Get Involved - 3rd Annual World Quality Month

Join the Global Quality Community in celebrating World Quality Month in November 2012! Now in its third year, World Quality Month provides a platform for acknowledging the efforts and accomplishments of the Global Quality Community. This is a time to celebrate—a time to showcase the advancements and valuable quality contributions in businesses, communities, and institutions.

World Quality Month is an annual celebration of quality and its impact in the world. Through the joint efforts of ASQ, its many World Partner organizations, leaders and stakeholders in the Global Quality Community, the inaugural World Quality Month began in November 2010. World Quality Month was established both to reignite attention once generated in the 1980s by National Quality Month in the U.S. and to create a united, global forum for the organizations that have celebrated World Quality Days in November to come together and raise their voices for quality. 

Visit worldqualitymonth.org often to learn about quality tools and techniques, heroes, the stories of quality in practice every day, and World Quality Month events. Celebrate World Quality Month 2012 with the Global Quality Community. 

So in November get involved. Raise your voice for quality. Make a point of it. I bet you’ll enjoy it. And when December 1 rolls around, you don’t have to stop. Speaking up for the importance of quality is our daily responsibility. The biggest barrier quality faces is making people understand that excellence just doesn't happen. Excellence isn't good intent. Through quality, excellence is available to everyone.

Together—through our collective passion for the community—we will raise the voice of quality worldwide.


I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

The Outstanding Organization is Outstanding

What’s holding back your organization? Are people still fighting fires, missing targets, producing defects, and doubting direction? Why haven’t you been able to sustain your gains? 

After two decades in the trenches of helping companies design and build better, more efficient operations, Karen Martin has pinpointed why performance improvement programs often fail: chaos, the sneaky but powerful force that frustrates customers, keeps business leaders awake at night, and saps company morale. 

Karen says that chaos in the organization is caused by: 

Lack of clarity – ambiguity abounds in purpose, roles and responsibilities, decision making, and communication 
Lack of focus – changing priorities, trying to solve too many problems at once, and distraction 
Lack of discipline – mastery requires deliberate practice, PDSA improvement cycle 
Lack of engagement – energized and connected with a purpose, employee development 

Chaos is not something we have to live with. Karen says we need to improve how we improve. The Outstanding Organization provides a means for combating chaos by creating the organizational conditions that will allow your improvement efforts to return greater gains. Karen’s system focuses on four key behaviors for operational excellence—Clarity, Focus, Discipline, Engagement—that, once they become habit, open the door to sustainable growth and profit. 

The book's central idea is that the key to removing the friction and chaos found in the daily operations of most organization is to (1) pursue clarity in internal communications, (2) focus on a small number of topics to reduce the time members spend switching between projects and give teams a chance to finish what they start, (3) have the discipline to keep practicing what makes it function better, and (4) engage members so that they identify their own goals with those of the organization. 

Karen's proven, practical, and surprisingly straightforward wisdom is easily digestible and understood. Her expertise is apparent with many great real-world examples of different organizations that she has worked with over the years. In addition to her own knowledge, Karen polled scores of experts and talked to many thought leaders to test her thinking, strengthening the value of the book. She has a tremendous knowledge of previous Lean literature and sites a large number of them throughout the book. 

The Outstanding Organization is a quick read but packed with a number of tools and techniques for solving problems that take longer to fully appreciate. This book would be good for a study group, creating great discussion that can lead to immediate results.  

Unfortunately, there is a lack of visuals, diagrams, pictures to support the teaching in the book. As a visual learner I would have liked some visuals to reinforce the learning. 

The Outstanding Organization will make any process initiative work better and stick longer. Plus, it will help produce demonstrable results. Karen shows us how an outstanding “Lean” organization can free up employees to do their best work. 

I recommend you add this book to your Lean library of knowledge. I am confident you will find value in this book well into the future.

Lean Quote: A Lack of A Problem Solving Process Means More Problems

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.

"Problems breed problems, and the lack of a disciplined method of openly attacking them breeds more problems." — Philip Crosby

We are all faced with problems to solve in our workday. There are many problem-solving methods, and the six-step method is just one of them. The problem for most people is that they do not use one process to solve problems and issues or to make decisions. Another problem is that people are not consistent in how they solve problems. They do not find something that works and then do it the same way over and over to be successful. 

The Six-Step Problem-Solving Process is described below: 

Step 1: Identify The Problem 

• Select the problem to be analyzed 
• Clearly define the problem and establish a precise problem statement 
• Set a measurable goal for the problem solving effort 
• Establish a process for coordinating with and gaining approval of leadership 

Step 2: Analyze The Problem 

• Identify the processes that impact the problem and select one 
• List the steps in the process as it currently exists 
• Map the Process 
• Validate the map of the process Identify potential cause of the problem 
• Collect and analyze data related to the problem 
• Verify or revise the original problem statement Identify root causes of the problem 
• Collect additional data if needed to verify root causes 

Step 3: Develop The Solutions 

• Establish criteria for selecting a solution 
• Generate potential solutions that will address the root causes of the problem
• Select a solution 
• Gain approval and supporter the chosen solution 
• Plan the solution 

Step 4: Implement A Solution 

• Implement the chosen solution on a trial or pilot basis 
• If the Problem Solving Process is being used in conjunction with the Continuous Improvement Process, return to Step 6 of the Continuous Improvement Process 
• If the Problem Solving Process is being used as a standalone, continue to Step 5 

Step 5: Evaluate The Results 

• Gather data on the solution 
• Analyze the data on the solution 
• Archive the desired results?
• If YES, go to Step 6. 
• If NO, go back to Step 1. 

Step 6: Standardize The Solution (and Capitalize on New Opportunities) 

• Identify systemic changes and training needs for full implementation 
• Adopt the solution
• Plan ongoing monitoring of the solution
• Continue to look for incremental improvements to refine the solution 
• Look for another improvement opportunity 

The Six-Step Problem-Solving Process is an easy approach to dealing with issues and problems that you face. It is a systematic way to approach a problem with clearly defined steps so that an individual or team doesn’t get bogged down in, “WHAT DO WE DO NEXT?”

 

Meet-up: Personal Kanban's Jim Benson

Today's guest on the meet-up guest is Jim Benson. Jim is the co-author (along with Tonianne DeMaria Barry) of Personal Kanban.  Jim and Tonianne are the ones who got me turned on to use of a kanban system for personal productivity. They wrote a wonderful book that allows anyone to visualize work in a simple system to limit activity, prioritize tasks, and focus productivity effectively. Over the last few years we have talked about personal productivity systems on a number of occasions.  I have used many of his tips in my own personal kanban system.


Who are you and what do you do?
I am Jim Benson. My partner Tonianne and I focus our work on Lean for knowledge workers. We specialize in helping people and organizations actually understand their work. We also have developed two specific Lean management patterns - Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee. Personal Kanban helps individuals and small teams see their work, limit their work-in-progress, and run visible experiments of continuous improvement. Lean Coffee is a Lean meetings tool that provides a light framework to have coherent and collaborative meetings.

How and when did you learn Lean?
I got my start in urban planning, so I used to build what A.A. Milne might have called Very Big Things. I built subways, bridges, and freeways. During that time, I gained an appreciation for the large number of moving parts some projects can have, the interfaces between the design and implementation worlds, and how to meet the needs of individuals as they worked in multiple systems simultaneously. In 2000, I started a software company that catered to the government sphere. We developed software using proto-Lean practices called “Agile Methodologies.” Agile was very helpful in getting projects completed, its strength was that it used iterative delivery to compensate for historic poor communications between developers and their customers. Once we found Agile, we looked for more toolsets to incorporate and make our processes even more adaptive. 

That’s where we found Lean, which at that time was mainly focused on manufacturing. The concepts of flow, limiting work-in-progress, and systems thinking were immediately compelling. However, it was the underlying message of respect that really caught our eye. The combination of continuous improvement with respect for workers led to immediate and exciting results.

How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
That’s hard to say. I’ve been writing since I was kid, when I got my first manual typewriter. So I’ve always been writing. I would say that my first specific Lean writing would have been around 2005 when we started managing software projects specifically with Lean principles. The first Personal Kanban posts appeared in 2007, the Personal Kanban book was published in 2010. My personal belief is that our practices cannot evolve without writing and communication. It doesn’t help if we focus only on our own teams, we only learn if we read and write.

What does Lean mean to you?
For me, the key to Lean is Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge. The intersection of systems, variation, learning, and psychology give Lean flexibility and resilience. Deming’s understanding that when we form a company, we collaborate on the creation of value. That can only be done if all actors are fully and personally invested in the outcome.

What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
That it’s goal is the reduction of waste. Professionals in a continuous improvement culture will remove waste as a matter of course. When we introduce Lean initiative focusing on the word “Waste”, we start with a value judgement that closes off conversations and increases fear. This is, in my opinion, the root cause of many Lean transition failures.

What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?
We have been working with organizations to create Lean systems that help get knowledge workers like IT, sales, creatives, and HR to communicate better with their organizations, to set up projects with more intelligent deadlines and budgets, and to calm overly aggressive project portfolios to reward actual completion with quality. 

Our passion and root of our success is linking the work of the individual to that of the projects they have. People uniformly are overburdened, often distracted, and unaware of the impacts that this has on the quality and quantity of their work. When we highlight the value streams, project loads, and other burdens of individuals, we quickly find the root causes of the frustrations and wastes of the companies they work for.

Book Review: Reflections of A Business Nomad

On Friday, I received in the mail Pascal Dennis’s new book Reflections of a Business Nomad. As a longtime fan of Pascal’s work over the years I sat down Saturday to learn his newest lessons. 

Reflections of a Business Nomad is not like Pascal’s other awarding winning books (Lean Production Simplified, Andy & Me, Getting the Right Things Done, and The Remedy). It’s not a narrative; it’s a book of stories, reflecting on the international travels of Pascal. 

Each poem relates its own story about an experience and a person that the author encounters. The poems or the stories they tell relate a many things that life throws at different people, the struggles they endure and their views on life and their surroundings. Pascal finds the lesson, the joy, the deeper meaning, and the personal connection from situations. He showcases his talents as a story teller. 

Pascal would like to shift the current contemporary business discourse toward virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Courage, and Justice. These virtues are those behaviors that will exemplify a high moral standard. Pascal organized his stories into five sections: 

Fortitude: defined as strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage. Each poem in this section focuses on how each of those the narrator meets and their stories defines the pain and courage they each endured to live their lives with courage. Courage is a precondition for all other virtues. 

Sunny Side Up: being prudent or cautious is an important virtue. Through prudence we stop and contemplate our options and can reach better decisions. Prudence must govern all other virtues. Without it we wouldn't know to use temperance, courage, or justice. 

The Ass End: this section definitely deals with businesses, leaders, how companies and unions are run, the prospective of a Union Manager, Executive and Production Manager plus A Chief Financial Officer who appears to be the most unhappy man in the world and read what he writes to learn why. 

The Blues: are stories of sadness and how they affect his life. They show a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people. 

Postcards: is about moderation or self-constraint in action, thought, or feeling. Pascal demonstrates that temperance is not about enjoying less, but about enjoying better. 

Each section ends with a series of questions meant for reinforcing the learning that can used in study groups or individual reflection. The stories are easy to read and full of insight that can be underestimated without appropriate reflection. It is a great book to use as a basis for discussions in college business classes, book discussion groups and study groups. The book is full of original artwork to support the stories. 

The virtues outlined in Reflections of a Business Nomad provide lessons in leadership and ethics that all business leaders can use to transform status quo. These lessons from the gemba provide a view of perception versus reality teaching the reader skills in observation and reflection. 

Pascal’s Reflections of a Business Nomad is an enjoyable, thought provoking book challenging the reader reflect and learn from the world around us and our experiences. It illustrates how learning from the human spirit and condition results in greater personal fulfillment and better businesses. I recommend this wonderful book to anyone who wants to better themselves and others.

A Ted talk about the Laws of Subtraction by the Author Matthew E. May

We live in an age of excess everything--an era of overwhelming choice, crippling complexity, and feature overload. Standing out in the age of excess everything demands a singular skill: Subtraction.

The world's most original innovators all know this: less is best. They know that by removing just the right things in just the right way, they can achieve the maximum effect through minimum means and deliver what everyone wants: a memorable and meaningful experience. Subtraction is the scalpel of value—the method by which the simplest, most elegant solutions will be created, now and in the future. Subtraction is the creative skill needed to win in the age of excess everything.

A TedTalk by Matthew E May the author of The Laws of Subtraction explores this concept.  This talk delivers six simple rules for developing and deploying it:

1. What isn't there can often trump what is. (Examples: FedEx logo, Scion xB car)
2. The simplest rules create the most effective experience. (Example: urban redesign of London's Exhibition Road; Netflix vacation policy)
3. Limiting information engages the imagination. (Examples: original iPhone marketing strategy)
4. Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints. (Example: Mars Pathfinder project; Lexus LS400)
5. Break is the important part of breakthrough. (Example: Lockheed's Skunk Works)
6. Doing something isn't always better than doing nothing. (Example: Boston Consulting's mandatory downtime)





Matthew E. May is the author of the new book THE LAWS OF SUBTRACTION: as well as three previous award-winning books: The Elegant Solution, In Pursuit of Elegance, and The Shibumi Strategy. A popular speaker, creativity coach, and a close advisor on innovation to companies such as ADP, Edmunds, Intuit and Toyota, he is a regular contributor to the American Express OPEN Forum Idea Hub and the founder of Edit Innovation, an ideas agency based in Los Angeles. Matthew spoke at the London 2010 Ted Salon in hosted by frog design.

Lean Quote: Don't Think You Know Everything

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.

"The problem of quality management is not what people don't know about it. The problem is what they think they do know." — Philip Crosby

Learning is the key to success—some would even say survival—in today’s organizations. Knowledge should be continuously enriched through both internal and external learning. For this to happen, it is necessary to support and energize organization, people, knowledge, and technology for learning. A learning organization values the role that learning can play in developing organizational effectiveness.

A constant quest for learning provides the means to always be moving forward, to conquer new frontiers and achieve new and exciting goals. Make a point to learn something new every day. Learning new things brings more exciting experiences your way. It allows you to meet other people who can bring further knowledge or learning opportunities. 

In order to fully realize potential, you’ll have to add knowledge, skills, and experience. Don’t expect your people to do their best if you don’t equip them with the training they need to perform. And don’t expect your potential to spring forth in a final draft; it takes time to hone your skills and build your confidence. This could come from formal schooling, from the school of hard knocks, or from both. Either way, your education is the house your realized potential will live in. 

A good manager is acutely aware of what they know and why they know it, as well as what they don't know. They understand the difference between opinions, hunches, and objective facts. A good manager knows that their job is to fill in these gaps in knowledge, not to defend them. Good managers don't ruin their credibility by over-stating their knowledge.