3 Steps to Get Things Done

In today's busy world, many people have difficulty managing their time and getting everything done. Some people are very busy, but they never manage to achieve the things they really want.  So the question is "How can you improve your time management to increase your productivity?" 

While doing some research online about time management techniques I came across this ClarityMap.

This time management process follows these 3 simple steps to get things done.

1. Create a list of actions.  Write down all the things you want to get done for the day. Everything from writing, creating content, or planning your next project to answering your email and balancing your checkbook.

2. Assign each action a time.  Pick a specific time to each task or group of tasks. Anything from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Chunks of 30 minutes or less work best.

3. Do the action! Select a task, start a timer (like an egg time), and focus on nothing but accomplishing that task. This means you don't answer the phone, you don't get up for a drink, you don't log onto computer - none of that. You remain focused on the task-at-hand!

 

Derek Franklin is the creator of this ClarityMap and The Action Machine, a visual time management software based on the above steps.  The goal behind The Action Machine is simple: To give you a way to visually structure your day in a way that you feel absolutely compelled to take action and get things done, once and for all!

 

This ClarityMap offers 16 ways to take more action on your tasks.  They include declutter techniques, use of checklists, and ways to avoid procrastination and distractions.  Take an action item and plan time to review these methods.

 

 

Five Reasons to be Honest with Your Employees

A recent interview by The New York Times with Kip Tindell, chief executive of the Container Store, highlighted several leadership lessons.  "Don't keep secrets from your staff" was one of foundational principles Tindell shared.

 

Good leadership is all about communication, and the best leaders are completely transparent with their staff, says Container Store CEO Kip Tindell. Tindell shares his private boardroom presentations with all his company's employees, from top to bottom. "There's never a reason, we believe, to keep the information from an employee," he says. "I know that occasionally some of that information falls into the wrong hands, but that's a small price to pay."

 

I believe that with knowledge comes power and the more information we share the quicker with can improve.  Creating a culture of openness and free-flowing information can be a competitive advantage.  Here are five reasons you should embrace transparency:

 

1. People assume the worst when they don't hear from leaders. Silence from the executive office causes a lot of fear and resentment, which certainly doesn't contribute to a productive culture. Maybe the news is bad, but maybe it's not as bad as they are imagining. And even if it is, once they know the truth they can plan and act accordingly.

 

2. Transparency helps employees connect to the why. When employees are working in a vacuum, they can't see the financial "big picture," and decisions leaders make may seem ill-advised or unfair or simply inexplicable. Transparency connects them to the why—and that understanding propels them to act. You can ask people to change their work habits and established processes all day long. But if they don't know why they're being asked to change, they won't change—at least not for long.

 

3. Transparency allows for consistent messaging across the organization. When you commit to transparency, people don't have to get their (speculative, distorted) news through the company grapevine. They hear what's really going on, in a controlled and consistent way, from their managers. This, in turn, creates organizational consistency. When everyone is hearing the same messages from their leaders, everyone is motivated to respond in similar ways. And this consistency trickles down to the customers, who get the same basic experience regardless of who they're dealing with.

 

4. Transparency leads to faster, more efficient execution. When times are tough, execution is everything. And the ticket to good execution is good alignment: All sectors of an organization must understand exactly what's required so they act in a coordinated and collaborative fashion. Transparency is what facilitates that kind of alignment. It's all about a shared sense of urgency.

 

5. Transparency facilitates the best possible solutions. In transparent cultures, leaders encourage employees to solve problems themselves. And because those employees are the people closest to a problem, and because they must live with the outcome, they almost always design the most effective, efficient solution.  And, of course, they'll also have instant buy-in.

 

Do your employees really know what's going on with your company?  Be honest with your employees they can handle the truth.  Remember, sharing information with employees is good for a couple of reasons: one, it's the right thing to do, and two, it's good for business. 

 

As we have learned from Lean Thinking, this too can not be a flavor of the month.  Being open and honest with your employees requires long term commitment if your want your organization to continuously improve.

 

If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter.  You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts. For those Facebook fans join A Lean Journey on our
facebook fan page.

 

Lean Quote of the Day, March 19, 2010

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

Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.

"Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static "snapshots". It is a set of general principles- distilled over the course of the twentieth century, spanning fields as diverse as the physical and social sciences, engineering, and management. ...During the last thirty years, these tools have been applied to understand a wide range of corporate, urban, regional, economic, political, ecological, and even psychological systems. And systems thinking is a sensibility- for the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character." - Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

I chose this quote because Quality Digest Magazine asked to reprint my post on systems thinking to avoid pitfalls in lean management. Quality Digest is the largest source for Quality-related articles and news in the U.S., covering metrology, quality management, standards, compliance, and more. 

Review this newly updated Quality Digest article titled "11 Pointers Toward Systems Thinking in Lean Management. 


If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter.  You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts.

Podcast on Gotta Go Lean Blog

I recently had the opportunity to do a podcast with Jeff Hajek.  Jeff Hajek is a Lean consultant, award-winning author of Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean, and the founder of Velaction Continuous Improvement.  Jeff also publishes the blog Gotta Go Lean.

The Gotta Go Lean Blog focuses on Lean at the front line--helping managers and employees work together to make Lean more productive for the company, and jobs more satisfying for employees. And committed, engaged, satisfied employees are good for business.

Jeff asked me to do a podcast with him regarding frontline leadership at the supervisor level.  Below is a brief introduction to this subject from Jeff:

Because Lean requires a great deal of autonomy from frontline employees, it also requires frontline Lean leadership with a unique skill set. Supervisors in a Lean company have to be able to do it all. They must be coaches, mentors, trainers, and still deliver results. It’s a fine line to walk. Too directive, and they stifle creativity. To ‘hands off’ and their teams don’t get better. We dive into the details about what we think Lean supervisors need to do to be successful when their company is focused on continuous improvement.

To listen to my interview along with Jeff click here.  The podcast is about 21 minutes in length.  I hope you enjoy and I thank Jeff for the opportunity to share with others.

Times is Money, Use it to Your Advantage

One of the central elements in Lean is the reduction in lead time.  Bruce Hamilton, president of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, calls this the time between paying and getting paid.

George Stalk and Thomas Hout, both of The Boston Consulting Group, wrote, Competing Against Time: How Time-Based Competition Is Reshaping the Global Economy in 1990.  This book was one of the first to identify the importance of time as a competitive advantage.

Based on their research, they outline four rules of responsiveness that the value-delivery systems of corporations are subject to:

The .05 to 5 Rule
Most products and many services are actually receiving value for only 0.05 to 5 percent of the time they are in the value-delivery systems of their companies.

The 3/3 Rule
The waiting time has 3 components, which are the time lost while waiting for:
- Completion of the batch a particular product or service is part of
- Completion of the batch ahead of the batch a particular product or service is part of
- Management to get around to making and executing the decision to send the batch on to the next step of the value added process

The ¼-2-20 Rule
For every quartering of the time interval required to provide a service or product, the productivity of labor and of working capital can often double, resulting is as much as a 20% reduction in costs.

The 3 x 2 Rule
Companies that cut the time consumption of their value-delivery systems experience growth rates of 3 times the industry average and 2 times the profit margins.

Companies and their management must understand these how these rules of response apply to their business and use this to their advantage.  Reducing the cycle time of the value-delivery process can result in the following benefits:
            1)     First to market for new products           

      2)     Increased market share becoming closer to customer
3)     Price premiums for reduced delivery times
4)     Increased productivity from increased capacity and lower cost

The golden rule of time based competitiveness is to never delay a customer value adding step by a non-value adding step.  Process mapping the value-delivery process is recommended to eliminate and reduce non-value added steps.

If you enjoy this post you may want to connect with me on Linkedin or follow me on Twitter.  You can also subscribe to this feed or email to stay updated on all posts.

Lean Quote of the Day, March 12, 2010

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

Feel free to share some of your favorites here as well.

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life."


-- Mary Kay Ash 1918-2001, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

A company is really defined by its people. It doesn't take long to pick up on the culuture within a business. The job of management in a lean environment is to help people realize their potential within the business.  Whether in sales or any other function of the business engaging and empowers all employees is critical to success.  Look at how to empower your innovators in the post titled the rudolph factor and the eighth waste.  Rudolphs are those bright, empowered, innovative people of your business.  Since they aren't wearing signs one key is learning how to recognize them and their vaue.

Organizing for Dummies

I recently came across an interesting book called Organizing for Dummies by Eileen Roth and Elizabeth Miles.  This is not a manufacturing or office book but rather a book about tidying up and clearing clutter in your house.  Nevertheless, there is some practical advice for anyone.  The authors offer several simple acronyms to help you get organized and stay organized.

When you are deciding what to keep and what to pitch use the WASTE way of questioning:

W — Worthwhile? Do you truly like the item? Think of cost of storage vs. cost of replacement.
A — Again? Will you use it, really? Think probability?
S — Somewhere else? Can it be borrowed or found somewhere else if you need it?
T — Toss? Will the world end if you get rid of it? Think consequences.
E — Entire? Do you need the whole thing or just part of it?

When deciding where things should go put everything in its PLACE:

P — Purge: Get rid of it, look at the WASTE questions above.
L — Like with like: Create a center for things, can variety be reduced?.
A — Access: Create a spot that is easy to get to your things.
C — Contain: Use containers to create space and keep things together.
E — Evaluate: Does this organizational layout work? 

Many of us should learn REMOVE in our office to create successful work area:

R — Reduce distractions from your desktop.

E — Everyday use items stay on top of your desk.

M — Move items to the preferred side, like the right side if you're right-handed.

O — Organize together, keep similar items grouped together.

V — View your time, keep a clock on your desk.

E — Empty the center so you have a clean workspace.

These simple acronyms follow the standard 5S thinking in Lean manufacturing that we are familiar with.   How do you use 5S in your work at the office or at home?  Can you REMOVE WASTE at your PLACE?