.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here is an obvious and also common example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We receive some data from a supplier or from our quality measurement lab and we want to run a process capability study on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We dump it into our statistics software, push the button and get our Cpk number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outstanding! We have a Cpk of 1.33!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we even tell someone about it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">However, if we look at the data we realize that all of the data points have exactly the same number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The measurement lab used a go-no-go gauge to assess the incoming product and they all got the same number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no variation in the data and so the capability study is invalid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oops!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If we had just looked at it first we wouldn’t have wasted our time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often times, if we just look at the data before getting carried away we can visually see a problem before we waste time graphing or analyzing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can identify outliers caused by typos, impossible numbers, or duplicate data lines that can play tricks with our analysis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enough said about procedure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s talk about pictures.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When we use statistics to compare results, outputs, or processes, especially executives, we often have others performing the analysis and reporting the numbers to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learn that higher Cp and Cpk numbers are better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remember that p-values below 0.05 are significant, and that R-squared values better than 80% or 90% show strong correlation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Our analyzers often give us the numbers and assure us that they were diligent in their analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we’re lucky, they will warn us when they see small sample sets or otherwise suspicious information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do their best to anticipate what is important and feed us the minimum information necessary for us to make a decision, in the interest of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, no one wants to engage in a drawn-out explanation of heterostegasticity.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, if our analysts are doing all the work and just feeding us the numbers, what do they need us for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the statistics are in, the decision is usually pretty obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the power of the statistics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congratulations, we have made ourselves obsolete by giving all of the decision-making effort to our underlings!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">OK, so we may not want to invest our upper management and executive staff salaries in conducting statistical analyses on piles of data, but we also shouldn’t just let a couple of indicators be the sole intelligence upon which we make significant business decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we need to do is ask for the picture.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When your analyst shows you the number, ask for the data plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the data plot, we can tell if the sample set it large or small, we can see indicators of possible trends, we can see if it’s possible the data came from more than one population, we can visualize influences, and we can better judge if one data set is practically different from another.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By way of example, take a look at the scatter plot in Figure 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our analyst reported to us a very low R-squared number indicating that there is no reason to believe that there is any relationship between the factor on the x-axis and the output on the y-axis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you look at the scatter plot, you will probably see why.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-55aHL4LAcRo/TkxA-frOnAI/AAAAAAAAAA0/FJzXAiTSEkU/s1600/ScatterPlotFigure1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-55aHL4LAcRo/TkxA-frOnAI/AAAAAAAAAA0/FJzXAiTSEkU/s320/ScatterPlotFigure1.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> Figure 1</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">However, if the analysis is an attempt to help us find a way to reduce variation in a production process, would we accept the r-squared indicator and abandon our efforts, or would we ask for more information?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you hear that 15 data points were collected, it sounds reasonable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when you see 15 data points scattered around as much as they are, it looks like a very weak analysis.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A basic truth of statistics is that more variation requires more data in order to characterize the behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we look at Figure 1, we might decide that more data would be useful to better assess the behavior.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now there are numerical, statistical indicators that our analyst probably reviewed before showing us the r-squared value, and these indicators will also warn us if the data set is too small to draw any meaningful conclusions, but remember, we don’t want to spend all afternoon reviewing every number of every analysis, and our analysts know it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Look again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looks like there might be a relationship, an upward-sloping pattern if there weren’t so many gaps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the range or spread of the values gets smaller as the process moves to the right of the chart and we just don’t have enough information to prove it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Less variation in the output would be great.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The picture helps us visualize what the statistics are probably also indicating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should get more data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our analyst agrees, and goes off to do so.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, let’s take a look at Figure 2 which shows 50 data points, instead of 15, for the same process and the same input-output relationship. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The r-squared value didn’t change much, and some of the other indicators of statistical significance are much improved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The r-squared still suggests there is no correlation.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gksq0YHiOxM/TkxBXOw9bfI/AAAAAAAAAA4/jWaqHjRKed8/s1600/ScatterPlotFigure2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gksq0YHiOxM/TkxBXOw9bfI/AAAAAAAAAA4/jWaqHjRKed8/s320/ScatterPlotFigure2.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p>Figure 2</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">When we look for regions of less variation and, therefore, a potentially more controllable output, we see that moving to the right is not the answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we do see an apparent hourglass-on-its-side shape to the data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we hold the input factor at 15, do we produce an output consistently between 8 and 10?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The r-squared and other correlation factors won’t tell us that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we didn’t look at the scatter plot we might not have seen it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If our analyst was in a hurry because he has twenty of these to do in a day, or if the habitual behavior is to look at the number and be done with the investigation, and he didn’t think to point it out to us, then a potential opportunity to solve the problem would have been missed.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Suppose it’s very little trouble to set the input factor at 15 and run it for a few cycles or shifts and run a capability study of the output variation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can relatively quickly determine if there is a sweet spot in the process controls or if we are back to square one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the power of visualizing the data and the process performance.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Do yourself a huge favor and when your analyst shows up with the numbers, get in the habit of asking for the plots to go with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It won’t take long before your analyst begins bringing the plots without your requesting them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you need a quick refresher so you can ask for the right plot, here is a simple list.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li>For a picture of variation or process capability, we want a histogram</li>
<li>For correlation or relationships between one thing and another, we want a scatter plot</li>
<li>For sequential or time-dependent data, we want a line graph or run chart</li>
<li>For relative frequency of distinct events or outcomes, we want a Pareto chart</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My personal preference is a dot-plot in each case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, I prefer to see dots for each data point in addition to, or instead of, the lines or bars typically presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lines and bars don’t always communicate the volume of data upon which the analysis was performed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dots show you quickly if there is a lot of data or a little bit.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Statistics are powerful decision-making tools, but they aren’t a substitute for common sense or intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you perform your own statistical analysis be sure and make the P-G-A sequence a habit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If analysts perform statistics for you, do yourself a favor and ask for the plot of the data.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">With the plot of the data you can better understand what is going on with your process or your inputs or outputs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can better identify opportunities, and you can better visualize what the statistics are trying to tell you, or in some cases are incapable of telling you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reviewing the visual data will lead to smarter decisions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stay wise, friends.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment--> ALAN NICOLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03630509676282645655noreply@blogger.com1