Timeboxing using Pomodoro!

The quickest drivers of time management is visualization, focus and clarity. What I talked about the other day is to have an action step with your reference material in hand, Evolution of Standard Work in my Sales and Marketing and Even Seinfeld used Standard Work. Be able to complete the task without having to look for anything. This will help both clarity and from the visual aspect since the supporting material is right there. Amazing how you can just reach for something and get side tracked sometimes.

The other area that is neglected is focus. So how do you focus? There are 2 areas external distraction and internal – self-inflicted. In your home office, make sure there is a door. Open means you can be disturbed and closed means you can’t. You want to focus – close the door! Don’t have your e-mail or Skype pop up if it distracts you. Give yourself 10 minutes an hour, every two hours or something that you do that. Leave other members on the team know that you check and accept messages at the top of the hour for 5 minutes during your time zone of focus.

From Wikpedia:

When I want to get a task done, I use The Pomodora Technique . A time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. This technique uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called 'Pomodoros' (from the Italian word for 'tomatoes') separated by breaks. Closely related to concepts such as timeboxing and iterative and incremental development used in software design, the method has been adopted in pair programming contexts. The method is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.

There are five basic steps to implementing the technique:

1. Decide on the task to be done
2. Set the pomodoro (timer) to 25 minutes (I use a tomato timer by the way)
3. Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an x
4. Take a short break (5 minutes)
5. Every four "pomodoros" take a longer break (15–20 minutes)

The above is the technique as described in literature. You may find a slightly different time works for you but the secret is to go full bore –a sprint than take a break. The reverse analogy of the tortoise and the hare.  It actually works very well. Try doing it for a call session of two hours broken into 4 pomodoros. But make sure you don’t have to get up to reach or touch anything during that time. Let team members know that if they want to call you do so at the top of the hour. You may have to lengthen the break for 10 minutes or to handle outside distractions. But it is important that you do the sprint.

I actually use this technique in writing all the time. The first 15 minutes I just force myself to write and don’t stop. I stop for a minute and start again. If I slow up I just press the space bar at  a slower rate. I do this twice equaling 30 minutes. The next 30 minutes after a break I edit what I wrote. Then I go back and start over. I repeat this over and over.  I will typically edit it one or two times more but you get my drift. A great book on the subject of overcoming writer’s block is Accidental Genius. A mind map is located on the Business901 Mindmap page.

Related Book: Pomodoro Technique Illustrated

Related Information:
Kanban too simple To be Effective?
The importance of PDCA in Marketing
Even Seinfeld used Standard Work
The SDCA Cycle Description for a Lean Engagement Team

Blog Carnival Annual Roundup 2011: How to implement Lean Thinking in a Business

Tracey Richardson’s How to implement "Lean Thinking" in a Business is  my third and final blog review for the John Hunter’s Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog Carnival.   Tracey is a trainer, consultant and principal of Teaching Lean Inc. She has 22 years of Lean experience and worked at Toyota Motor Manufacturing KY as a team member, team leader and group leader in the Plastics Department from 1988-1998. She has over 460 hours training in Toyota Methodologies and Philosophy and currently is a trainer for Toyota, their affiliates in North America, and other companies upon request. Tracey experience in Toyota methodologies including: Lean Problem Solving, Quality Circles, Lean Manufacturing tools, Standardized Work, Job Instruction Training, Toyota Production System, Toyota Way Values, Culture Development, Visualization (Workplace Management Systems), Continuous Improvement (Kaizen), Meeting Facilitation/Teamwork, and Manufacturing Simulations.

Tracey also was the 2010 recipient of the Business901 Podcast of the Year! The podcast discussed A3 problem Solving.

Tracey likes to discuss the culture before jumping into problem solving but she takes a look at culture from a different perspective than others. It just about comes across as an attitude (in a very polite way) and there is type of swagger about the whole thing. Why not? When you become #1 in the world such as Toyota did and you are #1 methodology in the world which Lean probably is, why not have that swagger to your discussion? It is not pompous, it is an attitude that what you are doing works! She doesn’t write enough in my opinion because of her commitments as a trainer but her blog is one you should follow, you do not want to miss a word she says. You can also find her answering questions on the Lean Enterprise’s A3 Dojo Website.    

What does the word "Lean" mean to you or your Company?

As I travel around the U.S. working with various companies that make a variety of different products, I realize a common denominator throughout them. How do they define the word "lean", as well as the word "culture"? What I have realized is very interesting!

When I first started consulting I felt it was all about the "tools", and that's what companies seem to want, so of course, that's what they got. As I have matured as an instructor/consultant I, like many, I have led and learned at the same time. In my experience at Toyota, especially back when we were led by the Japanese and their questioning approach; we all as new leaders were being led but at the same time leading others, so it was bringing about the "respect for people" and developing the workforce as a team. I can't ever recall in my time at Toyota (Toyota Motor Manufacturing KY - TMMK 1988-1998), that we ever labeled what we were doing in a specific word like "Lean", nor did we really think about our daily actions as a "culture". It was just in the atmosphere. It wasn't until I left Toyota to teach others, that those words started to surface. Somehow we felt the need to give it a name, and as I've experience the last 13 years as a consultant, I feel that can have somewhat of a hindering effect…..

Pathway to creating a "Lean Culture"

As I travel around to various clients they are always asking me, "How do you implement or create a culture like Toyota has"? I tell them that's a very loaded question :). There are so many aspects of creating that culture it's hard to give a short answer or even "wave a magic wand" to say... "Here is what you should do!!". I wish I was that good . How I see it, you really need to differentiate the People side of Lean versus the Tool side. The People side will always be the most difficult aspect of the discipline needed to create this thing called Culture. The tools are just what they are, mostly countermeasures to change some discrepancy in our process. For the tools to be successful, People must understand their involvement or the purpose behind the tools. As I have stated in previous blog posts you must explain from the company perspective the WHAT, HOW and the WHY of any change or expectation within a persons work….

Tracey’s website: http://teachingleaninc.com and email: tracey@teachingleaninc.com

Related Information:
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup 2011: Graham Hill at CustomerThink
Blog Carnival Annual Roundup: 2011: The 99 Percent Solution
LabWorks Opens in the Lean Marketing Lab
The importance of PDCA in Marketing

Use the tools of Political Campaign Marketing to turn your Social Media into a Handshake!

Campaign Marketing was discussed in the Business901 podcasts, What Political Campaigns can teach business, part 1 of 2  and part 2 of 2. Part one was more of a strategic view and part 2 more tactical. This is a transcription of both of the the podcasts. I find political campaign marketing very relevant to typical business marketing. Political campaigns have more experience in creating touch-points, managing limited budgets and crafting their message to the audience that they are addressing. An excellent primer when developing a social media strategy and turning it into a handshake.    

 

Derek A. Pillie has served public and political candidates for over 15 years. He has served on the staff of Indiana’s Third Congressional District, most recently as District Director for just over a decade. In that role, he oversaw Indiana operations of the office; including constituent outreach and helping taxpayers solve problems with federal agencies. He also worked on crucial economic development projects and was heavily involved with advising the office on online media and marketing decisions.

After his federal service expired Derek started working at Cirrus ABS, an online marketing and technology development company. He currently manages their business development efforts. Cirrus ABS has added political campaigns to the portfolio of industries they serve since Derek joined the team, and he continues volunteer efforts on behalf of candidates he supports.

Related Information:
Political Campaigning – Strategy Update
What political campaigns can teach business
Lean Marketing Lab Opens!
Start with Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping

Standard Work in my Sales and Marketing

Make no mistake about it; EXECUTION is what we are looking for from standard work.

If you execute, you can do anything. When a company has a clear mission, and people know how their individual mission fits into the big picture, everyone paddles in the
same direction. —Stephen Cooper

The biggest influence on my ability to execute has been Stephen Covey’s, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It provided me a personal method to perform standard work. A later program developed by Franklin Covey was the The 4 Disciplines of Execution which I still listen to for reinforcement but without the context of the training, I would not necessarily recommend it. The actually four disciplines serve as a great guideline for execution:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Human beings are wired to do only one thing at a time with excellence. The more we narrow our focus, the greater chance of achieving our goals with excellence.
2. Create a Compelling Scoreboard: People play differently when they're keeping score.
3. Translate Lofty Goals into Specific Actions: To achieve goals you've never achieved before, you need to start doing things you've never done before. • Using an entrepreneurial
4. Hold Each Other Accountable-All of the Time: Knowing others are counting on you raises your level of commitment.

These disciplines are what guides my own work and has allowed me to guide sales and marketing teams into higher levels of performance.

As I started my consulting path a few years back, I became a facilitator for the Get Clients Now – 28 Day Program. I always struggled with it somewhat because of the language used, appetizers, desserts, etc. but for the most part it provided a simple and concise action plan for assembling Wildly Important into Specific Actions into a Compelling Scoreboard (The Action Worksheet). When used with teams, it provides an excellent format for providing you a line of sight in daily stand-ups and weekly meetings. It was easily modified for individuals and organizations in Google docs for the teams that I was working with. As we all know, most sales efforts fall short in their ability to follow up which is at the core of the Get Clients Now Program. This outline became the core of standard work for my training programs.

Follow-through is the cornerstone of execution, and every leader who’s good at executing follows through religiously. Following through ensures that people are doing the things they committed to do. - Larry Bossidy

In my previous project management experience, I had found it was a matter of available resources that was the biggest inhibitor to actual execution. In most instances, thinking from a manufacturing or using GCN terminology a cook’s perspective, it was a missing tool or ingredient. When some has all the tools and/or material to do the job, they usually get the job done efficiently and at a high quality level. It holds true for sales and marketing. However, it always seemed to me that many action steps were started without the necessary resources available. The secret to what we needed to document in sales and marketing’s standard work was the needed resources to complete the action step and accept no workarounds.

In Scott Belsky’s (founder of Behance) book, Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality, he uses an approach called The Action Method. which has become my management planner of choice. It is extremely simple and highly intuitive for a single person and/or team. I use the paper, online and the app for my iPhone all in combination with very little of redundant work. What the Action Planner does is creates a systems that emphasizes action steps and having the supporting resources available. This is the essence of standard work for the Lean Engagement Team. Making the resources you are utilizing and highlighting what you are missing to the rest of the team, Team Coordinator and Value Stream Manager is the single most important part of the Daily Standup and Weekly Tactical. It allows work to flow.

I have found that most organizations prefer to customize and many still use Google Docs as the reporting method of choice. However, the point is not what tool you use. The point is mastering it so it takes little effort to make your work visible to the rest of the team. This line of sight is what makes teamwork possible. Both of these methods require little if any experience and more importantly can be completed quickly.

The typical daily stand-up goes like this:

1. State the action item and report did you do it: yes or no
2. If not, what stopped you? Was a resource missing?
3. What I am going to do today. Am I missing any resources? Who can help (if so, meet afterwards)?

The biggest problem I have had in these daily standups is that the managers have a tendency to turn them into longer sessions. They want to manage. The idea behind a daily standup is for tactical purposes. It is meant to enable team members to carry out their actions; nothing more, nothing less. Managers if they are participating should be enablers of the actions or in Lean terms the role of servant leadership.

P.S. The Action Planner resembles a simplified version of Kanban system such as the one offered by Lean Kit Kanban (my favorite online Kanban system).

Related Information
Even Seinfeld used Standard Work
Successful Lean teams are iTeams
The SDCA Cycle Description for a Lean Engagement Team
Evolutionary Change thru Kanban

Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping is process most consider an exercise for finding and removing waste. It is a foundational Lean Tool that typically gets introduced early in a Lean Transformation. A Systems2win Excel template is depicted below: In Sales and Marketing you will utilize a Value Stream Mapping process on a project by project basis but it is typically limited for an internal process. It is a difficult correlation for customer facing experiences and as a result seldom used. The preferred method of mapping the customer experience is through a journey map. I prefer two styles one just a basic Excel Template that is very similar to a typical Swim Lane chart commonly used in Lean.

From Smart Cities - A guide to using Customer Journey Mapping

Another being a more circular method demonstrated by the Lego Wheel. Lego uses tool called a ‘customer experience wheel’ to map an existing experience. “We understand what is and what is not important to the customer in that experience and then we design a ‘wow’ experience to improve it.” Though I like the wheel better I have not found a program that could make it easy for me to draw and distribute. The advantage of creating this map utilizing the Excel template is that you can easily add notes and drill down further down into a process by adding columns and rows. Drawing in Excel is rather easy once you understand how, Become Proficient Drawing with Excel in 30 minutes! and remember you can do MATH, CHARTS and everything else you already know about Excel. If you want more information on how to create a journey map below is an excellent slide show describing the process. If you want to learn more about Value stream Mapping, drawing in Excel or Swim Lanes, I would recommend downloading the trail templates at Systems2win.com.

The Journey Mapping Guidance Cabinet Office[1]

View more presentations from Gerald Power

A good post on discussing some of the pros and cons of different types of Journey Maps can be found at Visualizing the customer experience using customer experience journey maps. You may also want to consider viewing the Lean Marketing Game presentation. It is based on extending the journey map through out your organization.

Related Information: Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers (Columbia Business School Publishing) Can Service Design increase Customer demand?

Lean and Six Sigma training to deployed Soldiers

Just received a copy of an article,  Resolute’ brigade provides Lean Six Sigma training to deployed Soldiers from Tim Fowler, a CPS Professional Services contractor assigned to Task Force Resolute at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. Tim is teaching a group of U.S. Forces about Lean and Six Sigma. They are applying this training  immediately through improving the logistics capabilities of the command. More information can be found in the article.

Quote from the article:

“Through Lean Six Sigma, soldiers and leaders will learn how to properly manage time and resources while delivering a top quality product the first time,” said Chief Warrant Officer Jackie Vuorinen, the TF-Resolute safety officer. “This is a program all soldiers can use to save Army resources while providing higher quality products.”

Tim appeared on the Business901 podcast, Are right brain thinkers better leaders? Tim is a University of Kentucky Certified Lean Master, a Goldratt Institute Theory of Constraint Supply Chain Expert, an ASQ-Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Licensed Social Worker with a SECRET clearance and his website, BusinessLeadership.com is a popular venue for leading edge thinking.

Thanks Tim for passing this on and wish you and everyone else at Kandahar Airfield a safe and Happy Holiday!

Related Information:
Using Right Brain Thinking in Business
Left Brain vs Right Brain = Management vs. Marketing
Be Productive, Be Visual, Part 2
Start your Visual Thinking Process with Mind Mapping

The Resilience of PDCA

A few weeks ago I wrote the blog post, The Death of PDCA that stated following traditional Lean thinking leads us to focus our efforts of continuous improvement internally versus externally. Knowing my interest in the Evolution of PDCA, Karen Martin a well-regarded Lean consultant and co-author of The Kaizen Event Planner sent me Evolution of the PDCA Cycle.

The paper covers the development of PDCA from the introduction to the scientific method (you could argue between Aristotle or Galileo) to the latest development covered by the paper with the addition of the Model for Improvement published and described in The Improvement Guide. This book was published in 2009.

In reading the research paper, I discovered that somewhere along the line when the Japanese executives recast the Deming wheel at the 1950 JUSE seminar into the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle till now, we lost that all important external outlook of PDCA to one of an internally focused improvement methodology. In the book, Kaizen: The Key To Japan's Competitive Success, Masaaki Imai shows the correlation between the Deming wheel and the PDCA cycle in Figure 5 developed at the seminar.

1. Design – Plan:  Product design corresponds to the planning phase of management
2. Production – Do:  Production corresponds to doing-making, or working on the
   product that was designed
3. Sales – Check: Sales figures confirm whether the customer is satisfied
4. Research – Action:  In case of a complaint being filed, it has to be incorporated into the planning phase, and action taken for the next round of efforts

In the paper, Evolution of the PDCA Cycle, it goes on to state:

By the 1960’s the PDCA cycle in Japan had evolved into an improvement cycle and a
management tool. Lilrank and Kano state the 7 basic tools (check sheet, histograms,
Pareto chart, fishbone diagram, graphs, scatter diagrams, and stratification) highlight the
central principle of Japanese quality.

I believe that somewhere between these two points the Check stage of PDCA due to the introduction of the 7 Quality Tools became internally focused and developed along that path during the years of process improvement.

In the last decade we have evolved from the processed driven culture of the 90’s through the Customer Centric to the new culture of User Centric. The scientific method and PDCA works. As a result it adapts and evolves with time. A measure of that is the popularity of Eric Ries and the Lean Startup with the use of Build – Measure – Learn. Also the latest evolvement of Design Thinking and more specifically the Service Design field highlighted in my post, Can Service Design increase Customer demand? has established a basis for EDCA (Explore-Do-Check_Act).

In addition to our thinking, we must change our toolset. We need a complimentary toolset which was outlined in a previous post, Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset.  I am not saying that we throw away the 7 Quality Tools but we do not use them before their time. They have become more useful in the Standardization process and therefore the SDCA cycle. This is a list of the 7 basic Quality Tools to be used in SDCA:

1. Cause-and-effect diagram
2. Check sheet
3. Control charts
4. Histogram
5. Pareto chart
6. Scatter diagram
7. Stratification

In 1976, the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) saw the need for tools to promote innovation, communicate information and successfully plan major projects. A team researched and developed the seven new quality control tools, often called the seven management and planning (MP) tools, or simply the seven management tools. This is the set that I propose to be used in PDCA:

1. Affinity diagram
2. Relations diagram
3. Tree diagram
4. Matrix diagram:
5. Matrix data analysis
6. Arrow diagram
7. Process decision program chart (PDPC)

Today’s world has introduced more and more uncertainty. As a result it has forced us to get closer and closer to our customers. This reduces are reaction time and allows us to make better informed decisions. This methodology has been introduced to us through the concepts of Design Thinking. This is the set that I propose to be used in EDCA:

1. Visualization
2. Journey Mapping
3. Value Chain Analysis
4. Mind Mapping
5. Brainstorming
6. Concept Development
7. Assumption Testing
8. Rapid Prototyping
9. Customer Co-Creation
10. Learning Launch

I am not saying that tools cannot cross over into other cycles. Tools must be used as and only when needed. But through the process of defining your toolset it will assist you in understanding the cycles of continuous improvement in Lean Sales and Marketing.

So, like the possum that has adapted and survived where others have become extinct, the scientific method and PDCA will continue to evolve and live.

LabWorks Opens On the Lean Marketing Lab

The virtual community of the Lean Marketing Lab open its doors (gateway) on Monday. November 21, 2011. This online community was created to further the cause of bringing continuous improvement to the sales and marketing community. The foundational work is in Lean but you will find a flavor of Service Design and Design Thinking intertwined. Now, the paid membership section LabWorks Group has also opened for training and consulting. The presentation below describes the offer..

 

 

So before you buy the books above or enroll in a Business901 program check out the special offers that are provided for being a member of the group.

Related Information:
Lean Marketing Lab Opens!
Start with Journey Mapping vs Value Stream Mapping
It’s not about the things we make, it’s how we use the things we make
GE CMO sheds her view on Design Thinking

Developing a winning Culture the Zappos way!

My guest on the podcast Joseph Michelli takes you through the Zappos company culture now and maybe the future. Joseph’s latest book, The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW has generated my interest on the relationship of employee and customer experience as demonstrated in my blog post, Is Zappos the Next Toyota?. We discussed this and the Zappos approach that Michelli breaks into five key elements:

1. Serve a Perfect Fit—create bedrock company values
2. Make it Effortlessly Swift—deliver a customer experience with ease
3. Step into the Personal—connect with customers authentically
4. S T R E T C H—grow people and products
5. Play to Win—play hard, work harder

 

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Zappos or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

Against all odds this online business (known primarily for selling shoes in a playful and emotionally engaging ways) has revolutionized social media strategies, developed an environment which has earned it a consistent spot in the top ten of Fortune Magazine’s best places to work, created zealous fans, and attracted Amazon.com as a purchaser for more than 1.2 billion dollars. It’s time to integrate (not balance) work and fun. It’s time to benefit from the unique and effective customer employee and customer engagement techniques of Zappos!

Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., is an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the total customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives. Dr. Michelli has been recognized by Focus as “one of the top five Customer Service Influencers to Track in 2011.”

Related Information:
What is your iCustomer Level?
Does the Customer Experience mimic the Employee Experience?
When Efficiencies and Innovation no longer work, is Customer Centricity the answer?
Job-Centric Innovation is Rethinking Customer Needs

Play is nature's learning engine…

…says games researcher and author Aaron Dignan. In other words, we're hardwired to enjoy games - they're addictive, skill-building, and satisfying. So the question is: How can we integrate game concepts into our work lives to help us push ideas forward? In this talk, Dignan walks through the principles of creating a great game and suggests ways that we might use them to overcome email exhaustion, spice up workaday meetings, and more.

Aaron Dignan: How to Use Games to Excel at Life and Work from 99% on Vimeo.

Aaron Dignan dressed up like a superhero for 180 straight days of the first grade, which marked the beginning of his life as an iconoclast, observer, theorist, and performer. Now, as a founding partner of the digital strategy firm Undercurrent and based in New York, he advises global brands and complex organizations like GE, PepsiCo, Ford, and Estée Lauder on their future in an increasingly technophilic world. Aaron's first book, Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success, was released on March 8th, 2011.

Links:
www.gameframers.com
www.undercurrent.com
@aarondignan
http://the99percent.com/

Related Posts:
Is Zappos the Next Toyota?
Does the Customer Experience mimic the Employee Experience?
When Efficiencies and Innovation no longer work, is Customer Centricity the answer?
Job-Centric Innovation is Rethinking Customer Needs

What to do with foursquare!

One million new users per month. Twenty-three check-ins per second. Millions of people—in every city, in every country, on every continent, and even from the Space Station—are vying to become mayors of their favorite shopping locations. What is foursquare and why has it become the hottest customer magnet ever conceived? Internationally bestselling author Carmine Gallo not only has had unprecedented first-hand access to foursquare’s founders, he also has interviewed dozens of business owners and marketers who have revolutionized their businesses through The Power of foursquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Are.

Watch the slideshow as you listen to the podcast!

The Power of foursquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Are

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Foursquare or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

About: CARMINE GALLO is the communications coach for the world's most admired global brands. A former anchor and correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gallo has addressed executives at Intel, Cisco, Google, Medtronic, Pfizer, and many others. Gallo writes My Communications Coach, a regular column for Forbes.com. He has written several internationally bestselling and award-winning books, including The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.  Carmine Gallo may be found online at www.carminegallo.com.

Related Information:
Carmine Gallo's Books
Developing a winning Culture the Zappos way!
Spontaneous Marks help you think – Doodling
Five Secrets of Finding Clients

Is your organization a learning organization?

This is an interview with David Garvin and Amy Edmondson, Professors, Harvard Business School. Learning organizations generate and act on new knowledge. The ability to do this enables companies to stay ahead of change and the competition.

This is the the link to the PDF of article that is discussed in the interview, Is Yours a Learning Organization? Or, you can view it below.

Is yours a learning organization

 

Related information:
Marketing with PDCA.
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
In love with your products more than your customers?
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy: Co-creation of Value and S-D logic
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset

Drawing with Excel in 30 minutes!

Using Microsoft Excel as a drawing tool is a surprise to most of us. When we think of using Excel, we think of creating a spreadsheet and maybe if we are adventurous creating a graph. But there is a hidden power contained in Excel, the ability to draw. One of my most popular blog post of all time, Draw your Value Stream Map in Excel includes a You Tube video of the rendering of a Excel drawing depicting Transformer (You remember the Children’s heroes). If you need proof take a look at these drawings from The Spreadsheet Page:

It turns out that Debbie is an artist, and she uses Excel as her primary drawing software (now that's odd!). The figure below shows an example. The image on the left was scanned from a catalog. The image on the right was created by Debbie, using Excel's drawing tools. The drawing consists of hundreds of individual shapes, combined together

.

According to Debbie, "Most of my drawings do not take longer than two hours or four hours max to get the outlines done and the fill colors put in. I often use photographs that I've scanned and inserted into Excel, then I use the drawing tools to change the photographs into drawings. As you have already noticed I've become quite proficient at drawing on Excel, so it doesn't take me as much time as it did when I first started, now that I've figured out all the tricks.

I have a tendency to use other more “graphic” software packages in lieu of Excel but I am amazed at the simplicity of using Excel once you start. Why should I care? Most of the tools of Lean are visual in nature. In fact, one of the sayings that have been very common in Lean is “If you’re not visual, you’re not Lean.” However, in Lean and with any continuous improvement methodology metrics are important. So, if you want to be successful you cannot divorce the visual aspect and the metrics. Excel offers the marriage between the two.  Listen to the advantages described by Dean Ziegler of Systems2win:

Can you become proficient in only 30 minutes? Watch these Systems2win videos to learn how:
Types of Drawing Objects
How to Select Objects
How to use Excel as a drawing tool

It’s the Who, not the Why

Start with Why is an excellent book which I have highlighted in my blog post, Does your customer know why you do it? with author’s Simon Sinek Ted appearance. It is a great message and his discussion of the Golden Circle really nails his point. However, it is a little internally focused for me and like so many others it attempts to drive your message home from the inside out. Who is the keyword, not Why.

Why is simply yesteryear. When asking Why we focus on solutions for the customer. There are plenty of people that can solve a customer’s problem. Why is a commodity based approach that does not separate you from the competition. Simon does an excellent job using the Golden Circle to demonstrate how you have to have the passion for “Why” and translating that into the How and the What you are doing. He says that you will find like customers that share the same “Why” passion. However, this philosophy still centers on the fact that there are plenty customers out there. It does not consider the fact that for most, there is a short supply of customers.

An example of Why thinking using a simple purchase such as a new refrigerator: we address the concerns of the customer by asking why we need one, how much do they want to spend and what fits in the hole. If we start with the Who; we center on their lifestyle, who is using it, who will be installing it, who will be removing it, and maybe even who will be paying for it (if we don’t have terms to delay payment till next year). We develop a customer experience that is extended into delivery, warranty and service agreements.

We live in a replenishment society, most of us do not need anything else. We have everything. It is the company that takes the time to understand the customer and their behaviors that enables them to not simply design a solution but centering on the Who to create an outstanding customer experience. If we do that, we end up creating products and services that customers can’t resist and competitors can’t copy.

Who…

1. Externalizes your thought processes
2. Creates customer centric organization
3. Enables a spirit of

   • Community
   • Co-operation
   • Co-learning
   • Co-producing
   • Co-creation

Who is the key in developing an obsession to understand the customer and allow us to deliver on customer desires and wants versus just their needs. Average companies deliver on customer needs, above average companies deliver on desires. Which one are you?

Related Information:
Work on demand, ‘It’s the demand side, stupid’
The Death of PDCA
Service Innovation – Rethinking Customer Needs
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!

Lean Marketing Lab Opens! :: Business901

Lean Marketing Lab Opens! :: Business901: The virtual world of the Lean Marketing Lab will open its doors (gateway) on Monday. November 21, 2011. This online community has been created to further the cause of bringing continuous improvement to the sales and marketing community.

Lean Marketing Lab Opens!

The virtual world of the Lean Marketing Lab will open its doors. A gateway for this online community has been created to further the cause of Lean in Sales and Marketing. Reviewing this slide presentation will give you the background on the project. Hope to see you at the Lean Marketing Lab. – Joe  

Lean Marketing Lab

View more presentations from Business901

Related Information can be found at Business901.com

Deming was just simply wrong about variation…

..when applied to Lean Sales and Marketing. We have all heard the saying attributed to John Wanamaker, a department-store magnate in the late 19th century, famously said that half the money he spent on advertising was wasted, but that he didn't know which half. That theory is substantiated in a blog post, Why Should 50% of your marketing should fail (statistical proof offered by by Don Reinertsen). So I would offer a simple explanation that we do need variation for sales and marketing to work. But it goes much deeper than that, it is the thought of the average customer.

When continuous improvement is applied to sales and marketing most think about reducing waste and segmenting customers. As Deming said, “Variation is the enemy”. Sales and marketing is a process. If we can reduce the variation and the inputs to a process, we increase the predictability of the outputs and it makes it a whole lot easier to manage those processes. As a result, we can focus on things that really do need our attention.

This is supply-side thinking. We segment out customers till we can define the “average” customer”. People that understand variation know that average is a poor measure. You could have one foot in boiling water and another in ice cold water and on average you are ok. So why do we market to the average? It makes it easier!

If we focus on Demand thinking, we must focus and embrace variation. We must ask ourselves how our customers differ and how their experiences differ. Focusing on these differences and grouping them accordingly offers us a chance to market to a broader spectrum.

An example of this is the philosophy of Mass Customization. From Wikipedia:

Mass Customization is the method of effectively postponing the task of differentiating a product for a specific customer until the latest possible point in the supply network." (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano 2006, p. 419). The concept of mass customization is attributed to Stan Davis in Future Perfect^[1] and was defined by Tseng & Jiao (2001, p. 685) as "producing goods and services to meet individual customer's needs with near mass production efficiency". Kaplan & Haenlein (2006) concurred, calling it "a strategy that creates value by some form of company-customer interaction at the fabrication and assembly stage of the operations level to create customized products with production cost and monetary price similar to those of mass-produced products".

In a Demand Driven world, organizations must embrace customer variation. They must encourage it and make provisions for variation to increase. This is a key strategy in a demand driven world. It is where you find new customers and is a key to you innovation. Variation is not the enemy. WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US. Embrace Variation; do not try to rid yourself of it.

Related Information:
Lean Marketing: Sales Quotas lead to Waste
Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos
Creating Flow with Don Reinertsen
Why should 50% of your marketing fail?

Lean Canvas for SALES EDCA/PDCA/SDCA

SALES PDCA is the framework I use for the process that takes place in the customer groups. It is nothing more than a standard PDCA cycle except the SALES part of the framework is where the sales team gets its directions and coaching from the team coordinator and value stream manager. Within the actual PDCA stage the sales team is empowered to make their own choices and determine their own direction to accomplish the goals of that cycle. This framework is introduced in the Marketing with PDCA book.

Continuing with my Lean journey and the development of the Lean sales and Marketing platform, many of the PDCA cycles became standardized and SDCA was introduced. Graham Hill had mentioned the concept of EDCA (Explore-Do-Check-Act). Graham was the head of CRM at Toyota Financial Services. He stated that:

Marketing in highly competitive markets is about exploring new propositions on the innovation fitness landscape. The environment determines where to start and complex marketing environments need EDCA. EDCA = Explore, PDCA = Plan, SDCA = Standardize, marketing operations are all about moving along the EDCA>PDCA>SDCA pathway.

Out of this was the further refinement into three separate distinctive cycles of SALES EDCA, SALES PDCA, SALES SDCA. Viewing your value stream/marketing cycle in this manner creates endless opportunities for improvement. It is also much easier to handle the team concept of sales and marketing with this thought process. The sales and marketing team is a cross-functional group whose number and expertise are derived from the decision-making path of the customer. You must first have established directives for a particular marketing cycle and a structure to match it. Are you looking for creativity (EDCA), problem resolution (PDCA), or tactical execution (SDCA)? Once you have established the objectives, you choose a team structure to match it. Without this process you may have creative teams working on tactical execution or on the other hand a problem-solving team working on a creative solution.

The question remained how do we make this knowledge explicit? Several years ago, I would have just framed this as an A3 report and placed the SALES on the left side and the ECA/PDCA/SDCA on the right side. However I have decided to use the terminology of a canvas versus an A3n following the concept developed in the Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder. The BMG Canvas has its roots in Design Thinking which provides a better conduit for focusing outside the organization.

Lean Canvas for SALES EDCA/PDCA/SDCA

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In the upcoming week, I will blog about the individual Lean Canvases and Standard Work templates. But for now this slide show will serve as the introduction to the concept.

Related Information:
Successful Lean teams are iTeams
Lean needs Marketing, more than Marketing needs Lean!
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing

What political campaigns can teach business

According to social media analyst Charlene Li, selling a product is much like selling a candidate. The best approach is tap into your core group of supporters, empower them to evangelize on your behalf and then let go! Li says that the rise of social networks has impacted the way politicians communicate with their base and that businesses can learn to have a conversation, rather than "message" their audience. Another tip -- businesses should develop a thicker skin when it comes to negative feedback and respond to criticism in real-time, like politicians are doing via the internet.

Charlene gives a great overview in the video and this is the theme of my upcoming podcast with Derek Pillie, a fifteen veteran of the political campaign trail.

There are some great lessons that businesses can take away from politics. People have a tendency to evaluate and expect marketing to create immediate business for them. Many times they evaluate marketing firms based who has the “best idea.” If that is the case, why try to convince customers to change their mind? Instead, embrace them!

As a marketing consultant, I view political campaigning as one of the most productive methods of creating immediate business. Campaign Managers are experts at using the vast array of available touch-points to reach customers and more importantly, they are Deadline Driven – Election Day.

I wonder what business can teach politics?

Related Information:
Is your marketing firm having this conversation with you?
The New Names of Marketing are still PDCA
How new is Service Dominant Logic and does it apply now?
Will Product Managers embrace Open Innovation?
Putting Customer Value in the Product Lifecycle

Will Lean always internalize the customer?

I was in a recent LinkedIn discussion that referred to Sales and Marketing customer as being the internal organization and their role was to optimize the throughput of the observation. The sales and marketing role was further explained in the terms of takt time based on optimal production of the organization. The goal of sales is to keep the factory optimized?

I respectfully disagreed based on this reasoning.

You can (maybe) do that if you have excess demand. You can then try to improve efficiencies. However, most of us live in a world that supply exceeds demand. It is not about getting rid of waste. We have excess capacity. Tell me a company that won't accept more prospects into their sales funnel or are refusing orders. In sales and marketing you have to drive revenue. I believe that the role of continuous improvement and Lean lies in this area versus the area of waste.

I have a problem understanding applying takt time in relation to sales and marketing. Theoretically, it sounds great but in actuality how does it apply with Takt Time= Net Available Time per Day / Customer Demand per Day. Who determines the acceptable and projected Takt Time for sales and marketing? Is customer demand determined by the capacity of the operations? Or is it by market share?

How can you have takt time without customer demand? Can an internal measurement be relevant to sales? If it is the measurement that we force sales to use, it is not a Lean process. We are pushing in lieu of pulling. Pull comes from the marketplace and is one of the principles of Lean. Holding sales and marketing to an internal measurement that has little if any meaning to the marketplace or the customer confuses me. The fundamental question could be what the marketplace demand is and what our percentage of that market is. That leads into the questions of retention and acquisition. Setting targets in those areas would drive the process of sales and marketing, innovation and hold operations accountable to a realistic level.

The metrics we have been traditional using are based on an economy with excess demand. Since we live an economy that has excess supply, fundamental beliefs must change. Sales and Marketing does need a process for improvement but it is one that must be created from the marketplace and I actually believe the principles of Lean are best suited for that journey.

Another wayward thought or the truth about Process Improvement in Marketing?

I came across a blog post by Brad Powers (a recent podcast guest) on the Harvard Business Review, How Marketing Can Lead Process Improvement. In reading the post the communication with customers seems to be orchestrated. As a result, the examples discussed seem archaic and more an extension of a command and control function than one of empowerment. It left me wondering if there are examples of sales and marketing teams that are being empowered.

Just calling something continuous improvement does not mean that it is. Continuous improvement is not a series of pilot tests and deployment. Rather it is empowering your workforce to practice it every day. In modern organizations it is the practice and the power of continuous improvement that is driving results. Factory workers, Software Programmers and Health Care professionals, to name just a few are being empowered as problem solvers and knowledge workers. I would think that the sales and marketing structure should be leading the way versus being the laggards.

There is not a more important function in sales and marketing than the ability to share and create knowledge with your customer. In the 3 examples given in Brad’s post, I see the key terms optimize, experiments, research versus words like cooperation, co-create, community and surprisingly “value”. I see that heads of marketing need to spend time with employees rather that interact with customers. What’s wrong with spending time directly with customers?

There are companies doing this. A good example is many of the gaming companies that interact regularly with their players. They are highly influenced by the top players and not only seek their opinions but join in and play with them. The players I have discussed this with are amazed at the access they have to top management. Other examples include SalesForce, BMW, Lego, Kraft and P & G.

A customer does not realize any value from your product/service till he uses it. When you view your product/service as an enabler of value creation versus the center of value than you can see how increasing knowledge flows between you and your customer is at the center of sales and marketing. Value is an input to your company not an output. There is only one person that determines the value of your organization and that is the customer. I think many continuous improvement methodologies have hijacked the term customer. It is not an internal person. The customer is the person that purchases and uses the product.

When viewing Lean and PDCA as a knowledge creation vehicle versus a waste reduction tool, Lean becomes applicable to sales and marketing. Without this understanding, I see little hope for Lean in the sales and marketing process.

Related Information:
In love with your products more than your customers?
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
If all of us need to be marketers, what’s the framework?
7 Principles of Universal Design & Beyond
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing

Fantastic Conversation on the Multiverse

Every marketer and gamer should watch this!

Joe Pine seeks to do nothing less than redefine our known universe -- a bold goal which manifested itself in The Multiverse, a 3D framework he created. By examining the fields created at the intersection of three axes (space/no space, time/no time, and matter/no matter), Joe introduces us to eight realms for creating value by innovating experiences. Physical virtuality, for example, involves designing things virtually and then making them a reality, such as the way 3D bio-printers manufacture human tissue and organs. Through Joe's eyes, we see the future and it is mind blowing!

From a San Diego TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Related Information:
Demonstrating Social Media using an Elephant
Gaming can make a better world
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing
Can the customer be front stage in your organization?
Games are invading the real world

Sustain a Lean Culture, use Lean Tools

I recently worked the Systems2win booth this week at the AME Conference in Dallas, TX. I enjoy the opportunity tremendously as I get to spend a great deal of time with hundreds of Lean Practitioners in a variety of positions and industries. Discussing the Systems2win word and excel continuous improvement templates offers me the opportunity to revisit many of the basic Lean principles.

You need leadership and a mindset or cultural shift in a Lean Transformation but I support the thinking that most of us use tools to learn and sustain improvement efforts. If we are unable to use the tools, we can’t implement. I use the analogy that a carpenter becomes a carpenter by becoming proficient with a hammer. You become proficient with Lean by using Value stream Mapping, Standard Work and the others.

I stray away from some of the traditional tools of Lean as a result of my work in sales and marketing. Spending the time in the booth discussing the breadth (there are over 150 templates) of Lean foundational tools that Systems2win supplies was for me a refresher course. It re-cemented the practical applications of Lean to standard work (no pun attended). Lean is firmly rooted in accomplishing work. It is not about creating elaborate control structures. It is simply about learning by doing and how better to accomplish that but through the use of the tools.

After coming home, I looked through a few of the Systesm2win templates on YouTube to strengthen that learning. I have included the Introduction to Value Stream Mapping.

I found that taking a Value Stream Mapping project off of a board and documenting it on software besides the obvious attributes of archiving and sharing, it creates, distributes and reinforces the knowledge of the process and the use of the mapping process for other projects.   

Related Information
Data Driven Problem Solving Program
Lean or Six Sigma which fork in the road do you take?
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset

Shalloway on Teamwork in Kanban, part 3 f 3

Alan is an industry thought leader in Lean, Kanban, product portfolio management, Scrum and agile design. He helps companies transition to Lean and Agile methods enterprise-wide as well teaches courses in these areas. He is the founder and CEO of Net Objectives and also can be found on twitter @alshalloway.

Alan is the primary author of
Essential Skills for the Agile Developer: A Guide to Better Programming and Design
Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility
Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design
And a favorite of mine: Lean-Agile Pocket Guide for Scrum Teams

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Teamwork in Kanban or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

This podcast is broken down into 3 parts. I had trouble running Alan down and finally caught him on his cell phone so the quality is not the best. However, Alan delivered great content and we could hardly stop talking. His view of the Agile community, Scrum, Kanban and Lean is unique and refreshing.

Part 1 of 3: Alan Shalloway discusses the state of Agile!, part 1 of 3
Part 2 of 3: Can Agile work at the Enterprise Level with Alan Shalloway?

Related Information:
The Lean Agile Train Software Transcription
Understand Scrum, Understand Implementing PDCA
Lean Architecture: for Agile Software Development
The differences in Lean and Agile