Category Archives: Learning

How well is your path marked? 1

Easter, Learning

I remember growing up in a small community in Western Pennsylvania where the suburbs were just blooming surrounded by trees and fields.

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The sixties were a time of growth for this area and the mills and mines that filled the valleys were running at full tilt to provide the raw materials that make up a nation. Our street was an extension from an older community that had stretched its boundaries and every house was made up of sturdy sticks, bricks and mortar.

Mac Family on front porch

Every day it seemed like another new house was popping up from the ground like crocus flowers in the spring. The sound of hammers and saws filled the air all summer long as new faces joined our little neighborhood. The number of kids swelled too as the baby boom really hit its peak. There were very few houses that did not have kids and we all found our own ways to share the natural adventures of the area.

The woods behind the Hughes house were the starting point for so many of those adventures. Undeveloped and built on sloping hills, these woods hosted forts, caves, and most importantly trails that we spent hours and hours developing. From my earliest memories of this time, extending the paths was a mission as well as a joy.

There is an art to building a trail that must have been intuitive for us. You didn’t want to venture too far too fast or the return trip would be too difficult. A line of us would form on the old existing trailhead and we would start beating a path through the brush. Any number of obstacles would be in your path including the easier green shoots of native tall plants and the much harder thickets of jagger bushes. Following the terrain of the hill was important so that you avoided running your trail into a blind hollow that would be difficult to return on.

Barriers or opportunities?

Fallen trees offered themselves up as bridges over the many streams that poured down from the hills since the Indians walked there. These same trees formed the small temporary forts that would protect us from any enemies who might come to attack our party. Hearty sticks made excellent walking aides or could be used to spar against each other in mock combat. Later, they would be used as rifles to beat back attacking Germans or Japanese that had been magically transported from the dark days of World War 2.

Making it back home for dinner was important. Especially making it back home when you heard the old bell in our backyard that Dad had mounted on a steel pole. The bell was from one of the fire trucks that he took in trade for the shiny new Mack’s that he sold. You knew that when the bell rang, you only had so much time to get home before you would be in trouble.

Joh Receiving award

The path had to be well marked as well as clear of obstacles. Each kid would have to independently be able to find their way up and down the main trail as well as the outgrowth trails that led to the clay mines or to the valley where the old dump trucks sat rusting. There were short cut trails too that worked great going down the hill but presented real challenges going up. One wrong move coming back up and you would have a new rip in your pants that would require explaining. Worse yet, a fresh wound on our legs from falling could result in a restriction on the next day’s adventure.

Marking the trails was important but following the marks was critical. We tried a lot of different techniques that we learned in scouts. Marking trees was okay for a season but the marks seemed to vanish when the season was done. Next year’s progress was always slowed by the hunt for the marks. Plus, this required a knife or axe and it took us a while to have enough sharp instruments to be of any use.

We followed this routine all the way up until we discovered the difference between boys and girls. Suddenly, the adventures of the deepest woods no longer held the same attraction as the careful interplay between these new found differences and likes. The woods simply grew back one year and we all followed different paths. The patterns were still there in our minds as we tested new paths and went new places. Sadly, in most cases, we went by ourselves or found new companions.

I never lost the lessons though.

  • Mark the trail going both ways… sometime you will want to return
  • Make sure of your footing as you go
  • Be aware of the obstacles that might keep you from succeeding
  • Path’s can’t always go in a straight line in life but you can get your destination if you think it through
  • Plan accordingly so you can get back home in time when the bell rings
  • Listen to each other and share your learning as you go
  • Short cuts can have unintended consequences

The most important lesson was that not having the adventure is the greatest loss of all.

I suppose we could have sat in our game rooms and played with the electronic gizmos that are popular now. In retrospect, we might have avoided a few cases of poison ivy and a few broken arms. But we would have never learned to look for poisonous plants or understand the consequences of taking unnecessary risks (that did not involve an artificial electronic penalty of some kind that erases as fast as hitting an on/off switch)

How about you? How well have you marked your trails?

This is the season where many people of the Christian faith will be reflecting that very question. I am home again after nearly forty years of blazing my own trail. I have contemplated going over to the house on Duncan Station where the old trial head began and asking for permission to go through the woods again. It would be interesting to see if I actually have learned very much in the years since I left or if I would end up lost in the woods.

Summer 2011 004

Mister Mac

The Lean Facilitator Reply

Lean, Learning • Tags: , , , , ,

The practice of lean involves eliminating waste wherever it is found and solving problems (which typically leads to waste elimination). In all things, we are trying to remove the barriers that keep our teams from being successful. But team building can be a tricky thing in any culture.

Most western cultures are deeply rooted in the need to recognize individual performance and achievement. Our rewards systems are often set up to encourage individualism. Many people strive for the number one position, the pole position in racing, the gold star award, the penthouse suite and the corner office. While all of these are important, they do little to encourage the type of team collaboration needed in a lean environment.

goal alignment

One key part of a lean effort is the lean facilitator. This person is important at the start of the journey and plays a balancing role throughout the implementation and life of the effort. What key roles and characteristics make up a good facilitator?

Primarily, the knowledge, skills, and abilities you would expect in any facilitator. For example, a lean facilitator:

  • is capable of maintaining objectivity
  • is skilled in reading the underlying dynamics of the group and using that understanding to keep the process on track
  • is skilled in adapting to the changing situation
  • demonstrates professionalism, self-confidence, and authenticity
  • maintains personal integrity
  • remains neutral on issues
  • practices active listening
  • knows how to ask questions
  • encourages open communication
  • maintains focus on the issues

tuckman-model

All teams go through a development process. The development process has at least four distinct phases (Form, Storm, Norm, Perform) which can be repeatable based on a number of different factors. AN important point to remember also is that each time there are changes to the team, there will be potential impacts on where the team is in the cycle. New members always add an amount of “change” to the mix and that should be a key indicator for the need for a reassessment.

Understanding where the team is in the cycle can help the facilitator to become more effective in guiding the teams through a lean journey. This places a burden on the facilitator to not make assumptions but taking the time to make well measured assessments at varying points along the way. The key thing is to continue to re-evaluate with enough frequency based on the key indicators (conflict, chaos, productivity gains and losses and so on).

Finally, the ability for a facilitator to balance inquiry and advocacy is critical to their success. Inquiry means that the facilitator is allowing the natural flow of ideas to come from the group being facilitated. That does not mean that the facilitator cannot advocate for an idea or a direction. If the group is failing to come to the place where lean thinking is the key factor, it is acceptable for the facilitator to take a more proactive approach to get the team back on track.

A great lean facilitator can make all the difference in a lean journey.

True North

True north is a place that can be reached if only the right amount of direction can be applied. Being prepared to provide that general direction while allowing the group to discover it “on their own” is a true challenge and a true opportunity.

Mister Mac

Diving into Lean 1

Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Lean, Learning, Motivation • Tags: , , , , , ,

What a great week!

I spent most of it in Orlando Florida at the Peabody Hotel participating in meetings and discussions around “lean culture” with members of the Lean Enterprise Institute’s Lean Transformation Summit 2013.

http://www.lean.org/Events/2013_lean_transformation_summit.cfm

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The Institute is a non-profit organization made up of people like John Shook and Jim Womack who are certainly no strangers to the people who have decided to try and aspire to lean thinking.

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The first day was spent in a workshop focused on Management Standard work.

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In lean manufacturing initiatives, we often focus on the Gemba where the work actually takes place. The lesson for the day was a renewed emphasis on the management/leader Gemba where other kinds of work need more focus on standardization. The problem with many groups is that the leadership does not completely align itself with a lean culture and the conflicts that arise are hindrances to advancing the progress of the whole unit.

The core part of lean is linked to an old retail saying:

“Location, location, location”

Proximity to the work and ultimately to the problems is linked with an iron band to the solutions that can be found. The more distance between the Gemba and the leadership, the harder it is to see problems and be a part of the solution. The mantra about problem solving is for the people involved to be where the problems occur. How can you achieve that if the managers are separated by space and time for most of the working day? Not only that, but meetings are very counterproductive if they are not linked to helping the people in the Gemba solve the things that keep them from being successful?

Can I get a witness?

The summit’s power is in bringing together thousands of lean practitioners from all around the world. Every major continent was represented in one way or another and the understanding of common struggles was obvious in the workshops and plenary sessions. As speaker after speaker identified common problems, you could see people shaking their heads up and down and smiling as if to say, “Yes, that is happening in my shop”.

The exciting thing is to see the principals of lean spreading to many industries. From the humble beginnings at Toyota, lean has spread like oil on water from manufacturing to healthcare, financial to insurance, services to education. The ideas of waste identification and elimination are useful in any industry with the vision to see what the possibility’s are. Mergers and acquisitions of companies have created untold opportunities for waste creation so finding ways to adapt this process is critical for all of us.

The common ground for all of us attending is the seeking of better ways to practice the beliefs and understand the way to apply the tools.

I learned some new facets of A3 thinking (both strategic and problem solving) from Tracey Richardson (Teaching Lean, Inc.). Tracey was a production worker at Toyota’s Georgetown plant in Kentucky and later became one of their trainers. She now teaches lean across all industries in her own business and is a dynamic speaker and presenter. Her tools for A3 problem solving will be shared with my team at my current location.

http://www.teachingleaninc.com/

Laura Murray from IBM spent 90 minutes with us in a workshop that talked about TWI (Training within Industry). While much of the information was review for me, it was interesting to see the application in a process related industry and how it affected their lean journey.

Overall, the time was well spent for me. There were no moments of light bulbs popping over my head. But there was a great opportunity for me to sharpen my sword, learn a few new ideas of merit and meet with some fellow members of what some call a quasi-religious order.

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The single best Plenary experience was hearing the success story of a young woman named Stacy Skinner who works for Herman Miller in western Michigan.

Herman Miller is one of the great lean success stories and you owe it to yourself to do a little research on the company and the way they do their business.

Stacy was a floor associate who was selected for one of Herman Miller’s leadership programs. HM identified that there was a gap in the middle and in order to expedite their lean journey they needed leaders at all levels. Tracy was selected for the program and currently serves as an Operations Facilitator. Her story about going form a floor worker and adopting the lessons learned in the classes was motivational and inspirational. There were some seasoned speakers before and after her, but none of them left the same impression with the crowd at large. Her ovation was the loudest and longest. Thank you Tracy and I hope you continue to grow and teach all of us.

Lean is about continuous learning.

I can honestly say that I spent the week in a way where some learning occurred. I wonder if there is a way we can spread waste elimination in a meaningful way to our government?

At the Peabody, that is like getting your Ducks in a Row…

 

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http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/most-outrageous-peabody-hotel-ducks.htm

Mister Mac

Conflict? My Team?… oh yeah, it’s Monday… 1

Communication, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Learning • Tags: ,

Sunday afternoons are a great time around our house. We read the paper, settle the schedule for the week, walk the dogs, and sometimes take a nap.

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Dinner will be grilled “something” in every season but deep winter, and the TV gets a break until later in the evening. The routine has developed over the years as an antidote to the day which soon follows: Mondays.

I have been a part of teams and a leader of teams for most of my adult life. From the early days in the Navy to my later days as a civilian, the combinations of teams and Monday mornings have come to represent an endless opportunity for learning how to manage conflict. I have participated in and watched many others deal with this source of negative energy for as long as I can remember. Sadly my observation in most cases has been that the people leading those teams are not very skilled at it.

Leadership is a mix of theory and practice. There are probably as many books on leadership as there are on any subject you can imagine. Why so many books? Why have so many people made so much money on something that continues to struggle no matter how many books like “Seven Secrets to Successful Stupendousness” get published?

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I was noticing the other day in a few of my professional journals how many formulas there are for success and they all have numbered steps. Because I have not yet published my book on “Seven Steps for Superior Speaking using the Submarine Service Style” I will refrain from criticizing the need for numbers. Perhaps that will be my next book: “Seven reasons why highly successful writers don’t need seven reasons”.

Conflict often begins on a Monday for a number of reasons.

Conflicting goals within teams, conflicting goals within the same team, interpersonal communication conflicts, too many beers on Sunday afternoon and evening, boredom, lost tools, and… wait, conflict just kind of happens in and of itself sometimes. In a perfect world, you would just let the warring parties go off into a large room someplace and knock each other silly until they came to their senses. But that wouldn’t actually be a perfect world since they would somehow find a way to sue the company for not providing the loser with a safe and comforting workplace.

In the real world, schedules need to be met, production needs to run in harmony. Your customers really don’t care how you do it as long as the quality is high, the costs are reasonable, and the product or service gets there just in time. Unresolved conflict will stop all of these from happening.

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If your team members are focused on the C.O.O.D. (conflict of the day) instead of their regularly assigned work flow, your product quality will be reduced. I have seen this effect many times as we did root cause analysis on spikes in deficiencies. Operator inattentiveness more often than not can be traced as the real root cause (except in very hard core union shops where evil management and lack of care for the worker by that evil management is always the root cause.)

In the world of Lean/Continuous Improvement, we look for eight types of waste that do not add value to the product or service.

(I know, more numbers, but its acceptable across the whole Lean/CI world so who am I to fight it?)

Waiting, Unneeded Motion, Defects, Transport, Overproduction, Inventory, Over-processing, and unused Employee Input. If you think about an unresolved conflict in the workplace you can probably see where all eight of these can be impacted by unhappy or angry workers/leaders.

Solutions?

The first part of the solution is to accept the fact that its going on. The saddest and most ignorant comment I have ever heard a leader say is: “They are being paid to work and I expect them to do just that. We are not running a babysitting service here.” No you’re not but if you don’t find a way to manage conflict better, you might not have a business either. Constantly threatening your workforce adds no value and actually encourages a culture where the lack of trust and respect will eventually create a toxic work environment.

Here are some facts: You paid money to hire and maintain those employees at some point in their career or service. Whether the training was in a classroom or in the Gemba, their knowledge represents the corporate knowledge and skills that ultimately generate the income and bring your customers back for more of what you do. Firing the whole lot just means you will have to retrain a new group and you may lose your customer base in the meantime as you retool. Customers often have their own customers so there is no luxury of waiting for you to retrain your workforce.

Unresolved conflict adds to stress in the leadership team as well. The conflict will pop up in the worst possible places at the worst possible times. Instead of solving real problems, your leaders will have their attention focused on almost everything but the real issues of the day. Demoralized leaders leave. Sooner or later even the most loyal of your leadership will see an end game with no good outcome. Why would they continue to come into a pressure cooker every day when they can find another place that values their technical and leadership skills enough to create a great place to work?

The answer is simple. Using my five step model  you can magically transform conflict into productivity!

(You see, not a seven step model, a simple five step model which not only saves two whole steps – LEAN – but it’s magic!)

Actually, no it won’t. Nothing short of a transformation in your workplace will do that long term but you can start that transformation by not ignoring the fact that there is conflict. There are a number of processes out there that can help you on your journey to managing conflict but the real first step is the same as that required by every Alcoholic since AA was born: admit you have a problem.

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Here are my life observations about conflict management:

  • Conflict doesn’t exist because you have dysfunctional people, it begins because you have a culture that allows them to act in dysfunctional ways
  • If people trusted each other and their leadership, they would communicate with more effectiveness
  • If people communicate with more effectiveness, they will react to and solve problems more quickly
  • If people had a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in your culture, they could navigate more safely between the little daily “conflicts” that are going to occur in the best run organization
  • If people understand that conflict isn’t always negative and learn how to engage each other, your creativity and innovation will grow exponentially

There is no five step, six step or seven step process to managing conflict over the long term but you must work on building trust, communication, and clearly defined shared goals to make conflict work in your favor.

How do you know if there is conflict in your workplace? I always use the Monday morning test. Sit someplace quietly and observe your workforce (and their leadership) as they come in on Monday morning. Are they tired already? Do they interact with each other in a way that doesn’t include who won the game yesterday? Do they look like they want to be here at all no less than on a Monday morning?

For the people leading other people, here is another step:

Over the next few weeks pull out your Monday measurements including quality (rework) and overall results. Schedule a time with your leadership and have an honest talk about what you have observed. If you have been running the organization in a trust vacuum, this make take some time. But at some point, you have to figure out a way to manage the unproductive culture of unresolved conflict. Either that or plan on doing something completely different on Monday mornings in the future.

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Mister Mac

Royal Order of the Duck Rules for Effective Communication Reply

Communication, Leadership, Learning, Teamwork • Tags: , ,

The world we live in today presents us with more challenges to effective communication than at any time in history.

Modern electronic devices, the speed at which most people live their lives, and cultural challenges in a shrinking global economy provide daily examples of the problems we increasingly face in effectively communicating with each other.

Studying the problem has been a large part of my work for years. Whether it was on a submarine, a ship or in a shop, communications are at the heart of most conflict and loss of efficiency. Since we are all taught basic communications skills from the time we are young children, why does this end up being such a problem?

Frankly, if we want to learn how to communicate more effectively, we can learn a lot from a duck.

When we simplify the way we approach communication and look at the basics behind it, we can improve our won understanding and help others. There are three parts:

  1. Think like a Duck

    • Understand the communications process and understand barriers to communication

  2. Act like a Duck

    • Learn better ways to listen (including listening with your eyes)

  3. Be the Duck

    • Take positive steps towards more effective communications

Ducks have a relatively simple motive for communication

Without effective communication, they become someone else’s dinner. In many of our own personal situations, that is probably also true but not so much on as grand of a scale. The duck instinctively or by training knows how the communication cycle works. They hear a certain type of call and intuitively know how to respond. Whether it’s a meal call, a come back call, a danger call or a mating call, the duck doesn’t need to do much interpretation. It responds to the appropriate signal (most times with a call of its own – feedback)

People have made it a bit more complicated

Through a much more aggressive adaptation and evolution, we have added many parts to the puzzle. the following is an example of how communication occurs in an uncluttered world:

Talk like a duck 1

Source: Duck 1 thinks it is time for feeding

Encoding: Duck 1 issues the appropriate call and the message is shared in a way that Duck 2 should hear it

Decoding: Duck 2 recognizes the  call and adds value to it (Food Time). A response is sent as feedback (“Okay, I’ll be right there”) and the sending duck knows that communication is complete.

If for some reason Duck 1 does not get a response, chances are it will continue to signal until it is satisfied all efforts to communicate are complete.

The field of experience is a sum total of a ducks life

The things it has learned, what it instinctively knows as a duck, experiences that have happened and the environment all make up how the duck knows to send and receive messages. Assuming the receiving duck has a similar field of experience, they probably communicate with ease and little frustration. Life isn’t always that simple though as illustrated in the following diagram:

 

Talk like a duck 2

The added lines are called perceptional screens

These screens are unintentional in most cases but result from the various experiences and interpretations of the sender and the receiver. They can change the scope or purpose of the message and result in miscommunication and confusion. As stated earlier, this can be fatal to a duck so simplification is always the rule of thumb.

Finally, there are other things that can affect effective communications

The first two pictures assume that the ducks are communicating on a lovely sunny day with only the sounds of a babbling brook quietly playing in the background. If only life were so simple. More often than not, it actually looks like this:

 

Talk Like a Duck 3

That’s right: NOISE is all around us as we try to communicate

 

The noise comes in many forms. Other ducks using the same airspace to communicate, other birds and animals, noise pollution of all kinds including people, planes, cars, highways, factory noise and on and on. Internal noise from conflict, prejudices, biases, emotions, lack of trust, lack of training, fear of failure, fear of success and on and on. Even with the duck’s close held need for survival, they are bombarded with all of the same environmental issues that people are. Ducks just seem to have a more focused ability to screen the noise out.

Think like a Duck

Eliminate as much of the clutter as you can and keep your communications simple. Anticipate that there may be perceptional screens and noise that will hinder your communications.

Act Like a Duck

Practice active listening. Listen more than you talk. Provide feedback but not every few seconds. Keep the conversation focused. Make sure your delivery speed is appropriate to the message, vary your tone and volume. Remember that there is a difference between hearing and listening.

Be the Duck

You own the responsibility for effective communications and have to assume it will take some work even with the best of circumstances. Check for understanding and offer clarification. Don’t ignore others concerns or signs of confusion. Body language becomes like another set of “ears” to review how well the message is understood. It can also be true that in sending, your own body language is key to presenting your message.

The message is clear

Our survival is linked to the way we communicate. You have a choice to make when it comes to something even this simple. Hopefully seeing this illustrated in a way that the ducks would approve can help you improve your own skills. Now let’s get quacking!

Mister Mac

Royal Order of the Duck

(Founding member)

Say it out loud

The Royal Order of the Duck had its beginnings in the late 1900’s in a hospital near Detroit Michigan. Several locals found a wounded duck and helped to nurse him back to health. As the duck continued his travels, he found others who were similarly afflicted and he started to try and share the lessons he had learned along the way.

As of today, there are only four people who are officially listed as members of the Royal Order of the Duck (the list is purposely kept secret). The stories shared here are meant to spread the message of hope and remind people that sometimes you have to act like a duck and let the world’s stuff just roll off your back.

“Lord Love a Duck”

It can happen in just a minute, but the effects can last for a lifetime 11

Learning

If you look back on your life, could you pick one single year that has been more eventful than others? I suppose it depends on what you use for a measuring stick. The loss of a loved one, a critical illness, catastrophes all have their own impacts. Every once in a while, the impact of the events from one year make that year more memorable than others.

This past year has been like that for me. I went from being a highly respected internal consultant travelling frequently to locations in Europe and the US to being completely rejected by old colleagues and comrades in what seemed like just a minute. The blog you are reading is almost one year old and was started as a means to keep some sanity as things just kind of spiraled out of control.

In just a minute, my reputation that I had spent years building through many achievements and sacrifices was suddenly shattered.

Years of travelling on weekends, navigating my way through countries where people spoke English nearly as badly as I tried to speak their language. Walking the floors of countless un-air-conditioned factories trying to improve people’s lives vanished as quickly as the wisps of smoke coming from their stacks. Loyalty to a company that denied it to you the one time you needed it. Patrols on submarines that lasted months at a time leading to a commission as an officer suddenly had very little value.

It doesn’t matter what the reason was anymore

It just seemed like a poor exchange for a lifetime of service to be denied the use of my life’s experience over something that could have really been treated with a bit of understanding and compassion. Like so many before me though, I found that it could all change in a minute. With the climate in today’s workplaces, it has consequences that can last a lifetime. Maybe its good that isn’t as immeasurable as it used to be.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in the garage helping to move boxes around. Now you know that my life has really changed if you find me working to support a garage sale. Having other people poking around my old stuff and frowning when they have to pay a few dollars for something that cost a lot more just sort of makes me cranky. But the last year has been a bit tough as we have tried to reinvent ourselves. Getting rid of the past was an acceptable exercise that day.

I have a lot of books from all of those years of consulting and I love my books. Storing them, once I had to empty my office, was a bit of a hassle but we managed to find places. I remember reinforcing the shelf just to be sure it would not collapse from the added weight. I actually even thought about that as I placed the box back up after looking for books that were excess. As I set the box on the shelf, I could almost feel the extra supports pulling away from the wall as the shelf collapsed.

The shelf that was right above our water heater. The water heater that had no local shut off valves. The water heater that suddenly started spraying hot water from the now broken pipes. Water that was spraying all over the stuff we had put together to sell the next day. Frankly, it didn’t even take a minute.

After everything that has happened in the past year, I asked the only question that made sense as I ran to the far side of the house to shut off the water supply…

“Why are you so mad at me?”

We had recently read the book of Job as part of our morning devotionals. In the 31 years we had been married up to last June, if you had said morning devotionals, I would have said, yes, I pray every morning that nothing gets in the way of my success. Doing a morning devotional together was not on the schedule and frankly my health showed it.  Plus reading about suffering in a year when you have lost so much yourself seemed to be a bit on the overkill side.

The lessons we have learned as we have prayed together, cried together, smiled together, and read the Word together have made a difference. As the water was spraying however, I was reminded that I am still a work in progress.

I ran back to the garage and my bride had already started moving things out of danger. I was a bit agitated but did not swear. I did ask Him a few more times, WHY ARE YOU SO MAD AT ME? She calmly reminded me that it was only stuff and I tried my best not to think about the notification I had just received that the unemployment had run out. Our savings had been used to help start a fledgling business that still had not produced a single dollar. The IRA is the last bit left. I was trying my best not to be mad at Him.

I called the plumber and you know they showed up almost right away. He and I moved all the rest of the junk out of the way so he could work on the water heater. After making sure I had the power off, he started working and at one point called me over.

“Did you know you had a fire in the lower elements?”

“What?”

He pulled back the blackened insulation where the melted units were hiding and said “You are very lucky. It looks like the other elements could have gone at any time and this time it would have caused a much larger fire.”

The corner where the fire would have been would have allowed the flames to spread quickly. If we were not home, we could have lost everything including Angus and Rufus who still have not mastered opening anything more than the doggie door. It is locked when we are away.

If we were home we could have lost everything that matters. The open attic above us would spread a fire quickly and we both sleep pretty deeply. I have rechecked all of the smoke alarms.

It took a day to get a replacement and we both looked at that event with a different point of view. My Brother-in-Law, Sister-in- Law and their boys transferred money to our bank account the next day.  More than enough money. They reminded us that we had done for them over the years (although I don’t think it was ever that much). Their generosity and kindness will be remembered. True family comes through when you need them.

When the worst of things happen, they often have reasons we can’t understand. The lesson learned is to not become a victim. If I have learned anything in this past year, it is to listen more carefully, be more compassionate when others have their struggles, and learn to be thankful for the things that really matter. I look forward to my daily conversation with God and my best friend. I think we are starting to really learn some things.

My Best Friend

In the week that followed, I got my first paid speaking event. More are starting to come through. I have been getting some requests from my website for information and even some face to face requests for my service and knowledge about my old field. We are going to make it. Success will come one customer at a time. The fact that I was too busy to blog this week is a perfect example of how things don’t stay the same forever.

Tragedy and success both share many traits.
The biggest one I believe in is that they can both happen in just a minute.
The trick is taking more than just a minute to understand which is which.

Get out there and have a great week!

Mister Mac

I Came To Learn About Lean… and All I Got Were These Legos ™ Reply

Change, Continuous Improvement, Lean, Learning • Tags: , , , ,

Today’s post is in honor of all those who are seeking a better and more productive workplace

(Trying to put some Lean back into theleansubmariner)

Establishing a “lean” culture based on continuous improvement has been a very sought after goal for many organizations over the past fifteen years. With the rising costs of labor, raw material, utilities and infrastructure of all kinds, manufacturing and other industries have struggled to contain their costs. With foreign and now even U.S. competition seeking better and more efficient methods, continuous improvement programs can provide one of the last truly competitive advantages. As many companies have found though, the concepts are indeed “foreign” and the tools are only as effective as the culture they grow.

Using Legos as an example, the core issues of eliminating waste, creating flow and demonstrating the need to have a climate of change can be shown in a small area with minimal costs. Properly done, it is a framework for future lean learning and can help to being participants more quickly on board with the ideas that continuous improvement has definite strategies and goals. Lean and continuous improvement activities have been around long enough to create concerns about ambiguity and confusing goals. I believe that is the direct fault of people who tried ot oversimplify lean and sold it to unsuspecting companies who were desperate to fix problems that had already gone past the date of no return.

One of the hallmarks of many continuous improvement implementations since 1996 has been the use of some kind of experiential learning device. These devices are used primarily when dealing with large groups in group settings to try and demonstrate the concepts. Normally time is a critical factor and finding a way to introduce game changing terms and ideas required some out of the box thinking. Companies such as Ford, GM, ALCOA and others have all tried corporation wide initiatives and at one point or another tried a cookie cutter approach to achieve lean.

Experiential learning has been around for a long time in business and industry and comes in many forms. According to David A. Kolb, an American educational theorist, knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. He states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience, certain abilities are required:

1. The learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience;

2. The learner must be able to reflect on the experience;

3. The learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and

4. The learner must possess decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience.

The particular types of experiential learning experiences used have evolved over the years. They can be as complex as making paper airplanes in a make believe factory setting with takt times and production goals plus quality issues. The very first lean exercise I helped to facilitate involved dozens of people in a number of these “factories” with a centralized planning and deployment activity. The sales team that sold the implementation project to the customer must have promised that unicorns could actually fly since managing such a chaotic process almost created a riot among the participants. Imagine a roomful of unhappy hardened union factory workers being told they will learn a new skill from folding paper into airplanes.

Subsequent implementations have been a little less insane in scope and size. This has allowed me to make some observations over time as to which methods are more successful and how they can actually be used to have a good effect. This is not a how to list for a person with no adult learning experience by the way. If you are reading this because last week you got a new assignment from your manager to spread lean in your workplace, you probably should start working on polishing up your resume. You have just been set up to fail.

Facilitation of an experiential event of any kind requires some background work. As identified above by Kolb’s study, getting the people to participate is a critical factor for success. Forcing them to participate in any event against their will often leads to an unmitigated disaster. There are some important steps that can be taken but let me give you one last warning: the learning I am about to relate has come from a number of years of success and FAILUREs. If it possible at all, seek individual help from someone who has examples of both under their belt before you try this on your own.

Still here? Great. Let’s get started.

By asking yourself the following questions, you can anticipate and create countermeasures for the activity you are about to enter into. It is by no means complete and I don’t have the ability to fully go into every step but these are some examples.

 

· First and foremost, will you be using this as a part of a comprehensive plan and not just a stop gap measure? Experiential learning can be as useful as any other tool at your disposal if you have built it into a complete plan. Just as teaching someone how to organize their workplace does not make your factory lean, teaching a few concepts using any methodology will not create a lean workforce. The oldest adage in the book: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

 

· What is the target audience? Age, experience, position in the company, length of service and so on can be factors in understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead of you. Younger age groups will more than likely feel more affinity with hands on learning since their generation has already been accustomed to learning through unconventional means. More seasoned workers will probably push back if the ground is not properly prepared for their participation. In no cases should you set up an experiential learning experience where any age participants will lose too much “face”.

 

· Why are they here? Are they prisoners sent against their will or are they willing participants. I would love to encourage you and tell you that all participants came to your class to better themselves but we know better. In most cases, they have been sent to learn this “new stuff” and it is already a little threatening to the way of work they are accustomed to. Some will be worrying about the future of their jobs, some will be annoyed at having to be in a classroom setting and most do not want to reveal any personal weaknesses in front of their peers that will be heard later that day in the lunch room. The facilitator can make or break a program by displaying his or her own attitude towards what may appear to be push back and rejection in the early going of the class.

 

· How many facilitators are needed for each group? The answer depends on the complexity of the “game” selected. I have managed a typical Lego game by myself with small groups but try to have a co-facilitator/helper to manage the mechanics of the process. Special warning: Do not try and teach the co-facilitator the morning of the event. You will not only have a potentially hostile class, you will also have an actively hostile co-facilitator.

 

· The method for using an experiential learning device is deceptively simple which makes it all the more dangerous to someone with little experience. Understanding the adult learner is a critical first step. Understanding the need for properly laying the groundwork before using the experience is just as critical.

 

· Time and resources. How much time do you have to develop the process and where will the resources come from? Is there a place that can easily be converted for the task? Set up and tear down are also important. Even with an experiential learning experience, your participants will be much more at ease if everything is already set up and there is no “fumbling” around on the facilitator’s part. I will never forget when a very large truck assembler in my first event in Kentucky walked over to the obviously distressed facilitator’s table and asked “Do any of you educated people have a clue what you are doing?” I am afraid we didn’t. But no one had to actually tell him that as he walked away in disgust.

 

We get few chances to overcome a first impression. Any improperly used learning experience will have long lasting effects. When you are using one in an already uncomfortable setting, those effects most likely will spill over into all of the areas you are trying to change. Even though we often use children’s toys for examples, this is anything but child’s play. If it is done effectively as a part of a comprehensive program, you have a chance to help move the needle in a positive direction.

Mister Mac