A Good Manager

MEMORANDUM on Quality

2010-10-22T20:08:00.001+01:00

TO: All Employees

In regard to these processes, therefore, it is important to keep in mind
that the quality of the process is only as good as the quality of the
form by which it is measured. It has come to my attention that some team
members have been filling out their Quality Process Tracking Sheets
with irregular times, measuring the exact time it took them to complete a
given task instead of filling in quarter-hour increments as it is
clearly indicated on the form. Those quarter-hour increments are there
for a reason, though it will do you no good to ask me what the reason
was because the consultant who designed the forms is now living in
Albuquerque under an assumed name.

MORE...

Is this noise inside my head bothering you?

2010-06-01T11:04:00.000+01:00

From Seth Godin

Is this noise inside my head bothering you?

Not just my head, but your customer's head and yes... yours.

Everyone has multiple conversations and priorities going on, competing agendas that come into play every time we make a choice about doing, buying, creating or interacting. I think these voices (and a few I missed) determine which career we choose, how good a job we do, where we shop and what we watch. Here are a few:

The ego--seeks applause and recognition.
The lizard--seeks safety, wants to fit in and not be rejected or criticized.
The artist--wants to be generous, creative and make positive change with impact.
The boxer--wants to poke and be poked, seeks revenge and ultimately victory.
The zombie--wants to turn off and be entertained.
The philanthropist--wants to help, anonymously.
The evangelist--wants to spread an idea.
And the hunter--wants to successfully track and bring down a target.

There's a lot of overlap here, no doubt about it. Who's winning?

What is 5S?

2009-05-04T10:42:00.003+01:00

5S is a method for organizing a workplace, especially a shared workplace (like a shop floor or an office space), and keeping it organized. It's sometimes referred to as a housekeeping methodology, however this characterization can be misleading, as workplace organization goes beyond housekeeping (see discussion of "Seiton" below).

The key targets of 5S are workplace morale, safety and efficiency. The assertion of 5S is, by assigning everything a location, time is not wasted by looking for things. Additionally, it is quickly obvious when something is missing from its designated location. Advocates of 5S believe the benefits of this methodology come from deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be stored. This decision making process usually comes from a dialog about standardization which builds a clear understanding, between employees, of how work should be done. It also instills ownership of the process in each employee.

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology)

Sort: Sort out unneeded items
Straighten: Have a place for everything
Shine: Keep the area clean
Standardize: Create rules and standard operating procedures
Sustain: Maintain the system and continue to improve it

Thinking Time

2009-05-03T10:22:00.000+01:00

I'm continually struck by the relentless, frenzied pace that people maintain at work. Whether it's an engineer at a high-tech startup in which speed is part of the company's DNA, or an attorney at a law firm who insists she has to respond immediately (if not sooner) to a client's call, or the head of a non-profit focused on building community support for the organization's mission, everyone is obsessed with speed and responsiveness.

More at www.timebackmanagement.com

Gemba-Based Leadership – Not Just for Chief Engineers

2009-05-02T22:30:00.002+01:00

My job is to develop you, so I need to hear your thinking, and develop you through coaching you on the job.

I will give you expectations that are clear and challenging.

I will give you a deadline.

I will expect you to report out on everything, all the time.

I will ask you what you need; I’ll see what you need and provide on-going support and coaching as required.

And I will be back to check on how things are going.

More at http://www.lean.org/shook/2009/02/gemba-based-leadership-not-just-for.html

Deming's Fourteen Points, Deming's 14 Obligation of Management

2009-05-02T21:38:00.001+01:00

Create constancy of purpose for the improvement of product and service. With the aim to become competitive, stay in business, and provided jobs.
Adopt the new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins. Put it into practice and teach it to employees, customers. and suppliers.
Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality. Improve the process and build quality into the product in the first place.
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Instead, minimize total cost in the long run. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
Improve constantly and forever the system of production, service, planning, or any activity. This will improve quality and productivity and thus constantly decrease costs.
Institute training for skills.
Adopt and institute leadership for the management of people, recognizing their different abilities, capabilities, and aspiration. The aim of leadership should be to help people, machines, and gadgets do a better job. Leadership of management is in need of overhaul, as well as leadership of production workers.
Drive out fear and build trust so that everyone can work effectively.
Break down barriers between departments. Abolish competition and build a win-win system of cooperation within the organization. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production and in use that might be encountered with the product or service.
Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
Eliminate numerical goals, numerical quotas and management by objectives. Substitute leadership.
Remove barriers that rob people of joy in their work. This will mean abolishing the annual rating or merit system that ranks people and creates Competition and conflict.
Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.

More at http://curiouscat.com/management/demings14points.cfm

I need more time

2009-05-02T21:16:00.002+01:00

First rule of decision making: More time does not create better decisions.

In fact, it usually decreases the quality of the decision.

More information may help. More time without more information just creates anxiety, not insight.

Deciding now frees up your most valuable asset, time, so you can go work on something else. What happens if, starting today, you make every decision as soon as you have a reasonable amount of data?

More at sethgodin.typepad.com

Street Smart Lessons from a Caveman

2009-05-02T20:56:00.001+01:00

In the Stone Age man had very few process improvement tools at his disposal. Essentially, he had a rock and a stick–it doesn’t get any more basic than that. If something didn’t work right he had two choices: A) whack it with the rock or B) poke it with the stick. Sadly, that approach to process improvement has not evolved a great deal inside many companies today. Smacking something with a rock is about one step down from “kicking the machine” to try to make things better–a tactic frequently employed by those lacking a Six Sigma process improvement methodology such as DMAIC. Jabbing something with a stick has been replaced by management prodding workers to perform better with hollow motivations such as “work smarter, not harder” or worse yet, “do this or you’re fired.”

more at www.sixsigmaiq.com

The Pareto Principle: Achieving More With Less

2009-05-02T20:27:00.001+01:00

The Pareto Principle, an important Lean Six Sigma management theory, states that, for many events, 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. Joseph M. Juran, a business management thinker, formulated the Pareto Principle, or the 80-20 Principle. Juran named the Pareto Principle after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who had observed in the early 1900s that 80 percent of Italian income went to 20 percent of the population.

more at www.sixsigmaiq.com

The “Stop-Doing” Project Abandonment Strategy

2009-05-02T20:04:00.001+01:00

In a recent interview, Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant defined his mission in taking the helm eight years ago as “to take a ‘bad’ company and lift its performance to ‘extraordinary’ by 2011." In 2001, Campbell was indeed without clear direction and had no innovation strategy. Conant's strategy was simple enough: developing or keeping only products that ranked first or second in three major categories. It’s a strategy that immediately brings to mind the project abandonment strategy employed by former GE CEO Jack Welch. And it’s the project abandonment strategy Peter Drucker delivered to Welch and GE’s board of directors shortly after Welch took the reins of the then vastly diversified and bloated company.

more at www.sixsigmaiq.com

Beware of TMI (too much information)

2009-05-02T18:05:00.001+01:00

Conventional wisdom around innovation and ideas says that when it comes to information, more is better. But what if that's not always the case? Can information freely shared impede innovation? Strange as it sounds, can a good idea shared with others actually stunt creativity?

According to researchers at Indiana University, a good idea can actually distract others from pursuing even better ideas, thereby rendering a truly elegant solution unrealized. In other words, good ideas can prevent great ideas.

Robert Goldstone maintains that if innovators and labs see exactly what everyone else is doing, the human tendency to glom on the the current best solution -- aka satisficing -- can suboptimize the problem solving effort

more at http://inpursuitofelegance.com/post/2009/03/25/TMI.aspx