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September 3, 2014 Level one assessments are those "smiley" sheets learners fill out after a workshop or class. They ask questions like: Did the instructor provide adequate time for questions? Was the room comfortable? Did you have enough time to complete all the assignments? Those assessments are training waste, pure and simple. Think back to when you learned the most valuable lessons of your career. When I reflect on mine, the most powerful learning experiences were the most unforeseen, uncomfortable, and chaotic. …yield crash, merger mutiny, supplier bankruptcy, losing a key customer… No, the instructor did NOT provide adequate time for questions. (It was a VP yelling at the top of his lungs). The room was NOT comfortable. There wasn’t nearly enough time to do everything required (even though we worked long into the night and all weekend). If someone had done a level one assessment of those learning moments, it would have been a sea of frown faces. Learning and Comfort Have Nothing to Do with Each Other If truly powerful learning happens when things are least comfortable, why obsess over providing pleasant formal learning experiences? Chairs so plush you could fall asleep. Lunches so big you almost fall asleep. And content so boring you want to fall asleep. The data on formal learning retention is abysmal; some studies show it to be as low as 15% after three weeks. Every class, workshop, and elearning course are essentially the same. Completely unmemorable. Blah, blah, blah. And I’ll bet you a cushy chair that those same learning activities received excellent level one assessments. Don’t Strive for Comfort. Strive for Engagement. I recently spoke with one of our Black Belt candidates who attended a three-day mediation and negotiation course where the last day was Saturday! Throughout the three days, attendees (many of them busy doctors) arrived on time; came back from breaks, lunches and the occasional emergency phone call with alacrity; and even stayed late. Why? The days were filled with well-structured, challenging, and sometimes emotionally-wrenching role-playing activities. She told me that, in some cases participants begged the facilitators for more time so they could fully resolve their situation. Now, that’s engagement! If you create learning solutions free of Training Waste and abundant in Lean Learning Values, then a smiley sheet afterwards is an unnecessary extra step. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Stop obsessing over comfortable chairs, good snacks, and pretty handouts! Create challenging, distinctive learning experiences that engage participants and deliver real results. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post Stop Worrying About Level One! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  The recent article, What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team, did not, contrary to the subtitle, reveal "surprising truths." Their findings have been around for more than 60 years and are the basis of Lean. Instead of spending millions of dollars and three years navel gazing, Google should have simply looked across the Bay towards Fremont and the former Toyota-GM joint venture there called NUMMI. ‘Stealing shamelessly’ is an honored Lean practice and is embodied in the Lean Learning Value ‘Inside Out.’ This means not having a bias towards creating content yourself and, therefore, avoiding the expenditure of time and energy. Utilizing existing content avoids the Lean waste ‘Delay’ and accelerates learning and performance improvement. What Was Right Under Google’s Nose? NUMMI (short for New United Motor Manufacturing Inc) opened in 1984 and was Toyota’s first foray into assembling cars in North America. Instead of building their own plant, Toyota decided to use an existing one and their choice caught everybody by surprise. Fremont was one of the worst plants, if not THE worst, in the GM system. It had been shuttered for several years and the UAW contract required that Toyota rehire the laid off workers. GM executives and car industry analysts predicted disaster. However, by 1986 NUMMI was one of the best plants, if not THE best, at GM. At the time, I was a graduate engineering research assistant at the GM assembly plant in Framingham, MA and saw the results play out over two years. Every metric, from safety to quality to cost to union grievances filed, improved dramatically. The poisoned relationship between UAW and management (Toyota management, not GM management) was healed. The Twin Pillars of Lean How could a transformation of this magnitude, one that had eluded GM for decades, happen in a scant 2 years? The answer, quite simply, was the Toyota Production System (TPS aka Lean). Based on the twin pillars of ’Respect for People’ and ‘Continuous Improvement,’ TPS applies to everybody everywhere (from customers to employees to suppliers) and are the touchstone for every tool, method, policy and procedure used in their enterprise. The end result is not just better products and services, but the creation of an employee-centered improvement process that  allows everyone to use their knowledge, talents and experience to make work life better and deliver real customer value quickly. This is was exactly what Google was striving to learn how to do! Google spent three years studying teams and their performance and trying to find correlations. It’s ironic that a company specializing in ‘search’ would miss a solution right under their nose. Be Open to Outside Content How open are you and your organization to learning from others, especially outside your industry? Too often people are blinded by a ‘Not Invented Here’ mentality and reject great ideas out of hand. People say ‘We’re NOT making cars here, you know.’ or ‘That might work in cars, but this is a hospital.’ People spend time, money and resources to reinvent the wheel or, worse, build one that’s not even as good. Great organizations actively look for ideas outside their industries and incorporate them into their products, services and practices. For example, Apple’s wildly successful stores were designed around the hotel concierge. Be a Curator, Not Just a Creator In L&D, embrace ‘Inside Out’ by searching for great content that already exists before you try to (re)create it yourself. It may be sitting in another department or business unit just waiting to be used. Content on the web is just about limitless and sites like YouTube are especially useful because people post learning videos on just about everything. Now, is the quality super high? Probably not, but balance that against the hundreds of hours and effort you’ll save. And, remember, while you’re creating your super high-quality, customized content, people who need to know something are going out and searching for the information; they don’t wait anymore. With all the resources and content available, L&D needs to see themselves as content curators, rather than content creators. Feel free to share your examples of ‘Inside Out’ in our blog comments or give me a call at 303.819.6662 to talk confidentially about your particular situation. Want to learn more about applying Lean to L&D and Training? Check out our Lean Learning Certification Programs here. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post ‘Steal’ This Lean Idea appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Traveling frequently on airplanes this past year, I started playing mobile games to pass the time or take a break from work in the flying office. I’ve been playing classics like Tetris and new ones like Geometry. I’m not a big gamer; you’ll never see my name on the Leader Board. I quickly get bored or, worse, start feeling like a hamster in a wheel. And the reason, I realized recently, is that most games are anti-Lean, which is opposite my DNA. Lean is Simplicity Lean is all about making processes simple and mistake-free, so that everyone can accomplish the work and deliver customer value successfully every time. Mobile games, on the other hand, are purposefully designed with obstacles and distractions that players must overcome to win. For example, in Tetris when you create a full row of blocks there’s a bright flash of white light when they disappear. Why? Those blocks could just quietly exit and leave you ready for the next shape placement. But, no, that bright white flash distracts you and makes placing the next shape harder. And the faster the pace, the more that flash negatively impacts your performance. Another obstacle is the placement of the buttons on the screen that hold and rotate the shapes. I occasionally hit the wrong one with usually disastrous consequences. Can you relocate the buttons to your liking? Heck no! To succeed, you’ve got to work around the designer’s (imho poor) placement. Leader boards recognize people who overcame ALL these obstacles; they are the successful few. Work Is Full of Distractions and Obstacles Gaming builds and reinforces the mentality that success means overcoming distracting obstacles and, unfortunately, this bleeds into the workplace. Isn’t your work full of obstacles to overcome that are, from the customer’s point of view, completely unnecessary? Poor layout of equipment or personnel. Long, pointless meetings. Arcane approval processes. Outdated tools and policies. Getting a good performance rating is, in essence, getting a high placement on the company leader board. The people at the top overcame the obstacles and distractions thrown their way this past year. Frequently, their individual success is used to rationalize that a business process isn’t broken a la "If Kim can do it, why can’t you?" You don’t want a process that only ONE person can do successfully. Your customers want value every time from everyone and L&D is in a perfect position to help. Use Your Outsider Perspective to Advantage Instead of simply providing training on how to navigate the obstacles, L&D should work to simplify processes and make them mistake-proof by using Lean principles and methods. Now, some of you are thinking ‘Who am I to tell Sales (or Accounting or Manufacturing or Nursing) what to do?’ Your outside perspective is incredibly valuable! You’re not stuck in the weeds of their process and can ask simple, enlightening questions. For example, ‘Does this expense account form really need all 21 fields?’, ‘Wouldn’t swapping these two steps is our patient admitting process make it go faster?’, ‘Why is this data entered three different times?’ Using Lean root cause analysis techniques like the ‘5 Why’s’ you can help people think about their own processes in new ways. As a result, processes will be simpler, therefore easier to teach and easier to do correctly. It’s win-win. Win ‘The Game of Work’ The ‘game of work’ is to eliminate waste; not do wasteful activities as quickly and as many times as possible. Start keeping a list of the unnecessary, distracting obstacles in your company’s work that people ask you to teach others. Discuss them with your colleagues and managers and work together to reduce or, better yet, eliminate them. Want to jump start your efforts? Give me a call at 303.819.6662. And if you want to play a game that won’t quickly bore you or make you feel like a hamster on a wheel, try Neko Atsume, the cat collecting game sweeping the planet. Or how about, to quote a famous movie computer,  "a nice game of chess?" Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Gaming is Anti-Lean Training appeared first on Maverick Institute.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a cringe-worthy article titled ‘Nice’ Is a Four-Letter Word at Companies Practicing Radical Candor. Here’s a paragraph from the article that captures the spirit of it. "Some companies are pushing workers to drop the polite workplace veneer and speak frankly to each other no matter what. The practice is referred to as ‘radical candor,’ a ‘mokita’ or ‘front-stabbing.’ Not surprisingly, though, some people aren’t as comfortable with brutal candor as others." ‘Front-stabbing’?! THIS is the latest improvement fad? Oy vey. Luckily, labor laws about hostile work environments will likely dissuade most companies from adopting this nonsense. Nothing Could Be Farther From Lean I’ve been practicing Lean since 1987 and improvement requires honesty and, to some degree, confrontation. It’s about openly acknowledging a situation, determining its causes, developing solutions and changing practices. You frequently work with people who are heavily invested in the way things are currently done and resistant to change. To make things more challenging, Lean sets the improvement bar VERY high with concepts like ‘Customer Value’ and ‘Seek Perfection.’ Now, these could be sticks to beat people with, but Lean organizations are the most collaborative and enjoyable ones I’ve ever worked in. There’s a level of camaraderie and respect for people absent from non-Lean organizations. How is this possible? The answer is the synergy between standard work and visual management, two key Lean concepts. Set Clear Standards ‘Standard work’ is the agreed upon way to do things today and is the starting point for all improvement. Standard work isn’t written in stone. The whole point of Lean is continuous improvement, so standard work changes and can change often. But, on any given day, there’s an agreed upon way to get work done that delivers value to the customer. If there’s no standard, how do you know the ‘radical candor’ you’re receiving is worth anything? It’s just one person’s opinion. You could be getting really poor advice. Even worse, suppose you get differing or conflicting advice from co-workers? Which one do you follow? ‘Speaking frankly’ without standards causes confusion and is detrimental to performance and morale. So, the very first step in any improvement process is to agree on the standard work. Let the Standard ‘Speak Frankly’ Once standard work is established, make it visible! Visual management means that what’s expected is clearly visible to everyone and I literally mean visible. You should be able to walk into an area and know if things are going well or not just by looking around for 30 seconds. Depending on your industry, visual management can take different forms, for example kanban squares, shadow boards, kamishibai cards. When the standard is clearly visible, everybody knows what to shoot for. They can compare what they are doing  to what’s expected and correct their approach. And if what they’re doing isn’t generating the needed results, you don’t need to ‘front-stab’ them. It will be crystal clear that things aren’t going well. Let the standard, not the people, speak frankly. Focus on Helping Instead When I worked at Taiwan Semiconductor, up-to-the-minute fab performance metrics were visible to everybody. They were displayed on monitors throughout the facility. We could all see the difference between expected and actual metrics, for example first-pass yields, moves and inventory. When something was going wrong, there was no need to ‘front-stab’ a department manager or an engineer. We focused instead on how we could help get things back on track or prevent a recurrence from happening. A much more productive use of everybody’s time and energy and a great morale builder. Visible standards quickly drive resources to problems. This push for ‘radical candor’ is simply poor leadership. Leaders need to create an environment where teams set clear, visible standards and then work together to maintain and improve them over time. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Lean Isn’t ‘Nice’, But It’s NOT ‘Front-stabbing’! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

I spend a lot of time talking with people unfamiliar with Lean and, while I’m absolutely mad about the topic, these sessions can sometimes be very frustrating. Despite my best efforts, some people look just plain confused and others react with strong denial when I describe how Lean works and what it can deliver. The Chinese have a great saying about the difficulty of explaining to someone something that is beyond their experience. It is, "How do you describe the sky to a frog in a well?" Sometimes people’s scope of responsibility and experiences are so limited that seeing beyond them and accepting radically new ways of doing things is very difficult. The Executive Frog When I share examples of Lean results with executives, one common reaction is something along the lines of "Well, THAT organization was really screwed up; it’s no wonder they could improve so much. WE’RE not like that." For most executives, the view from the well is just the company’s financial statements. And if those are looking good, then everything must be running fine. Oh, you wish! When I was a department manager in a silicon wafer fab, we reduced cycle time by 95% using Lean Six Sigma thinking and tools. Now, when I started that job, I knew there was waste and believed that we could easily cut cycle time in half. But, if you told me we could reduce it 95%, even I would’ve rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on. We’re not THAT screwed up," Oh, yes, we were! In this instance, I was a ‘frog in the well.’ I had no idea was was really happening at the Gemba aka the factory floor. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Everyone Underestimates the Sky Before I run a rapid improvement event at a client, we review the current process’ performance and I ask event participants to estimate how much improvement they think is possible. 10%? 20%? 30%? Then, we run the event, improve the process and compare the actual results to their estimates. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade and people grossly underestimate the improvement possibilities every single time, typically by 100%, e.g., they estimate 20% and the actual improvement is 40%. Once people experience this ‘sky’, they see countless improvement possibilities all around them. Experience the ‘Lean’ Sky There’s a popular Lean aphorism: ‘Act your way to new thinking.’  People commonly try to approach change from the other direction. They want to THINK their way to new actions. But, their thoughts are limited by the view from their well. New actions can appear illogical or risky and are to be avoided. That’s why Lean emphasizes activities like Gemba walks. Get out where the work is actually being done. Watch. Listen. Don’t judge. Don’t intellectualize. Understand. Empathize. What will you do today to get outside your well? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Are You a ‘Frog in a Well’? appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Every organization is improving; they have to. Consumers and patients want higher quality and better outcomes. Shareholders demand lower costs and higher profits. New laws and regulations require better compliance and performance. And every organization has a current process for meeting these changing demands. Some organizations lead the charge, some are ‘fast followers’, others lag behind and still other wander around in circles. Improving Improvement When people talk about wanting to "do Lean" it means something isn’t right. Their process isn’t meeting the demands of customers, patients, shareholders or regulators. They hear examples of what Lean can deliver, for example 90% reduction in errors, and think "I want that!" or, more specifically, "We need to DO that!" What they’re really saying is they need to improve their improvement process! Now, everybody wants the results that Lean delivers, but are they willing to practice what Lean requires to get them? This is a question worth carefully considering BEFORE launching a huge Lean initiative that quickly falls down and dies. Let me share a simple, effective model that I use for framing this discussion and clarifying what it means to ‘do’ Lean. Three Key Dimensions Improvement processes can be viewed along three key dimensions. They are velocity, engagement and magnitude. Velocity - How fast are improvements occurring in a given area today? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Annually? What pace of improvement are you and your organization comfortable with and can sustain? Engagement - What percentage of your workforce regularly works to improve processes and performance? Is everyone involved or just an elite group? Magnitude - How much improvement are projects delivering today? Less than 10%? 10% to 20%? Greater than 20%? Are projects just nibbling around the edges or making radical changes? So, any discussion about improving improvement starts with assessing the current process along these three dimensions. Improvement Quadrants…Where Does Lean Fit In? Let’s focus on velocity and engagement today. A 2×2 matrix quickly clarifies what Lean is all about and helps people navigate the route ahead if they decide to make the trip. Based on their answers above, we find where they are in the matrix. Remember, these dimensions are a continuum so they may straddle quadrants. Low Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Suggestion Programs’ describes companies that don’t like frequent changes and don’t engage people much. People make suggestions and managers may ask for them, but there’s no guarantee they’ll get implemented. Changes tend to be local, i.e., confined within a department. High Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Big Initiatives’ describes companies that don’t change frequently, but engage their people extensively when it happens. These changes commonly affect the entire enterprise and are facilitated by outside consultants. Think big software applications like Oracle and SAP. Low Engagement, High Velocity - ‘Tiger Teams’ describe companies that make frequent changes, but don’t involve many people in the process. These companies commonly have dedicated teams whose sole job is process improvement and they move from problem to problem. High Engagement, High Velocity - This is Lean! Change happens frequently (think daily) throughout the enterprise and involves everybody in the value stream. So, ‘doing Lean’ means moving towards the upper right quadrant. Now, these four alternatives do NOT create the same culture; people’s responses to them are quite different. And they do NOT deliver the same results.  Both of which I’ll discuss next week. But, until then, where is your organization on this matrix today? Which dimension would be more difficult to increase in your company, velocity or engagement? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post The Road to Lean appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Last week in my post The Road to Lean, I wrote about improving improvement and what it means to ‘do Lean.’ Specifically, we looked at improvement processes along three key dimensions, i.e., velocity, engagement and magnitude, and how the first two interacted. This week, let’s continue focusing on velocity and engagement. Different combinations of them create very different cultures and dramatically impact change management efforts. Check out this 2×2 matrix.     Improvement Cultures Low Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Stagnation’ is the watchword here; another good one might be ‘Whatever.’ After making numerous improvement suggestions that go nowhere, people just live with inefficient processes. They disengage and, perversely, enjoy embarrassing problems and events like big customer returns because they’re an ‘I told you so’ to the powers that be. High Engagement, Low Velocity - ‘Frustration’ is rampant because people only get one bite at the apple every couple of years and if their idea doesn’t get included, well, that’s that. They have to live with the new system and hope for next time. Problems are accepted as limitations of the latest change and improvement ideas go on a list for future big projects. Low Engagement, High Velocity - ‘Tiger Teams’ create anxiety because people’s work gets changed whether they like it or not and they’re not going to have much say in what happens. Improvements are typically determined by ‘process experts’ who’ve never done their job. People worry when problems happen because they increase the chances that it’s going to be their turn next. People hide problems or try to blame others for them. High Engagement, High Velocity - Lean is exciting, engaging and collaborative. People, based on agreed-upon metrics, change the way they do their own work using a standard set of principles and tools.  Problems, which are visually obvious and impossible to hide, are seen as opportunities to increase customer value and eliminate waste. Frequent change also means that while someone’s idea didn’t get implemented today, there’s always a chance to contribute tomorrow. Lean Accelerates Change Management While an idea might be great, it’s worthless if people won’t accept and implement it. The four cultures above accept change (or not) very differently. Low Engagement, Low Velocity - People aren’t accepting of change in a stagnant culture; they’re resistant or cynical. Improvements efforts are disruptive to routine or seen as ‘too little, too late.’ Commitment to change is low. Management spends a lot of time selling change and trying to get people pumped up. High Engagement, Low Velocity - To avoid frustration, people jockey for position whenever an improvement opportunity comes along. They talk up their ideas to decision makers in offices, meetings, break rooms and the cafeteria. They know there’s limited money and time and look for advantage to get their ideas implemented over their coworkers. Stephen Covey would say this environment has a ‘scarcity mentality.’ In the end, the people who got their way are happy and embrace the change. Those that didn’t drag their feet. Low Engagement, High Velocity - While Tiger Teams can come up with great ideas, it can be very hard to get people to accept them. Remember ‘People don’t mind change; they mind BEING changed.’ This approach is only ‘high velocity’ as regards to coming up with solutions. Resistance to implementation and acceptance can be stiff and last a long time. Management spends a lot of time convincing people why they should implement and accept the new way. High Engagement, High Velocity - With Lean, people change their own work and therefore acceptance is built into the improvement process. The focus on increasing customer value and tools like gemba walks and value stream mapping create empathy and accelerate change as well. People (finally!) understand how what they do affects their coworkers and customers. What culture does your organization possess today? What behaviors do people exhibit? What change management challenges do you regularly run into? Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick     The post The Road to Lean, Part 2: Improvement Culture appeared first on Maverick Institute.