realisedevelopment.net

Just another WordPress site

The Limits of Lean?

by

Lean

Earlier this week I went to ‘An Evening with Simon Hill’. Drawing on his experience of manufacturing industry and Yorkshire Forward, Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward talked about strategic business improvement using ‘Lean Principles’. Simon chose not to offer a quick reminder of what these Lean Principles are – leaving a proportion of the audience in the dark. As a reminder they are:

  1. Specify what creates value from the customers’ perspective
  2. Identify all the steps along the process chain
  3. Make those processes flow
  4. Make only what is pulled by the customer
  5. Strive for perfection by continually removing waste

With its origins in the world of total quality management Lean Principles provide a wonderful way to ensure efficient product or service delivery by allowing the whole business process to be analysed and made efficient. It emphasises systems, compliance, analysis and objectivity in pursuit of the perfect process. It really is scientific management for the late 20th Century. It is one of several business improvement tools that can help an organisation with one of its purposes – that of the efficient delivery of a product or service.

However increasingly efficiency is not the only game in town. Indeed it is not even the main game for most organisations. Renewal, re-invention and transformation are increasingly the key drivers of sustainable value creation in modern knowledge based economies. If I heard Simen rightly then after a considerable investment of money and time in implementing Lean his business had just about managed to stand still. Now this is an great achievement for a manufacturer of automotive components in South Yorkshire – but I doubt if it carries the seeds for a major economic re-birth.

My concern is the ‘story’ that Lean tells about the nature of business and enterprise. That it is about analysis, rationality, incremental improvement and mediocrity – giving the customer just what they ask for – when they ask for it. It is that the expectations of the customer should drive the production of the organisation. And Lean is not just a set of tools – it is a management philosophy – a culture. It becomes the way we think and act.

Andrew Mawson – one of the UKs most outstanding social entrepreneurs tells of the first time he asked some members of his community what they would really like to do. It turned out that they aspired to go on a day trip to the coast. Fair enough thought Andrew and worked with them to make it happen. After the trip had been undertaken he asked them what they would like to do next? And the reply came – ‘Let’s go on another trip to the (same) coast’! Let’s do it again! Andrew recognised that the aspirations of his customers were narrow. That he could provide experiences far more powerful and effective in driving community development. He understood that they had no real idea of what was possible. So he proposed that their next project was to be a journey across the Sinai desert. As their supplier he transformed their ideas of what could be achieved based on his on his knowledge, experience and expertise. This would never had happened had been trained in Lean principles.

And now Lean Simon tells us Lean consultants are being engaged by Yorkshire Forward to increase organisational efficiency. No doubt pieces of paper will soon be travelling less far on their journey through the offices, being touched by fewer people and processes generally more efficiently. And many of the employees perceptions will be reinforced that their role is not to facilitate the entrepreneurial re-birth of the region – but to design and administer effective bureaucratic processes.

For me business is about emotion, aspiration, imagination, passion, energy and risk. I am not making an argument for waste (although I do often find myself encouraging clients to ‘create slack’) but I am arguing for cultures that favour action and re-invention over perfection. If the price of Lean is a culture that favours analysis and incrementalism over imagination, re-invention and risk taking then I for one find it a price I am not prepared to pay.

At the end of the presentation I asked Simon whether he really felt that Lean held the answers to sustainable competitiveness in knowledge based business – whether it could drive the creativity and innovation necessary to compete in the future. And he answered ‘ No!’.

Good Boss Behaviours

by

As part of a training session on Managing Your Boss I recently asked a group of managers to think about what their best managers did that made them so good.  I got lots of the usual labels (passionate, visionary, inspiring etc) and had to work quite hard to explore what they actually did that made the followers believe them to be those things.

Here are some of the results:

  1. Always drove ideas forward
  2. Made you feel a part of it, valued your achievements.
  3. Saw in me things that I did not see in myself. A mentor.
  4. Tended to say ‘yes’ – always encouraging – looking for reasons ‘why’ rather than ‘why not’.
  5. Saying  ‘Thanks’.  Appreciating my work.

You will notice that I still didn’t get to the behaviours behind some of these.

What did the boss do that made you believe they were driving ideas forward?  Regular updates, clear achievements against goals?

How did the boss make you feel a part of it?  What did he or she do?

What does your boss do that makes them so effective?

Describe their behaviours in the comments section below.  The best entry by the end of the month – January 08 –  (as decreed by me) will get a prize.

Better Time Management in an Instant!

by

Time Management

Time management has been on my mind for a while now. Early last year I re-read Druckers’ Effective Executive – the second chapter of which, ‘Know they Time’, is devoted to time management. I recommend it highly!

For the vast majority of managers that I work with making significant improvements in their time management is quick and easy. It simply requires them to:

  • Work out their top priority for the coming week/month
  • Block out at least 2 x 90 minute slots each week when they are going to work – without interruption – on moving that priority forward.

It takes no more than that – get time for your priorities on your schedule!

This is important because so many managers just hope to fit progress on key priorities around a morass of standing meetings, e-mail and fire-fighting. Weeks slip by without any focus on progressing the priority. Yet once it is scheduled – and the time protected – BINGO! – the priority gets time and progress is made.

And while I am at it – unless work is really THE most important thing in your life – take great care about giving up week-ends and evenings to do it. Working longer hours is rarely the key to getting more done. It usually results in getting less done and only serves to slow down the rate of work; why have a sense of urgency to get the job done if you can always stay just another half an hour?

If you find that you must work evenings or week-ends then always make sure that you have a firm end-time for the work fixed – and stick to it. Make an appointment with what you love outside of work (family, hobby whatever) immediately after your work commitment and keep it. This will force you to use your time effectively.

Are You Managing the Whole Team?

by

In my experience most managers spend much of their management discretionary time working with their stars: those employees who are really up for the job and always willing to take on new assignments as they look to develop their careers. The rewards of working with this group are seductive – but not without risk.

Firstly they are not representative of the majority of your employees. It is easy to believe (or hope) that they are, and that what works with them can be extrapolated successfully to the wider team. For example, crafting an internal communication about the latest management initiative with this group can often result in sending out a message that others find naive.

Secondly this group are unlikely to REALLY challenge you or give you the unvarnished truth. This group are ambitious and want to do well. They will see you as a gatekeeper to career development and are unlikely to risk rocking the boat.

I see managers spending some time managing under performers but usually only when things have become really critical and the issue can no longer be ducked. Instead of actively managing the very first signs of under-performance and getting things back on track quickly, most managers wait until the problem is almost irreparable. When they do act it is usually pretty drastic. Managing under-performance is, in my experience, one of the most poorly executed management tasks and one of the most immediately damaging to both morale and performance.

This leaves a band of employees that get relatively little management attention.

These are the loyal employees, perhaps in their 40s or older who have decided that they don’t want to get to the top. But they do want to do a good job that they feel proud of. They want to work with good people and they want to learn how to do their current job better. Much better in most cases. Yet they often get very little management time.

In part this is because they no longer choose to get involved with every new project that comes along (they are not interested in being ‘seen’ by top management as a promotion candidate). And in part is because they will continue to work well with a minimum of maintenance – for a while. It seems that we can afford to neglect them and no harm is done.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Over time this group can become cynical and jaded as their contribution is rarely recognised or rewarded. They can easily become technically skilled but disengaged – doing just what they need to get by. This is one reason why this group should always get their fair share of management time. But they are also a tremendous resource in at least two areas. Firstly they have experience and technical skills. They are usually pretty good at what they do. This means that they could do a good job working with some of the less experienced team members and passing on what they know. Secondly, if you build the right relationships, and ask them the right questions they are far more likely to tell you the unvarnished truth.

  • How much of your time is spent working with your stars?
  • How much of your time is spent managing under performers? Do you do this effectively? Really?
  • What about with that middle band of loyal employees that can so easily be allowed to retire on the job?

A well established programme of 121s, supported by effective team meetings and good performance management processes including feedback, coaching and delegation can go a very long way to helping you become an effective manager for the whole team.

Give Your (Best) People Compelling Reasons to Stay

by

This is a time of year when people reflect on careers and opportunities. Your best people will have aspirations and ability to pursue them.

  • Do you know what they are?
  • Are you are doing enough to help them stay?

The Mavericks at Work Blog has just published a post helping those with restless hearts and souls to reflect on reasons for leaving or staying in a job. They encourage potential leavers to reflect on the following:

  • Does my company stand for something—anything—special? It’s hard to be thrilled with your job if the company you work for is struggling to succeed, or feels stuck and irrelevant.
  • Am I excited to see my colleagues when I show up for work on Monday morning? “Working for” a company is an abstraction. The reality is that you work with the people closest to you.
  • Do I have a voice at work—does anyone who matters listen to what I say? There’s nothing more depressing and demotivating than feeling that you don’t matter as a person.
  • Am I learning as fast as the world is changing? In a world that moves so fast, the most dangerous thing in anyone’s career is the sense that you’re standing still.
  • Am I making enough money? Strange as it sounds, this is the worst reason to leave a job.

Research tells us that people ‘join an organisation but leave their manager’.

  • Are you doing all that you can to make sure that your best staff, when they think about these questions, decide that there is nowhere they would rather be?

With recruiters telling us that the cost of making a new hire is typically something like 140% of the annual salary of the post this could a very valuable or expensive exercise!