Lean For Everyone

Lean on TV: Super Nanny A Lean Transformation in Action

You can have a Lean transformation in your home life and Jo Frost you shows how every week on Super Nanny FRIDAYS 8|7c on ABC

 

If you've never watched Super Nanny and you are a practitioner of Lean then you are in for a treat.  Much like TV's Kitchen Nightmares this show is an excellent example of a Lean transformation but from the perspective of top down leadership and organizational change.

Jojo (Jo Frost) watches the family dynamics in action...a "gemba walk"  She observes the family interact through a typical day and notes how the parents schedule the day with the children and how teaching and discipline is administered, all of which is video taped.

Mom and Dad are the "executive leadership" of the household and need to learn how to be good leaders.  Super Nanny reviews some of the footage with the parents, highlighting key issues in their leadership skills.  Inconsistent discipline, no clear expectations and lack of communication between the parents and the kids usually plays a key part.

Jojo then gives the parents some training and tools to help learn the skills needed.  Examples: A set of house rules posted up on a wall (visual workplace) that both the parents and kids promise to follow.(commitment to improve).  Clear expectations given to the kids and consistent disciplinary actions so the kids understand what happens when rules aren't followed (standardized work).

Super Nanny then reviews the implementation with the executive leadership. The parents then use the skills on their own and are reviewed (video tape) on how well they implemented and what was done correctly and what still needs work.

I very much enjoy this show because it is an excellent example of how most companies work today.  Top down leaders who bark orders inconsistently, leaders not on the same page as to expectations and poor communication between management and staff.  The staff without proper guidance just does what they know and what they have always done. Whether good or bad, employees behave this way because of inconsistent expectations, standards and disciplinary actions.

In simple terms:

What we permit we promote.

We deserve what we tolerate.

Communication is King.

I think Super Nanny would agree.

 

Book Review: How Toyota Became #1 by David Magee

An excellent read for anyone ready to learn what leadership is really about!
 

 This book caught my eye while at the library recently.

Published in 2007 by David Magee, this book is an easy read that gives an overview of the Toyota culture while weaving it into a time line of the companies growth alongside Ford, GM and Chrysler.

The book (only 225 pages) captivated my attention and showed why Toyota has been achieving success since the 1950's.  Here's the secret:  The company engages it's workers to think and solve problems on their own.  It's called empowerment.  It's about being the best not the biggest.

My favorite quote:

        "Something is wrong if workers do not look around each day, find things that are tedious or boring, and then rewrite the procedures.  Even last month's manual should be out of date."                                       

        -Taichi Ohno, former Toyota Executive Vice President

I think this book should be on the read list for every manager, director and executive I know because it shows that top down management is not a sustainable model for growth or leadership.

From this book you can extrapolate as to why Toyota is having issues now.  It shifted it's long standing of customer first to money first and worked at becoming the biggest and not the best.

What I know is that Toyota has a history of learning from its mistake.  I feel that the company will make the necessary changes to get back to it's core management philosophy which is codified in the Toyoda Precepts.

The Toyoda Precepts

1. Be contributive to the development and welfare of the country by working together, regardless of position, in faithfully fulfilling your duties.

2. Be ahead of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness and pursuit of improvement.

3. Be practical and avoid frivolity.

4. Be kind and generous; strive to create a warm, homelike atmosphere.

5. Be reverent, and show gratitude for things great and small in thought and deed.

Staples - "Instant Business Cards" NOT a Lean experience

 

I just signed up for a networking event at Tech Town here in Detroit and didn't realize that I was in need of business cards (which I will fix with a root cause analysis later). I decided to find a quick place to get some made.  Low and behold, Staples has a program called Instant Business Cards where I could craft business cards online or at their store and have them printed and cut immediately.

Instant Business Cards does work, however, only the printing and cutting portion of are instant.

Right First Time - Not even close...tons of rework: 

Short version - At home, I spent almost an hour putting the business card together, why:  when I zoomed in and out of the design screen the font size, spacing and alignment kept re-adjusting, the online software kept crashing also.

I called Staples for some tech support to ask what I should do.  Response:  "Just submit it and if something looks off we will call you .  Oh and the system doesn't always display the "proof" properly."

More rework:

I decided to go to Staples and use their business card kiosk for some live support.  While at the kiosk I was able to type in my information very quickly and put all the font and character sizes in - sufficiently memorized from the 6 plus attempts to do it online.  I zoomed in, zoomed out and the font sizes again changed.  I now have a live person named Patrick to help me. 

 

Passing the buck: 

I asked him for some help. He tried to do it...same error... His response: "It's a third party application so we don't have any control over it.  Let me know if I can do anything else to help."  "You might want to try a different font, but if you really need that one I can re-do it for you. However,  there will be a custom charge/fee and a fee to expedite the cards."

I told him "Not to worry.  I want to finish this process and see what the end result is.  At the very least I'll have fodder for my Lean blog."

Cross your fingers job processing: 

So I hit enter to see the proof and nothing happened.  The Adobe Acrobat program doesn't launch, it just gave me a big red "X".  Hence no proof.  Patrick's response "Just submit it and I'll print it and we'll see what happens."  So although I couldn't see what it would look like, I had to type in my initials to approve the image.

We printed and cut 10 and they looked good, so I gave him the OK to do the other 90.  This part really is instant, it only took about 3 minutes total.

Circled in red are the areas where the proof displayed the card incorrectly.

             Proof from home printer                             Final Product

Out of the total 73min. spent on this, approximately 65 min. (89%) was rework

BTW: I don't blame Patrick:  A bad process will beat good people any day of the week!