Lean in a Week!

In the true spirit of continuous improvement I am ever so proud to share with you an even lean-er version of my original blog entitled First 10 steps to lean.  I would first like to thank the creaters of Twitter and their 140 character limit on tweets.  And I should also thank the Romans who invented the five day work week (I'm pretty sure they did - Google it).  As a result of these two parameters I recently came up with an even more precics "5 steps to Lean."  Or what I like to refer to as "Lean in a Week."

1. Monday Assignment: Set yourself a goal of figuring out who your customer is. Hint: customers exchange money for #Value
2. Tuesday's Assignment: Pretend to call your customer to ask them what adds #Value. Hint: its not what YOU think #Value 
3. Wednesday's Assignment: List every step to create your product/service. Hint: account for EVERYONE within your organization
4. Thursday's Assignment: Take the #Waste steps you don't need and STOP doing them Hint: This is called Type 2 Muda
5. Friday's Assignment: Take the remaining #Waste steps and assign small groups to eliminate them Hint: This is called #Kaizen 

 Good luck!

Email Response to Sceptical Olympic Coach

Try to imagine my excitement when I received my first response from a real live Olympic coach wondering what my LeanOnMe consulting services were all about.  I won't identify the coach but lets just say they and their athlete provided some of the proudest memories for me of the 2012 Olympics.

Their response in part read as follows...

"I like the idea of applying a more stringent, and proven methodology to the entire Athletics Canada federation, but I have absolutely no say in what they do....if you can give me a more specific idea of what you envision I can run it by our team and see what everybody thinks.  Right now we have LOTS of people coming forward with ideas.  But we don't want to change things too dramatically since what we are doing seems to be working.  Maybe we can talk next week?  Let me know."

I was struck by a few things they said.  The first was that they expressed a certain level of frustration at their lack of say in terms of what Athletics Canada federation does.  I couldn't help but think of countless employees and front line managers with whom I have worked who said the same thing about their senior management.

I was also a little amused at the notion that they have "LOTS of people coming forward with ideas."  And here I thought I was the only one.  Who knew?  But I wonder how many Lean consultants are knocking on their door.

Finally I was reminded as I always am of the importance of being respectful to my clients.  It is easy for outsiders such as consultants to want to focus on the road to improvement.  But in any organization it is of utmost importance to have the buy-in of everyone involved.

Keep in mind this is still hot off the press.  But I will share with you my response which was sent just six minutes after I opened their email to me:

"...what I am proposing is basically taking the principles of the Toyota Production System or “Lean Manufacturing” and applying them to competing in sports.  As I’m sure you can appreciate it’s not something you can easily describe in an email so I will definitely take you up on your offer for a phone call next week.  But put as simply as possible you start with what the customer, in this case the taxpayers, value.  Then you analyze everything you do that adds value and try to do more of that.  And at the same time you look at everything you do that doesn’t add value and you try to do less of that.

It sounds overly simplistic and I always resist trying to give specific examples, especially when it comes to Value Streams where I am not an expert such as competing for Olympic medals.  But the first step would be to really understand what it is that the customer/taxpayers value from the Olympics.  I know I can speak from personal experience and say that I value the following things (out of many):

• Achieving a personal best
• Winning a medal
• Being very personable in interviews
• Winning with grace and style
• Coming to my kids’ school so they can meet a real Olympic athlete
• …and so on

 ...I suppose the real strength of Lean is it takes all subjectiveness out of process improvement by letting the customer define value, and the subject matter experts make the improvements.

Bottom line is I am willing to offer my LeanOnMe services free of charge to you, or any Canadian Olympic athlete’s team to see if I can help.  That consists of two days per month in person as scheduled by you.  And outside of that access to me as required via unlimited emails and phone calls.

Like you I believe passionately in what I do.  I care deeply about my clients.  And I take the greatest pride imaginable when they achieve more than they ever thought possible.  And I don’t need you to have any influence what-so-ever over Sports Canada.  All I need from you is an open mind, a rabid passion to succeed, and a willingness to be a leader.  Check.  Check.  Check.

I am asking for half an hour of your time to talk on the phone or grab a coffee....Thanks again for responding to me.  And again thank you for what was definitely my most memorable moment of the 2012 Olympics."

Be The "Best Manager Ever!!" In Just 3 Steps

I recently read an article on “Bad Managers” posted by the Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/are_you_sure_youre_not_a_bad_b.html?awid=5579446836070843808-3271) It definitely seems to be well researched and the conclusions appear to be comprehensive.  Although I am always suspicious when the number of conclusions reached using the Scientific Method exactly matches the number of fingers on the scientist.  But I understand it makes for great copy.

Since the article does not offer any practical advice for a bad boss to address these “10” deficiencies I thought I would add my two cents worth here.  Based on my experience in helping a “large number” of bosses become better everything the article talks about can be improved (perhaps not fixed) by improving communication.  To do this I encourage every boss to follow these three steps:

1. Every Friday have each of your direct reports send you their Weekly Plan for the following week.  Don’t get hung up on the format (an Excel spreadsheet usually works best).  DO NOT let them simply print out their Outlook calendar.  This encourages everyone to think ahead about what they need to accomplish.  And it gives you an idea of where your people are spending the company’s time.  Trust me, you will be shocked.
2. Set up Daily Planner Review Meetings with each of your direct reports.  These should be held at the same time each day, preferable in the morning.  And they should rarely (never) be missed.  Once the reviews get going they should last no more than 5 – 10 minutes.
3. Looking at a printed copy of the employee’s Weekly Plan ask them the following question: “Do you have everything you need to be successful today?”  Then listen to their response.  This is their opportunity to highlight any issues that have or may come up (and there is always something).  And it is your opportunity to help them resolve those issues – this is called “managing.” 

That's it.  These are the three practical steps that will drive effectiveness (reduce Waste) within your group.  What will also happen at these meetings is employees will have an opportunity to bring up anything else that may be a concern for them.  Any (good) manager knows that it is a lot easier to address small concerns before they become big concerns.

  

I wish I had seven other points to round out my list but that’s really all there is to it.  I cannot stress enough the importance of not cancelling these meetings.  Ironically something I often see is a manager start to take the increase in performance (and employee satisfaction) for granted.  And the next thing you know they are missing their Daily meetings with their direct reports.  If you do start down this path to more effective management be forewarned that it is not a “quick fix” or a “flavour of the month.”

I should also address the elephant in the room which is my least favourite term “Micromanagement.”  If you are reading this with your arms crossed and a knowing sneer on your face you are probably thinking to yourself "I don't need to talk to my employees.  They know what to do and when they have a problem they can come find me." If this describes you then I strongly encourage you to NOT try this with your direct reports.  In fact I strongly encourage you to NOT have any direct reports at all.  Please.

To me (and I think most people) micromanaging involves standing next to someone and repeatedly asking them “Are you done yet?  Are you done yet?  Are you done yet?” and so on.  What I am advocating is NOT that.  If you open your mind and let the concepts flow in you will realize that by doing the three things above you are actually giving your employees the greatest gift of all…your time.”

When you are explaining this to your direct reports, especially the experienced ones who “know what they need to do,” be sure to emphasize that you need this information so you can help them (not the other way around).  You are simply asking them for their plan.  Then all you are doing is ensuring that they have everything they need from you.  If they do have everything then they are free to “have a nice day.”  If there’s something you can do for them, that’s all you want to know.

@leanmind

Lean Olympics

Let me begin by saying that, as the father of a child who competes at the world level in their chosen discipline, I have some idea of what it takes to get there and stay there.  I don't know who said it first but I believe it holds true that to compete and succeed at the world level in any discipline one needs an extraordinary amount of each of the following:

1. Natural ability
2. Hard work
3. Support

The first two are self-explanatory, at least for my purposes.  And I make the assumption that when it comes to world-class athletes each and every one of them has these two elements in ample supply.  As a Lean Lean management consultant I am interested in the third requirement.

Those not familiar with Lean Manufacturing will undoubtedly have heard of Toyota.  The concepts of Lean Manufacturing were first developed by Toyota and are largely responsible for allowing the company to grow to the world leader that it is today.  In extremely simplistic terms Lean involves the following:

Ask your customer what they value.  Then spend more time adding value, and less time generating waste.

This is very easy to say, extremely difficult to do.

As a passionate practitioner of Lean I am constantly looking for creative ways where Lean methodologies can be applied to maximize value and minimize waste.  In fact I even conducted a Lean initiative on my own management consulting company.  This soul-crushing journey of self-discovery resulted in the development of a suite of products that allow us to deliver more value than our previous products at about a tenth of the cost to our customers.

So what does Lean have to do with our Canadian Olympic athletes? Well it occurred to me that there might be an opportunity to apply Lean thinking to elite sports.  In particular what excites me is the opportunity to work with people who are very likely more motivated to improve than anyone else on the planet.  Lean can shorten software development life cycles from months to weeks, manufacturing processes from weeks to days, and emergency room wait time from hours to minutes.  Why then can't these same methodologies be used to shave precious minutes, seconds, centimeters, meters, and even point deductions off of personal bests? 

The answer is "I don't know why not."  But I'm willing to try.  Which is why I am making the following offer to any Canadian Olympic athlete from the 2010 or 2012 games:

I will provide, free of charge, my LeanOnMe services for as long as the athlete sees value.

This includes 2 days per month working directly with the athlete and their coaching team to apply Lean techniques.  Plus unlimited emails, texts and phone calls to provide support and guidance when it is needed.  I welcome all inquiries.

First (and only) 10 Steps to Lean

There are as many ways to start your Lean journey as there are blogs on the internet, business books on the shelf, and experts with opinions.  Not to get left behind I have added my 2 cents worth to the conversation.  The following are 10 basic guidelines, in my opinion, for starting your Lean journey as well as some things to watch out for along the way.

Step One: Find your customer

Any Lean journey must start with the customer.  To people not familiar with Lean this will seem shockingly obvious.  However this is often the last place people look to when trying to improve their organizations.  And sadly most never talk to the customer at all.

In some people's defence it is not always obvious who the customer is.  Anyone who works in retail will have a hard time understanding this delima.  However when you are supporting complex IT systems deep in the basement of an insurance company it is easy to forget that the customers are the people purchasing the policies.  The acid test for identifying a customer is as follows:

"Customers pay us money for our products and services"

Consider the following examples of what I mean by this:

• Students in a classroom are not customers - it's the taxpayer or whoever is paying the tuition
• The department receiving internal project management services is not the customer - it's the people buying the company's products and services
• The department receiving the new software upgrade of internal systems is not the customer - it's the people buying the company's products and services
• The employee receiving feedback on a standard Human Resources form is not the customer - it's the people buying the company's products and services
• The production department receiving the test results from Quality Assurance is not the customer - it's the people buying the company's products and services

.....you get the idea

Step Two: Have your customer define Value

Again to anyone outside of the Organizational Improvement industry this will seem very obvious.  But I will guarantee you that right now there are thousands of Value Stream Maps, complete with Fortune 100 consulting firm logos, proudly posted on boardroom walls that classify tasks such as the following as Value-Add activities:

• Update project schedule
• Fill in status report
• Perform quality inspection
• Set up CNC machine
• Back up critical data
• Perform preventative maintenance

(I'm not kidding, look for yourself if you do not believe me).  And you and I both know there isn't a soul on the planet who ever gave a single thought to the person replacing oil filters on snow ploughs each time they signed the cheque for their property taxes.

The right way to have a customer assign Value is to ask them.  This can be as simple as a face-to-face interview where you ask them "can you please tell me some things you Value about our product or service?"  To more complex surveys designed to have customers rank the relative Importance (Value) of as many attributes (Price, Quality, Appearance, etc.) of your product or service as you can. 

Do not skip these steps.  Everything else is a shot in the dark if you do.

Step Three: Value Stream Mapping

This is the point where most "improvement" gurus love to jump in.  In fact business schools churn out thousands of eager young professionals every month who live for this stuff.  And for good reason - its fun.  The idea is to capture on as big a sheet of paper as possible every single task that is performed within your organization to ultimately deliver your product or service.  The key is don't be stingy.  Put everything on there - preferable in little boxes connected by arrows representing the Flow of things.

What is critical is that you capture EVERY TASK from as far up the Value Stream as possible all the way to the customer.  Here again Lean initiatives usually make the mistake of focusing on a tiny subset of the overall Value Chain.  The first risk here is you immediately lose sight of, or never even think of who your customer is.  And the second risk is ..... well never mind any other risk.  That one is bad enough.

The acid test for knowing whether your Value Stream is complete is that everyone in the organization is accounted for.  That includes not only the people in Sales and Marketing, but also the people in Finance, Admin, HR, Facilities, IT.....everyone.  If you find you are unsure how some tasks fit into the overall Value Stream Map don't worry, that means you are doing it correctly.  Just write them down.

Step Four: Task Evaluation

As with Step Three, if you have, like so many others, decided to skip Steps One and Two then stop now and go back.  For unless you have found your (paying) customer and you thoroughly understand what it is they Value about your products and services there is NO WAY for you to properly evaluate each task within your Value Stream Map.

What you want to do is consider each and every task in your Value Stream Map and classify it into one of the following two categories:

1. Value Added
2. Waste

Until you and your organization truly embrace the concept of Value I find the easiest way to do this is pretend to phone your customer and ask them questions like the following:

• "Do you Value the fact that we hold daily status meetings?"
• "Do you Value the fact that we unload material from trucks that deliver things to our back door?"
• "Do you Value the fact that we spend a lot of time moving things from one area within our facility to another?"
• "Do you Value the fact that we key your order into our complicated computer system?"
• "Do you Value the fact that we test our software in multiple lower environments?"
• "Do you Value the fact that we spend hours each day responding to emails?"

And so on.  As you can see you will find almost nothing you do actually adds Value for your customer.  And trust me, this is a good thing.

It is important at this stage to keep in mind a few common pitfalls that could cause you to incorrectly classifying tasks as Value that are actually Waste:

1. A task is not Value add to your customer just because you are good at it
2. A task is not Value add to your customer just because you've always done it
3. A task is not Value add to your customer just because you like doing it
4. A task is not Value add to your customer just because you can't figure out how to stop doing it

Organizational improvement can not be personal.  And unfortunately almost all improvement efforts get caught in this trap which is why I can not emphasize enough the importance of Steps One and Two.

That being said there will undoubetly be a handful of things you do that will add Value for your customers.  To identify Value I like to use the following general rule:

Customers Value tasks that get them what they want or need, but they can't or won't do

For example:

• Helping me select the right options for my insurance policy (not processing the paperwork)
• Selecting the right components for my inground sprinkler system (not stocking the DIY store shelves)
• Writing software that allows me to check Twitter on my phone (not testing and debugging the code to fix their own mistakes)
• Cleaning the windows outside my highrise office (not setting up the ropes)

In each case above it is easy to imagine your hypothetical customer saying "why yes, thanks for asking.  I absolutely find Value in you doing those things for me."

Step Five: Identify Opportunities to improve

At long last we are getting to the good part.  But hopefully you can see how critical it was to carefully go through the previous four steps in order to know what to improve.  For without knowing what you do that adds Value for your customers, and therefor what you do that is Waste, it would be impossible to consider the following guidelines for identifying Improvement Opportunities.  The rule for Identifying Opportunities is to find ideas that do one or more of the following:

1. Optimize Value
2. Minimize Waste

As with any idea generating or brainstorming exercise the key here is to identify as many ideas as possible.  The the best way to do that is to include as many people as possible without putting any limits on their imagination.  You will be be amazed at what they will come up with when they truly accept the concepts of Waste and Value as defined by the customer.  All of a sudden you are not trying to eliminate a few steps here and there.  Rather you are looking to gouge out (or minimize) huge chunks of your Value Stream.

Step Six:  Prioritize Opportunities to improve

Things are pretty basic here.  You want to consider the dozens and dozens (hundreds) of ideas that people have come up with and start to figure out what you want to do first. In general you want to evaluate your Opportunities based on the following:

1. Ease of Implementation
2. Impact of Change

An improvement with relatively little impact on Waste or Value might make sense if it is straightforward to implement.  Likewise a change that is more challenging might make sense if the Impact is great.

Step Seven: Implement Changes

There are excellent improvement techniques such as Kaizen and 5S that help you do this.  But no matter which methodology you select the key is to involve the people directly associated with the process.  I can not stress this enough.  I like to refer to the following mathematical forumula to demonstrate the power of a group:

1 + 1 = 5 

Or to put it another way, one person can accomplish the work of one person.  But two or more people working together can accomplish more than the sum of their parts.  Ok maybe its not so scientific but it works.

Step Eight: Measure your results

This aspect of Organizational Change could (and probably will) fill its own blog.  For these purposes it is important just to say that as part of the process of selecting which changes to implement it is just as important to quantitatively measure your results.  This should NEVER require the use of a complex computer system.  In fact it is usually best to use a simple white board or log sheet.  The key is for the measurement to be simple and highly visible.

Step Nine: Communicate and celebrate your achievements

Nothing new here.  However making your results and achievements visible is a great way to recognize peoples' efforts by supporting the "1 + 1 = 5" concept.  Plus it is a great way to allow your organization to share ideas and build on the success of others.

Step Ten:  Repeat forever

Anyone who tells you they know how to make an organization Lean is missing the point.  Just as someone who tells you "oh we're already Lean" is also sadly mistaken.  Lean is not about the destination, its about the journey.  Now that you've made it to Step Ten it's time to go back to Step One and start again.

Happy trails :)