Book Review: Lean Health

It’s the time of year when people start to think of resolutions (personal improvement) for the coming year. Many have a goal to reduce weight and improve health. As a Lean practitioner I am always interested to see how people have applied Lean thinking to improve their environment. Paul Akers, well known Lean enthusiast with 2 Second Lean and leader of FastCap, tells his personal story of improved health in a new book “Lean Health”.

In his book Paul honestly and comprehensively lays out his weight loss journey. He describes your body as a Ferrari (or Ford Pinto) which you have to take care of with fuel (nutrition) and maintain (exercise). His personal health transformation shows his commitment to lean principles beyond business but to his mind and body.

In his brilliant and engaging writing style he's taking the reader on his own journey to Lean Health. As with his other books and videos, Paul doesn't come across telling you how to do it but rather how he did it, so it's not a what to do but more of a how to do it. He explains the steps he found for exceptional health and the tools he used to help. It is logical, detailed, and most of all it is simple to follow!

Lean health not only changes the way we think about the foods we eat, it changes the way we think about life in general! Paul Aker’s Lean PD App is quite good and helps to instill new habits in your life. Give it a try along with his tips from Lean Health so you can change your life as well. 

Although it may be hard to make all the suggested changes in your life at once, just do one small improvement every day and try to stick to the things you've changed. 

Lean Health is a simple, quick, inspirational, and motivational read. If you are looking to improve your health, I highly recommend it.

Lean Quote: Success is Buried on the Other Side of Frustration

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.

"All successful people learn that success is buried on the other side of frustration." — Tony Robbins

When things don’t go your way or your team does not accomplish what was expected, you get frustrated. If the tire’s flat, you kick it! If the vending machine doesn’t give you change, you hit it! When your boss does not support a new idea you are suggesting for no apparent reason you complain about his or her lack of support.

When we fail to satisfy our deep desires or achieve important goals, the sense of frustration can be overwhelming at times. If we lose a customer because of a missed deadline despite the team’s best efforts, it’s natural to feel frustrated.

But it’s also a waste of time and energy. Frustration is futile and destructive. These behaviors limit personal growth and success, it’s important to understand what causes frustration and what you can do to minimize it.

Follow these tips to protect yourself from tumbling down frustration’s slippery slope:

1. Take responsibility! Don’t blame people and circumstances for what happens to you. Use setbacks and disappointments as opportunities to learn, not as reasons to complain and criticize.

2. Set realistic expectations for yourself and clearly understand the expectations your department, division, or team has for you. If your expectations are habitually too high, you’re going to be frequently frustrated. Remember, one of the most important rules about goal setting is to set goals realistically high and focus on the results, not just the activity!

3. Striving for excellence is good, but striving for perfection will impede your growth and productivity. If you’re focused on perfection, you’ll fail to make improvements because you’ll be afraid to take risks. You’ll miss deadlines because you’re trying to do everything perfectly. You’ll hinder your personal and professional growth because your desire to be perfect causes you to be overly sensitive to constructive criticism.

4. Set realistic expectations from others. When you expect too much, you set yourself up for disappointment and frustration. Instead of offering encouragement and support, you will tend to judge and criticize.

5. Frustration cannot coexist with a positive attitude. Strengthen your positive attitude by focusing on your goals and on the rewards you anticipate receiving when you achieve them. When you are drifting, frustrations can rise up like mountains, but when you are speeding along toward your goals, frustrations become merely bumps in the road.

6. Emotionally relive the positive moments of triumph from you past accomplishments. Success breeds success. Remembering your past successes will boost your confidence and refocus your attention on your goals.

10 Powerful Process Mapping Tips

Process mapping is often the first step in business process improvement. It is a necessary activity that provides a baseline from which improvements can be measured and is the key to identifying and localizing opportunities for improvement. Therefore, it is important to capture the right information to help steer process improvement initiatives in the right direction.

The primary objective of mapping business processes is to form a common understanding from which process improvements can be achieved. Once your teams have completed mapping their key processes, turn them into continuous improvement teams. Not only do the documented maps serve as the agreed baseline for ongoing process improvement, they also make for excellent induction and training resources. Now sit back and watch your business soar.

The following are some simple but powerful techniques to make your mapping efforts count.

1. Don’t map for mapping’s sake. The goal of process mapping is to learn and improve, so spend time upfront deciding what and where to map and select your “start” and “stop” points accordingly. Define the scope, identify the business processes you need to focus on and concentrate on those.

2. Ensure that everyone understands the benefits of the exercise. Ensuring that stakeholders know what they stand to gain and how the mapping exercise will deliver it is important. You must be able to connect the project to outcomes of business value. Stakeholders should be convinced that the output of the exercise will help them work smarter and better. Be clear on the benefits attainable by each stakeholder group and be willing to sell it to them.

3. Consider training team members. Not all team members will be equally versed in conducting the process mapping exercise. Set up a brief meeting/training session to bring everyone up to speed on what is expected of them. This training should cover the standards to be adopted, the tools to be used and any other unique requirements of the process mapping exercise.Don’t assume everyone knows exactly what to do.

4. Don’t try to map all your processes at once. Some businesses make the erroneous move of documenting all their processes at once. This sort of exercise requires a significant amount of time and man-power upfront with little or no value-add. Focus on mapping key business processes that cut across the value chain where identifiable improvements can be made. 

5. Start with the current state. Once the “ideal” process area is selected, focus on documenting the “as is” state as opposed to the future or ideal state. This might seem obvious but when people are asked to improve a process, their initial impulse is to move right to solution – but they can’t improve what they don’t understand!

6. Walk the process. Conduct a formal waste or process walk prior to building the “as is” map. Engaging in short, structured interviews with process participants becomes a rich source of data, flow and process issues. It also increases external interest in process improvement since people appreciate being asked for their input.

7. Map what the process really is. People often relate what they think the process is – so when mapping the “as is” process you have to push past the SOPs, or Standard Operating Procedures, to find out all the shortcuts, rework loops, cheat sheets and workarounds – nobody thinks of those on the first pass. And keep the steps at the same “elevation level”, meaning don’t combine general tasks such as “generate the invoice” with details like “turn the page.”

8. Keep it simple. Basic tools like flip chart paper or rolls of butcher’s paper and sticky notes are often the best and simplest tools for building process maps with teams. They can be prettied up later in Visio, Excel or PowerPoint but there’s no substitute for jointly building the actual, physical map.

9. Include process data. Process maps are more accurate and powerful when they include cycle times and wait times. Value Stream Maps are designed to include these two elements of lead time, but including this data on any map helps reflect what truly gets in the way of meeting customer demand.  When capturing cycle times in a process with high levels of variation, it’s helpful to include not just the average times, but the ranges as well. Averages hide the real impact of lead time on customers.

10. Apply visual management. When mapping on the wall with sticky notes, try using different colors for the different “lanes” of a Swimlane map and choosing a contrasting color (classically pink) for pain points. Hold off drawing connectors and arrows until you’ve verified the map or you’ll end up with scribble marks – and that’s rework!

Some of these may seem like common sense, but I find it valuable to think through what has made me successful in the past and keep these tools in the forefront of my mind for future engagements. Process mapping is a tremendously valuable tool for improving a process. It’s well suited for a broad range of industries and processes.  However, like other continuous improvement methods, the effectiveness of process mapping is affected by how it is selected planned and carried out.

5 Keys to Effective and Empathic Listening

Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood – communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.

Applying active listening, allows you and other individuals to engage in a dialogue where you are both equipped with clarity and understanding of the purpose, content and outcome of the discussion.

Nature is clearly telling us that we should listen twice as much as we talk as we have two ears and one mouth. It is impossible to find out what someone is thinking if you are doing all the talking. Listening is a key communication and empathy skill. Keys to becoming a more effective and emphatic listener include:

Take Time to Listen and Be Attentive
Often we are so preoccupied in our busyness that we only pretend to listen. Take time to really concentrate. Listen with both ears. When an employee comes into your office or stops you in the hall, stop what you are doing (if it is a convenient time), make eye contact, and really listen. You will be surprised how much more effective the exchange will be and how much time is saved in the long run.

Be Quiet
You can’t listen if your mouth is moving, so be quiet while the other person is speaking. Wait until they complete their thought or sentence before you begin to ask clarification questions or answer the question at hand. If you rearrange the letters that spell, listen, you get silent! Remember that when someone else is talking with you.

Listen with an Open Mind
Selective listening (hearing only what matches your views and interests) limits your ability to learn, grow, and achieve. Listening with an open mind increases your ability to understand and respond effectively. Your openness will create such noticeable rapport that the other person will be inclined to listen to you with equal sensitivity.

Listen for Emotions
People tend to repeat those things that are important to them. Listen not only to what they say, but how they say it. Voices express emotion through pitch, intonation, hesitation, and speed of delivery. By listening to what people say, and how they say it, you will discover that feelings behind the words.

Listen for Retention
How often have you wanted to tell a good joke or story that you had heard but simply couldn’t remember it? On those occasions you probably wished you knew how to increase your memory retention. Well, there is a way. While you are listening, occasionally summarize in your mind the highlights that you’re hearing. This will increase your understanding and your retention. Verbalizing your summarized to the speaker from time to time will also confirm the accuracy of the communications. The speaker sill appreciate your carefulness, as long as your purpose is to assure understanding.

Lean Quote: Find and Develop the Potential Within You

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.

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." — Albert Schweitzer

We are privileged to live in a country that offers boundless opportunities and abundance. But there is no magic key or instant formula for success. People should take the time to look within themselves to find and develop their own potential.

According to an ancient legend, a group of wise men were disturbed when they saw how humankind abused its wisdom. They decided to hide the secret of success and happiness where no one would never again find it. But where? The chief of the wise men called a council to decide.

One wise man said, "We will bury the secret of happiness and success in the dark depths of the earth."

The chief wise man responded, "No, that will never do, for humans will dig deep down into the earth and find it."

A second wise man proposed, "We will sink the secret of happiness and success into the deepest ocean."

But again the chief wise man replied, "No, not there, for people will surely dive into the depths and find it,"

Another wise man suggested, "We will hide it on top of the highest mountain."

Again the chief wise man rejected the idea. "No, for humans will eventually climb even the highest mountain and find it and again take it up for themselves."

Then, the chief wise man said, "Here is what we will do. We will hide the secret of happiness and success deep inside every individual, for they will never think to look for it there." 

To this day, according to legend, people have been running back and forth across the earth digging, diving, and climbing in search of something that they already possess within themselves. You, too, already possess all of the resources you need to be superbly successful. You simply need to develop them by becoming more of who you really are.  

Building a Successful Team

Everyone is an organization plays an important role in it is overall performance. It is no longer enough to be good, you must be exceptional. It is no longer enough to have satisfied customers, you must seek to develop loyal and delighted customers. It is no longer enough to maintain. You must be aggressive, responsive, and quick. Your challenge is getting everyone on your team or in your department committed and focused on achieving organizational success. As an effective team leader, your role is to build the best, strongest, most productive team possible. Your team or department’s results, or lack thereof, will be in direct proportion in the cohesiveness of your team.

Creating a winning team begins with creating a culture in which your employees are encouraged to challenge, to question, to create, and to innovate. Surround yourself with the best people the organization has to offer. Don’t limit yourself by focusing only on people with seniority or rank. Bring people into the team as they are needed based upon their expertise or abilities.

Create a culture where people are encouraged to be their best and perform their best. As the goals or projects dictate, you may want to involve multiple team members in different aspects of the project as needed. Furthermore, it may not always be necessary to involve everyone from beginning to end. Always be sure; however, the goals are specific and that they are aligned with the vision, values, and strategies of the organization as defined by senior management. Alignment must also occur between the department’s activities and its outcomes. If continuous improvement is to occur, your team needs to focus on continuous improvement in all areas. Therefore, measurements and expectations must be developed and reviewed regularly. Get team members involved and delegate ownership of processes and problems which rightfully belong to them.

One of the most common examples of team effectiveness can be seen on a cool day in the fall. As you look up into the sky, you can see a flock of geese embarking on their journey south. The V formation they fly in as a group actually benefits each individual bird. As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an updraft for the bird immediately behind it. By flying in a V formation the entire flock can fly 71% farther than each member of the flock could alone. When the lead goose gets tired, he or she rotates back into the V and another goose flies the point. The geese honking from behind are believed to be cheering the point goose to keep going and to maintain speed. If a goose falls out of formation from weakness or wounds, two other geese will follow to help and provide protection. They will stay until the goose is either able to fly again or dies. Then they set out on their own to catch up with the original flock or find another formation.

People have the same advantage when they are part of a winning team. The momentum of the team keeps a project going so the probability of success is enhanced. Their collective power is much greater than that of any one individual.

Lean Tips Edition #103 (1546 - 1560)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.

Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.

Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #1546 - Learn by Doing First and Training Second

The Toyota Way is about learning by doing. I believe that in the early stages of lean transformation there should be at least 80% doing and 20% training and informing. The best training is training followed by immediately doing … or doing followed by immediate training. The Toyota approach to training is to put people in difficult situations and let them solve their way out of the problems.

Lean Tip #1547 - Use Kaizen to Teach and Make Rapid Change

Kaizen frees up a cross-functional team to make changes quickly that otherwise can drag on for months. Selecting the right people for the team is critical, as is setting aside the time for those individuals and giving them a lot of management support. Using a talented and experienced facilitator who has a deep understanding of lean tools and philosophy with a specific problem to tackle makes all the difference in what you can accomplish.

Lean Tip #1548 - Use Value Stream Mapping to Develop Future State Visions

Value stream mapping is a method for clearly showing in diagram form the material and information flow. When developing the current state map, future state map, and action plan for implementation, I always recommend using a cross-functional group consisting of managers who can authorize resources and doers who are part of the process being mapped. Mapping creates a language and tool for the team to actually pick apart a specific process, see the waste, develop a lean vision, and apply it to that particular process.

Lean Tip #1549 – Organize Around Value Streams

In most organizations, management is organized by process or function. In a factory, there is a manager of the paint department, a manager of the assembly department, and a manager of the maintenance department. In Lean Thinking, Womack and Jones recommend creating value stream managers who have complete responsibility for the value stream and can answer to the customer.

Lean Tip #1550 - Realign Metrics with a Value Stream Perspective

“You get what you measure” has become a truism in most companies. But metrics are used very differently by Toyota compared to most companies. They are an overall tool for tracking progress of the company and they are a key tool for continuous improvement. At most companies they are mainly a tool for short-term cost control by managers who do not understand what they are managing.

The first step therefore is to eliminate non-lean metrics that are wreaking havoc with those seriously invested in improving operational excellence. The next step is to measure a variety of value stream metrics from lead time to inventory levels to first-pass quality and treat these metrics as seriously as labor productivity and other short-term cost metrics.

Lean Tip #1551 - Figure Out How the Work Gets Done.

We have lots of assumptions about how work gets done that don’t mirror exactly what happens. After all, during the day-to-day grind, we don’t think about how we do the work, we often just do it. Ask an outside observer to record the steps of the process in a way that he/she could repeat it themselves if they had to, without assistance.

Lean Tip #1552 - Remove Inefficiencies and Waste.

Once you know what the workflow of your process looks like, take a second look at any step in the process that doesn’t directly create value for the customer. Manage, improve, and smooth your process flow to eliminate non-valued-added activity (e.g., wasted time, wasted movement, wasted inventory due to overproduction, customer delays, waiting for approvals, delays due to batching of work, unnecessary steps, duplication of effort, and errors and rework).

Lean Tip #1553 - Empower the People Operating the Process.

The best person to improve a process is the person who carries out the process. Utilize employee’s full skillsets—can someone be doing more? If the process is improved, they will likely have time to take on higher level work.

Lean Tip #1554 - Track Numbers and Manage by Evidence.

Sometimes what should work well doesn’t. Test out your process, collect data on how well it is working, highlight and eliminate errors, and seek continuous improvements in value. Seek proof; don’t assume an improvement has been made.

Lean Tip #1555 - Focus on Your Customers.

Ultimately, what all customers want is value. Value creation occurs when the quality of services received is perceived as high compared to their cost. What does your customer want and how can you provide it better, faster, cheaper?

Lean Tip #1556 - Don’t Try To Map All Your Processes at Once.

Some businesses make the erroneous move of documenting all their processes at once. This sort of exercise requires a significant amount of time and man-power upfront with little or no value-add. Focus on mapping key business processes that cut across the value chain where identifiable improvements can be made. Define the scope, identify the business processes you need to focus on and concentrate on those.

Lean Tip #1557 - The Process Mapping Exercise Should Be Done Within A Well-Defined Framework.

Identify the standards, templates and guidelines to be adopted for the exercise. The last thing you want is a process repository with multiple notation types for the same type of event or activity. It can easily become confusing for anyone reading the documents.

Business processes can be mapped to varying levels of abstraction. The purpose of the mapping exercise will of course, guide the process data you collect and the level of detail you go into. Agree on what levels of abstraction the process documentation exercise should cover. For example, will the mapping exercise cover all the processes within a function (e.g. Planning) with the ability to drill down to sub-processes and procedures?

Lean Tip #1558 – Focus on Simplicity

There's no benefit to building a repository that can only be understood by its architect. Using complex notations or wording can quickly become overwhelming for anyone reading the documents, thereby defeating the purpose of the exercise. With process mapping efforts, this popular saying rings true: Less is more.

Lean Tip #1559 - Consider Training Team Members To Map

Not all team members will be equally versed in conducting the process mapping exercise. Set up a brief meeting/training session to bring everyone up to speed on what is expected of them. This training should cover the standards to be adopted, the tools to be used and any other unique requirements of the process mapping exercise (e.g. it may be necessary to capture the accounting transactions generated by each process step). Don’t assume everyone knows exactly what to do.

Lean Tip #1560 - Create Short-Term Goals to Keep Momentum High.

Documenting processes can be a laborious exercise, from holding meetings with different stakeholders, collecting process information, drawing process maps, creating process documentation to obtaining signoffs. To keep morale and momentum high, identify short-term wins and milestones to keep team members from lagging behind or worse still, burning out.