The Lego Calendar, Fun and Productive Visual Management

Productivity tools and techniques have been a frequent topic of discussion here. A personal kanban has been a highlight of this topic. Recently, I came across a great video series combining a common Lean training tool, Legos, and project management kanban system. 

Last year, workers at a design studio in London recently went on a quest to find a better way to organize themselves while in the office. There were a few requirements. It had to be big. It had to cover a few months into the future. It had to work both online and offline. They settled on Legos. Using Legos, Vitamins built a large, wall-mounted calendar with flat gray pieces as the base, representing the days of the week. Each person has their own line on the calendar, and is represented by a custom minifig character. Different projects are assigned different colors of bricks. The wall-sized calendar made entirely of Lego bricks also syncs with Google automatically via smartphone screenshots.


Lego calendar by Vitamins from Vitamins on Vimeo.

This Lego calendar may be the most fun business calendar ever created. Do you see an opportunity for this approach in your business?

Lean Quote: Eiji Toyoda's Respect for People

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.

"…employees are offering a very important part of their life to us. If we don’t use their time effectively, we are wasting their lives." — Eiji Toyoda, former President and Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation and cousin of the company’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda

In remembrance of Eiji Toyoda, a key figure in the development of the Toyota Production System, who recently died at age 100 I chose the quote above because it forms the foundation of  “Respect for People.” Like Eiji I believe people are the most important asset in any company but sadly this is not a management philosophy shared by all.

A survey of over 100,000 people in more than 2,000 companies highlighted that managers are wasting their employee’s time.

Among the surprising facts: Over the years this index has been compiled, only 12% of people responded positively to the following statement: “My company is respectful of my time and attention, and is focused on using it wisely and effectively.”

The survey also indicates that, among other findings, for every 100 employees:

51 must go back to their manager frequently to determine what they’re supposed to do.

71 can’t find what they need to do their best.

81 think an Xbox works better than the tools their company supplies.

Lacking clear direction, tools, and systems at work can cost time or even worst cost talent. In fact, the design of workflow and workload are matters of respect. The time, attention, ideas, knowledge, and energy you ask your employees to invest in their job day in and day out is certainly worthy of respecting.

Respect for people means developing their latent skills in both on the job and off the job training. It is easy to invest money in new technology, software, or equipment. It takes time, effort, and planning to invest in employee skills development. Wasting employee time implies a lack of respect and poor planning by all involved.

See Mark Graban’s post: Eiji Toyoda, Credited with Developing TPS and Expanding Toyota into North America, Passes Away at 100 , Bill Waddell’s post: Eiji Toyoda – the Master Innovator , Jon Miller’s post: The Man Who Saved Kaizen, and Karen Martin’s post: Eiji Toyoda: A Consummate Leader (1913-2013) for more great tributes to Eiji Toyoda.

 

Lean Leadership Requires Servant Leaders

What is a servant leader? It's not complicated really. If you see people as a means to serve you, then you are not a servant leader. I would call you a manager or simply a boss. If you view your role as a leader to empower others to become better at what they do, to achieve greater levels of skill and ability, and become better, more productive people in the process, then you are a servant leader.

A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world. The key differences between servant leaders and more autocratic styles can be summarized as follows:

Motives. A servant leader uses their power to develop followers and growing the company through the development of the full potential of the workforce, rather than using their power to control and exploit employees.

Preferences. Servant leaders prefer inspirational and transformational power, because they seek to influence and transform followers, rather than using positional, political and coercive powers to control subordinates.

Outcome. If we define power as the ability to influence followers, then servant leadership is more effective, because “the arm of control is short, while the reach of influence has no limits”.

Orientation. Servant leaders are sensitive to individual and situational needs, because they exist to serve others; therefore, they are relation-oriented and situational, rather than being only concerned about their own authority and power.

Skill level. Servant leadership requires a higher level of leadership ability and skills, because it takes more interpersonal skills and positive inner qualities to inspire and influence workers.  On the other hand, authoritarian leaders only need obedience and coercive power to enforce compliance and conformity from their subordinates.

Attitude to vulnerability. Servant leaders are willing to risk making themselves vulnerable by trusting and empowering others, rather than being afraid of vulnerability.

Attitude to humility. Servant leaders view themselves as servants and stewards, and voluntarily humble themselves in order to serve others, rather than blaming others for failure and claiming credit for success.

Lean organizations need leaders who know how to serve their people. A servant leader -- one who wants to serve first and lead second -- strives to create a work environment in which people can truly express these deepest of inner drives. Servant leadership entails a deep belief that people are the greatest asset any organization has, and to nurture their individual growth becomes the basis for all organizational development. That growth goes far beyond the limited dimension of financial benefit -- it dives into our core motivations as people.

People want to be engaged and also have some level of control over their environment. A servant leader recognizes that the people doing the work generally have the best ideas about how to improve the processes they participate in. Through tools like rapid improvement events and PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) suggestion systems, servant leaders practice participatory decision-making, empowering employees to be innovators and co-creators in positive change. Such leaders are also enablers; they spend a significant amount of time at the workplace, making direct observations, and then striving to create systemic improvements that add value to the work of their employees.

To be a great Lean manager, you need to be a servant leader. Wouldn’t you agree?

Lean Quote: Teamwork Breeds Success

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.

"Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success." 
— Henry Ford

You need to put a Herculean individual effort to get the same result that a well-knit team could easily achieve. The key to building a successful team is to instill in all the team members a sense of shared responsibility. In addition to sharing the responsibility, a wise team leader will also generously share the credit for success.

A second important element of success is rapport, which the manager or team leader bears much of the burden for creating. When each team member feels that s/he plays a vital role, the outcome will almost certainly be an enthusiastic, productive team. Note that this applies not only to teams but also to organizations in general.

Successful team leadership is therefore a bit of a balancing act. The leader must be able to inspire and motivate the team, which requires a certain amount of charisma, vision, trust, and strength of character. However, if taken too far, these traits may backfire on the leader. For example, the leader may overestimate his/her influence over the rest of the team, or grow arrogant, or push the team too hard. This sort of extremism can easily jeopardize the team’s performance; warning signs might include stress, short tempers, and the inability to meet deadlines.

Organizations that cultivate a culture of teamwork generally outperform their more individualistic competitors. Frequently, this leads to a virtuous cycle of self-improvement, as success breeds enthusiasm, which breeds better teamwork, which breeds yet more success. For this reason, teamwork is important for creating a healthy, prosperous organization.

 

Lean Leadership Lessons We Can Learn From Geese

Living in New England you become accustom to seeing the migration of Geese.  As the leaves start turning colors the Geese head south for the winter. But did you know that we can learn a lot about leadership from geese? It’s true! Animals can teach us valuable lessons about life. It is truly amazing how humans can relate to them just by observing their behavior.

Many years ago, I was given a copy of “Lessons from Geese” as part of an organizational leadership program I was enrolled in. To this day, it is still my favorite leadership analogy. The story was written in 1972 by Dr. Robert McNeish, a science teacher from Baltimore, Maryland and has since been used as a study lesson by many leadership institutes, consultants, organizations, and corporations.

We all know how important leadership and teamwork are in today’s organizations.  We can use the five principles presented in the “Lessons from Geese” story as inspiration to practice good leadership and teamwork skills as we implement Lean.

Fact 1: The Importance of Achieving Goals

As each goose flaps its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Fact 2: The Importance of Team Work

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it

Lesson: If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

Fact 3: The Importance of Sharing

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

Fact 4: The Importance of Empathy and Understanding

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

Fact 5: The Importance of Encouragement

When a goose gets sick, wounded, or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

"Lessons from Geese" provides a perfect example of the importance of team work and how it can have a profound and powerful effect on any endeavor. When we use these five principles in our personal and business life it will help us to foster and encourage a level of passion and energy in ourselves, as well as those who are our friends, associates, or team members.

Sustaining Excellence Requires Daily Commitment to Experimentation

In Paul Borawski’s monthly ASQ post he asks the bloggers about how to sustain excellence.

Simply, sustainability is about lasting change. Sustainability is discussed often and one of the great issues in management.  We have all seen facts related to the low rates of sustaining change or seen news about a company who lost its way. Unfortunately, we see all too often those companies who finally reach #1 to only lose their way.

Complacency can and will compromise the performance of your organization. Everyone can become complacent in their particular environment, and there are different levels of complacency. At higher management positions, complacency may be more latent. At the line personnel “trigger pullers” level, however, complacency can have catastrophic results.

When it comes to complacency with regard to Lean it is often the result of a “We are Lean” mindset. This leads to a reduction in awareness/focus and leads to a false sense of security. For Lean to work effectively, the organization must be constantly focused on continuous improvement and best practice procedures for providing value. What sets an effective Lean system apart from simply reducing waste is ingraining continuous improvement thinking into daily practice. Lean is not about a destination but rather journey.

Charles Darwin said "It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change" which holds true for culture change.

Below are ten factors that will help any organization make the change they make lasting.

Capability – Management must employ the time and resources necessary for change.

Intention – Determination and drive for the cause is required.  You must insist we make the change and be determined to keep it up.

Success – People feel happier and perform better when there is a feeling of success and vice versa.  Attitude drives performance so managers must project confidence.

Hard Work – It is hard to keep it going.  This is entropy.  Without it, the system runs down.

Emphasis on the team not the individual – In the US we love heroes, but actually teams are more fundamental for long-term survival.  Teams need to be mentored and developed.

Many small wins, rather than the occasional big win – Small wins keep up the enthusiasm, and certainly add up.  Management needs to continually recognize small wins.

Attitude toward failure – Everyone fails from time to time, but what is crucial is the attitude toward failure: do you punish or do you treat it as part of learning?

Motivation – Sustainability requires interest and involvement of all employees.  Ask "What gets rewarded around here?  Build a culture to support improvement.

Discipline – Make it a habit.  Without good disciple the system will not be maintained.  Management must teach discipline and correct lapses with respect for people as they occur.

Performance measures – It is true you get what you measure, drive good behavior.  Performance measures need to be aligned with what you want to achieve.  Think long term.

There is no such thing as self-sustainability, it requires ongoing effort. Sustainable behavior change is not something that occurs as a result of doing a 30 or 90-day program, nor is it something that you master after doing it for a year. Change takes a daily commitment to put in the time and energy, knowing that the return on that investment is great.

Lean (excellence) is a journey that never ends. There will always be a gap between where you are (current state) and where you would like to be (True North). Since there will always be a gap, there will always be an opportunity to improve. Walking the path on a Lean journey can be an overwhelming experience.

Lean grew out of years of practice and experimentation at Toyota. No matter how much better they are than their competition, they continue to find more and more opportunities to improve each and every year. Lean involves the creation and implementation of continuous experiments to improve your strategies over time. This means experimenting with every process every day to get it right. We learn problem solving through hands-on improvement experiments. In Toyota and in lean thinking, the idea is to repeat cycles of improvement experiments forever.

A Lean journey is full of steps not all of which are forward. Failure will occur. Its ok, the purpose is learning, and we learn through experimentation. Trying new approaches, exploring new methods and testing new ideas for improving the various processes is exercise for the mind.

So leaders must create a culture that puts failure in its proper place: a useful tool for learning, and a natural part of iterative experimentation. Management must avoid the temptation to harshly judge unsuccessful ideas. A leader who allows for experimentation sends a clear signal that personnel are encouraged to find better methods and products.

Organizations embarking on a Lean journey should follow a disciplined process of systematic exploration and controlled experimentation. Kaizen is the process which determines whether processes resulted in improvements. It refers to an on-going activity by all people (including managers) to relentlessly and incrementally change and improve practices in small experiments.

The road to continual improvement is a rocky one with many ups and downs. Value the incremental improvement approach to continuous improvement. Through simple, common-sense, and low cost experimentation a great deal of process improvements can be made. Experimentation is the exercise of a healthy Lean journey. Understanding this allows one the opportunity to stay on the path along the journey.

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. 

Lean Quote: Being Managed Versus Being Led

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.

"People cannot be "managed." They can be led. Products and processes can be managed." — Karen Martin

While the terms "management" and "leadership" overlap a little, they are not the same thing—although you can't have one without the other. Management is tough enough on its own and, frankly, most people never learn to lead.

Why do we use the word manager?  It does not seem to identify well what a person is meant to do when given a team of individuals to work with.  A manager controls, handles and directs.  That sounds pretty hard when what we are referring to being managed is people.  The word “manager” is great when referring to the management of processes, procedures, technique, communications, relationships, etc.  When referring to an individual who is made accountable for a group of people, the word “leader” seems more appropriate.  People do not like to be managed, they would rather be led: given goals to achieve, techniques to learn from and follow, and review to let them know how they are doing.

Leading by example is a great way to start.  Why would anyone follow a procedure if their leader does not?  If you want your team to say something during the ordering process then you too should be saying it every time!  If you want your team to take a specific action while performing a task, then you should be taking that same action every time. You cannot just tell your team what to do if you want them to continue to do it even when you are not watching.  You have to show them that it needs to be done, even if you have to do it yourself.  Your team will take notice and they will respect you for expecting no less from yourself than you expect from them.  They will then have no reason not to do what you are asking, no excuses.

When a person is given the title of manager, they should keep in mind that they have been given the authority to manage processes and procedures.  They have also been given the opportunity to lead a team of people to do something better than they ever did before!

Do you like to be managed or led? You're not alone. Very few people want to work for a manager. Most of us would much rather be led by a leader. To manage is to control, handle, or manipulate. To lead is to guide, influence, or persuade. You manage things — systems, processes, and technology. You lead people. The roots of the rampant morale, energy, and performance problems found in many organizations are technomanagers who treat people as "human resources" to be managed. If you want to manage someone, manage yourself. Once you master that, you'll be a much more effective leader of others.