How to Kill ANY Improvement Project
The Status Quo Must Change
Anyone who has undertaken an improvement project quickly realizes that no matter how bad the problem, how dire the consequences, or how great the solution, there is a strong and determined defense of the status quo. This is not mere hyperbole; many people in business are viscerally opposed to change and will do everything in their power to ensure the current state remains in place, at least for the time being. In short, people will fight you.
Since this is a fight, let’s look at it in those terms. A few thousand years ago, military strategist Sun Tzu wrote:
All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. Sun Tzu, the Art of War
Join the Resistance!
Let’s look at some of the common ways Six Sigma and Lean projects get derailed. This is a partial list and we welcome your comments and additions to this info.
Employ Snipers
Discredit the person running the project. This method doesn’t even require a face to face confrontation. No matter how good the project recommendations are, no one will listen if they don’t trust the person suggesting the change.
Disrupt Supply Lines
Armies move on their stomachs and improvement project move only with timely and accurate data. Cut off or restrict the data flow to a project, and it will slowly die.
Mutiny
Create an uprising among the team members. Sow the seeds of descent. While this is an active approach, it need not be direct.
Death by 1,000 Cuts
This technique requires patience and persistence. Improvement projects are in the business of making data-based recommendations designed to improve an aspect of the business. In this technique, you withhold key information while data is being gathered and recommendations are being made. When the time is right, you let it be known that ‘someone is already working on that’, as you feign surprise. This is sure to demoralize the team.
Hijack
If you are able to see the path ahead and where the improvement recommendations are headed, many times you can undercut the improvement team but jumping right to the solution. The team will waste time gathering and validating tons of useless information, while you are a hero
How to do Hansei
How to do Hansei By Jon Miller | Post Date: May 4, 2012 12:05 AM | Comments: 0 
I am wrapping up a fairly intensive period of reflection. This week was the first board meeting since the merger of Gemba Research and Kaizen Institute nearly 18 months ago. It has been a time of challenge, opportunity and personal growth, requiring much hansei. This was about half of our work this week, the other half looking ahead. As a result, the following are a few realizations on how to do hansei. Don’t batch hansei. Reflection, learning and behavior correction is easier and better in small doses. The practices of hoshin kanri as well as the daily management / leader standard work build in regular reviews for the purpose of learning and course correction. Don’t wait 12-18 months for a review, no matter how major the project or how busy you may be. Reflect as a team. It’s not easy to hold up the mirror steadily and gaze honestly at yourself. It is better to give and take feedback from multiple outside perspectives. While it’s not impossible to do hansei on one’s own, it’s immeasurably better to do so as a team. Do hansei whenever you have an expectation. An expectation is a desire to see a particular output as a result of a process. We need to compare target (expectation) versus actual when doing hansei. Also, whenever we expected to see a result cannot, we also need to do hansei, and take action to correct the situation. The reflection on the hansei process reminded me of a bit of eastern wisdom that goes “Know yourself, know what is good, know when to stop”. This is amazing advice in almost any situation. Applied to hansei, Know yourself. This is the gist of hansei, an honest reflection on the self as an individual or the team as a unit. Know what is good. Have a target to compare against and reflect upon. Hansei is less an exchange of opinions about a situation and more an honest look at the facts. Know when to stop. The purpose of hansei is not to beat ourselves into a pulp or to express every dissatisfaction and every missed expectation. We must know when we have done sufficient reflection to identify a few actionable lessons. Stop while you are ahead and end reflection on a positive note if all possible. There is a fundamental cultural difference between cultures, regions and within organization when it comes to facing up to faults and failures, accepting responsibility, and learning. The capacity to reflect may be what separate homo sapiens from animals, successful organizations from those less so. Kaizen, the PDCA cycle, hansei and the scientific method are all instances of the same principle. In general the more time we spend on Check and Act, the more effective our Plans and Doings will be. This is the spirit of hansei.
Read more: Lean Manufacturing Blog, Kaizen Articles and Advice | Gemba Panta Rei
Success Requires Failure
You have to fail to learn. You have to learn to succeed… see how that works? If you are not failing, you can never succeed.
Bob H
Like this:
Can Software Development Be Agile & Autonomous?
Those of us who work in the software development world are familiar with the term ‘agile’. But for us, this term is related to the Agile Manifesto. In Vijay Kuman’s TED talk, he speaks about ‘agile autonomous’ robots. He shows that decentralized control, local information, and anonymity work in this physical world. I wonder if we could use the same principles. He notes that the larger you make the quadrotor copter, the more inertia you have and the less agile it is. Hmmm… that sounds awfully familiar.
About this video: In his lab at Penn, Vijay Kumar and his team build flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams — for construction, surveying disasters and far more. At the University of Pennsylvania, Vijay Kumar studies the control and coordination of multi-robot formations.
Important Stuff
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.
You Don’t Understand Third World Problems
In 1964, United States had Small Families and Long Life Expectancy and as we might expect, Viet Nam had Large Families and Short Life Expectancy. But things changed. In 2003, United States still had Small Families and Long Life Expectancy, but Viet Nam had caught up. In 2003, Viet Nam’s Family Size and Life Expectancy were identical to the U.S. Rates in 1974 at the end of the Viet Nam Conflict.
from TED, posted on the gapminder.org website http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUwS1uAdUcI
Fear of Failure and How It Kills Innovation
This is a TED talk from Regina Dugan that begins with her asking, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
She directs the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the DoD innovation engine responsible for creating and preventing strategic surprise. ”What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects — a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet — that her agency has created by not worrying that they might fail. (Followed by a Q&A with TED’s Chris Anderson)
What to Look for in 2012
03 Jan 2012
6 Important Marketing Trends To Watch In 2012
Every year around this time, we shift our focus from “the year in review” to “the year ahead.” Trend reports abound, and
with a bit of searching you can usually find one targeted to whatever your specific business niche might be. Too often, though, these trend reports get delivered in overwhelming PowerPoint decks crammed with head-spinning data, charts and graphs.
The renowned brand strategy consultancy Landor saves us that migraine in their look ahead with an eminently digestible article that looks at a host of different marketing areas–naming, demographics, image sharing, China, mobile technology, on-demand media, design, innovation, change, and the notion of trends itself–and answers three simple questions: What can we expect in 20102? What is the impact on brands? What brands stand out?
Here are the most relevant trends for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses for 2012, in the context of marketing and branding.
1. Abstract is the new concrete. Names–for products, for companies–will get more abstract. “Finding a name that is unique, memorable, and–very important–ownable, has become increasingly challenging,” states Jason Bice of Landor. “Names that are coined, abstract, or arbitrary stand the greatest chance of clearing the multiple hurdles involved in the naming process.”
The implication is that you need to become a better storyteller. “Coined names come with zero baggage,” continues Bice. “Unfortunately, they also come without a built-in meaning. Couple that with brands being increasingly accountable to a very vocal and socially networked public, and story becomes a crucial part of what a name needs to deliver.”
2. Boomers–they’re baaack! The 47-65-year-old demographic, aka Baby Boomers, is an afterthought for most marketers. That means the estimated 77 million boomers in the United States are undermessaged and underserved.
“They control over 50 percent of discretionary spending and enjoy 80 percent of all leisure travel,” writes Landor’s Susan Nelson. “They represent about 40 percent of regular Facebookers. But the percentage of marketers targeting the boomers? Neglible.”
That sounds like opportunity calling. A few smart brands are catching on and catching up, but “so many consumer packaged goods and media brands seem stuck in the fallacy that early adopters are all young and cool,” Nelson states. “They don’t get that there are a lot of boomers with plenty of money to spend.”
3. Trending is trending. Hockey great Wayne Gretsky was once quoted as saying “I don’t skate to where the puck is; I skate to where the puck will be.” It’s become a bit of a cliche, but customer and market trends are changing at the speed of a hockey puck on ice. One of the things that’s changing is trending itself.
“The emergence of ‘what’s trending’ is itself an upcoming trend impacting what we see (Charlie Sheen’s #winning), what we don’t see (#occupywallstreet trending blocked by Twitter), and ultimately how we interact with content online,” advises Karl Isaac, Landor’s Executive Director of Digital Branding. “Facebook’s change to feeds organized by top stories sent a clear signal that trending is an increasingly significant influencer of user interaction.”
Easy ways to hunt for trends via Twitter include Trendsmap, Topsy, and Trendistic.
4. The photo’s the thing. It’s true: a picture’s worth a thousand words. Over 90 billion images have been uploaded to Facebook. The ultra simple app Instagram is experiencing exponential growth, and even behemoth GE used it to post “behind the scenes” photos of manufacturing plants and distribution channels to foster a sense of consumer intimacy and authenticity.
According to Russ Meyer of Landor, “Brands that can harness these emerging social behaviors to their advantage, much the way American Express did when it partnered with Foursquare to offer special deals, will see breakthroughs in their relations with the public. To be successful in 2012 and beyond, brands will have to follow the trail blazed by consumers in regularly sharing relevant images online.”
5. Tablets, tablets everywhere. “The tablet is the first true crossover device for use both at home and out in the world,” writes David Keefe. “And brands are starting to understand the tablet’s relevance to retail: Their owners increasingly take them to grocery stores, pharmacies, and car dealerships.”
Keefe’s advice? “Start today. Migrate your audience. Think video. Understand how to integrate tablets into places that intersect with existing brand touchpoints. For example, many new cars will soon be equipped with tablet-like devices.”
6. Creativity takes center stage. According to Landor, the burning question for 2012 is this: How can companies rapidly and efficiently infuse innovation across their entire culture, capitalize on the new ideas they spawn, and create value for customers and equity in their brand?
“It’s no longer enough to move the line,” states Landor’s Allen Adamson. “Companies must reinvent it. For example, Uniqlo has taken the basic Gap formula and made it better, more fun, and more edgy. This trendy Japanese retailer, with its amazing new flagship store in New York, can make anyone look cool, and for a very cool price.”
The implication is that if your company’s DNA doesn’t carry the gene for nimble creativity, you may not make it to 2013.
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You can read the full article here. What might the potential impact of these and other emerging trends be onyour business? How will you respond in 2012?
Reprinted from my OPEN Forum column.
Re-posted from Matthew May’s website, matthewmay.com
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