First Principles of Performance Improvement

The Builder

Author unknown

An old man going down a lone highway

Came in the evening cold and grey

To a chasm vast and deep and wide

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

That swollen stream held no fears for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old Man" said a fellow standing near,

"You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with this passing day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?"

The old man lifted his old grey head.

"Good friend in the path I have come," he said,

"There follows after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This swollen stream which was naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend I build this bridge for him."

I first heard this poem over 30 years ago.  I liked it then.  Now, I truly appreciate it as well.
When I look back on my 25 yr quest to become a professional, although I’ve attended dozens of workshops, it turns out that only a handful were designed to grow useful skills and help me learn (what I now know to be) key principles.  Unfortunately there was no way for me to know this ahead of time and relatively few thought-leaders in the field whose guidance I could rely on to help me chart a path that would shorten my “lead time to professional competence.”  This was well before any certifications existed, and prior to the formalization of a body of knowledge for what is now known as six sigma, or “lean thinking,” as well.  The “apprentice model” was the predominant approach to effective professional development in the performance improvement field when I started out.

So, in the spirit of The Builder, I’d like to pass along two key pieces of guidance that I received when I was just starting out:

1.     Learn your craft
2.     Always work from a model of performance

The idea behind #1 is to invest the time to learn what it takes to become a true performance improvement professional (in contrast to say, a competent technician).

The 2^nd piece of guidance is aimed at applying the scientific method (PDCA) to performance improvement situations so that you can distinguish between superstitious behavior and effective principles, guidelines, and methods that achieve repeatable results.

Under the “I wish I knew then what I know now category,” as part of learning my craft, I’d include key concepts and principles of “lean thinking” to what I now think of as foundation principles, concepts and skills.   More importantly, I’d place equal emphasis on respect for people, effective coaching, go see for yourself, and people development along with kaizen principles and concepts (those associated with ongoing continuous improvement-not the more popular time-boxed improvement events).
 I’d also learn all I could about viewing and operating work as a system.  (If you are interested in learning more about systems thinking, I’ve posted some great videos of Russell Ackoff).

Where do the “usual” lean practices or tools, such as kanban, 5S, or value stream mapping fit in?   Why did I deliberately choose to exclude these?  Am I saying these are somehow inappropriate?
Not really.  I’m guided in part by the twin beliefs that “every idea has its time,” and “timing is everything.”  I’m saying that you’ll better understand when, why, and how best to apply any of the “usual” lean techniques or countermeasures plus those yet to be invented or created, once you’ve learned and internalized key concepts, principles, and models of performance first.   I believe there exists a set of first principles of performance improvement that, once understood will help you make sense of subsequent practices and tools that you’ll encounter over the course of your career.

So, what does this mean to you?

A lot, if you’re looking for training on how to apply lean principles, concepts, and techniques (practices) in transactional, service, or office settings.

I’ve joined forces with Alec Sharp to offer a 3 day workshop that contains several of the “first principles” that I alluded to above.  The workshop also contains guidelines, concepts, models, procedures, and checklists that help you apply these principles in order to improve business process performance.  Alec and I have discovered, validated, and accumulated this content over a combined 50 years of consulting work. We know it works.   By attending this workshop, you’ll be able to accelerate your own development much more quickly.  And Alec and I will have built some bridges.

Click here to learn more about this workshop.

"Flow, Not Joe"

Too often when those new to "lean thinking" first discover Ohno's 7 forms of Waste, there is a tendency to equate waste with non-value added job tasks.  This really gets problematic when the entire job turns out to composed of non-value added work, which is quite possible in business or transactional processes.

Especially if "Joe" is doing that job currently.

More experienced lean thinkers know that other forms of waste in business processes such as delays, re-keying of data, and batching of work are often present, and have a much greater impact on flow, than Joe does.

So, finding and removing barriers to flow is the goal.  Joe should be assigned now to value-creating work.

This is the key theme of my presentation ("Flow, not Joe") at the 2010 ASQ Lean and Six Sigma Conference.

I hope you can make it, and please tell Joe not to worry anymore.

"Talent is Overrated" Review by Jim Citrin of Geoff Colvin's book,

A while back I came across this article on Yahoo Finance by Jim Citrin. Since I had recently finished reading an outstanding book, "Talent is Overrated," written by Geoff Colvin, an article with the same title caught my eye.

Jim provides a useful review of Geoff Colvin's book.  For me personally, the idea of deliberate practice is very powerful and intriguing- partly because of the field I work in.  I suspect that one of the people development practices of the Toyota Production System is the incorporation of deliberate practice, especially if one aspires to be thought of, or referred to, as "Sensei."

Business Process Improvement & Lean Thinking Combined!

More and more people are seeking training in how to apply "lean thinking" to administrative, office, service, or transactional processes.  If you've been looking for this, chances are you already know that there aren't that many workshop offerings that address this need.  Those that do tend to focus on lean tools or practices such as value stream mapping, 5S, or facilitating "kaizen" events.  I'll refer to these as the "usual suspects."

You deserve better choices - and now I'm pleased to offer you one.

To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with the "usual suspects."  It's just that I've learned over the course of my 25 years as a practitioner that:

1. every idea has its time
   
2. timing is everything

Now what these two guidelines mean in this context, is that you'll better understand when, why, and how best to apply any of the "usual suspects" plus those yet to be invented or created, once you've learned and internalized key concepts, principles, and models of performance first.

Stated differently, I believe there exists a set of first principles of performance improvement that, once understood will help you make sense of subsequent practices and tools that you'll likely encounter over the course of your career.

So here is the offer.

I've joined forces with Alec Sharp to offer a 3 day workshop that contains several of the first principles that I mentioned above.  The workshop also contains guidelines, concepts, models, procedures, and checklists that help you apply these principles in order to improve business processes.

Alec and I have discovered, validated, and accumulated this content over a combined 50 years of "hands-on" consulting work.  We know it works.  By attending this workshop, you'll be able to accelerate your own development and reap the benefits much more quickly.  And Alec and I will have built some bridges.

Click here to learn more about the workshop.  Business Process Improvement:  Improving Flow and Reducing Waste to Increase Customer Value.

Eventbrite-What a Great Idea!!

I found out about this service sometime last year when I signed up for a Google Adsense workshop.  For those of us who hold events, this is a dream come true.

I highly recommend this service.  If you are curious and want to learn why I'm such an enthusiastic fan, please use this link to learn more.  Learn more about Eventbrite here.

Why Create a Learning Culture?

This is why Toyota wants a "Thinking" Organization, and uses the PDCA problem solving/ structured learning approach to grow everyone's skills.

• what they should be doing = twi,(job instruction) standard work
• how they can do it better = pdca
• how they will know they have achieved desired results = built in feedback (quality at the source)
• reflection = hansei
• knowledge-sharing = yokoten
• part of the way they function on a day to day basis = standard work, daily work

clipped from www.bloomberg.com Organizations are cutting resources and headcount. Why is it important for an organization to create a learning culture? "It is precisely because they are cutting resources and headcount that organizations, nonprofit and for-profit, must find ways to be more efficient and effective with what they have... To maximize productivity they need to be continuously learning. They must learn what they should be doing, how they can do it better, and how they will know when they have achieved the results they want...This means making information feedback, reflection, and knowledge-sharing part of the way they function on a day-to-day basis... Doing more of the same, even if slightly better, is not the answer."

Systems Thinking: Part/Whole Interactions

Some of the tasty "food for thought" nuggets in this Ackoff video segment:

• Focus on the whole
• Only improve a part if it improves the whole
• Fundamental lesson (to be learned) is to understand how the parts interact; not on how each part acts separately
• The place to attack a problem is not necessarily where the problem appears

In subsequent posts, I'll relate each of these to the property of "flow."

Here's a hint. Check out the 4th Principle of Improving the Flow of Knowledge Work. You can find it in other posts in this blog. By the way, the principle applies to all work and it helps explain why the Toyota Production System is so effective.