Business901 Book Specials from other authors on Amazon

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Auction & Giveaway for Haiti Relief

A fellow Lean Blogger, Mark Graban is holding an auction this week, Charity eBay Auction & Giveaway for Haiti Relief – Signed Lean Books & More. His explanation:

It has been almost a year since the publication of Russell Maroni’s e-book After the Haiti Earthquake: A Healthcare Missionary’s Personal Journal, a fundraiser for ongoing earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. We have collected $395 in donations from readers of the free e-book along with $43 from Kindle version sales… but we hope this new project can raise even more.

A number of my friends in the Lean community have donated books or other items to be auctioned through the eBay CharityWorks program. 100% of the auction proceeds will be given directly to Friends of the Orphans, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that supports orphanages in Haiti and other countries. This charity was selected personally by Russell. This is Round 1 of the auction with a likely Round 2 to follow with more great Lean stuff.

FriendsLogo-color2Note: Many of the book titles link to Amazon (via an affiliate link that earns 6% for Friends of the Orphans). To bid on an item, via eBay, click on the linked word “bid” in front of each item. The auctions run 7 days and all end at about 9 PM or 10 PM Eastern on Sunday October 30. 

You should be able to see all of the items via this link or go to www.leanblog.org/auctions. You can see the retail value of each item or set of auctions on the eBay page.

I encourage you to consider. This is a good cause that is being attempted by a small group of people that are trying to do something out of the kindness of their heart, nothing more. When they say 100& will be given, 100% will be given. Please place a bid, even if you don’t win, it is fun just participating. Everyone likes an auction, right?

Related Information:
Using A3 for Special Causes – Lean for Haiti

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Mind Maps on Leadership and Teamwork for the Lean Agile Crowd

Looking for DIY Teamwork and Leadership training? Start with these books (since they are all fables, they make for great listening) Patrick Lencioni Library (Five Temptations of a CEO; Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive; Five Dysfunctions of a Team; Death by Meeting). If you are a Lean Startup, Agile Software Development or even a Lean Enterprise this information is readily digestible by anyone in your organization and coincides with these disciplines that you will wonder where Patrick received his Lean training.

If you feel like this is an endorsement of these products, it is! I have used these mind maps as examples and referred more people to the books and materials than to any other single source. This is my collection of  mind maps created from listening or reading to the Patrick Lencioni business series of books. 

Patrick Lencioni Mind Maps
View more presentations from Business901

Related Information:
What is a great Team?
Why bother with Value Networks?
Identifying your Lean sales and marketing teams
There is no Team in Kaizen
Improve Communication – Have more meetings?

Hansei in Lean Marketing

Lean Sales and Marketing is built upon the philosophy that there has been a subtle shift to knowledge as the way to engage, develop and retain your customer base. The sales and marketing team must act as a vehicle to cultivate ideas not only within their four walls but more importantly from their customers and markets. If this is true, how do create new knowledge? How do we learn? Most studies show that we learn best by doing and by being forced to resolve our perspective with those of others who disagree with us. This means that you have to encourage contradictions and be willing to push the envelope with your customers.MwPDCA

This is a strange paradox. Disagreement with your customer can hardly be seen as a positive mechanism for sales and marketing. However, it is the embracement of this understanding that will move your sales and marketing efforts to a higher level of performance.

Can you disagree with a customer? Can you purposely cause tension? You must! You must move away from the comfort zone and create a healthy tension and instability in your sales and marketing process.

The next step in the process is surprisingly easy but difficult to do. It is the process of reflection or in Japanese, hansei. There are three key components of hansei:

  1. Recognize that there is a problem – a gap between expectations and achievement – and be open to negative feedback.
  2. Voluntarily take responsibility and feel deep regret.
  3. Commit to a specific course of action to improve.

The first step, acknowledge that there is room for improvement is not that difficult. However, putting a number to it may be a different story. When we create a performance gap we identify 2 things, one where we are at now and where do we want to go. Of course we may not get there overnight but there will be limitations. You have to determine what is realistic to achieve. A simple but effective way of looking at it is, “From what to what by when”.

The second step can simply be stated – don’t look for excuses. Take responsibility, feel a little humility and move forward. Without this, you will never fully release from the past and it may be much more difficult to bring fresh ideas to the table.

This is your action plan to move forward. However, without step 2, you will seldom be passionate about step 3. It will just be another effort and ownership will be limited. Ownership cannot be done without an emotional attachment.

The steps of Respect first, Reflection second will drive the 3rd step of Kaizen or continuous improvement. This is the process and culture of PDCA in your marketing cycle. It is the embodiment of tension, a performance gap to send you off on a new path. This path acts as expanding spiral of co-creation of knowledge with your customer that will be truly valued. THE ABILITY TO SHARE AND CREATE KNOWLEDGE WITH YOUR CUSTOMER is the strongest marketing tool possible.

Few companies will take this path. Few companies will take the time to develop the level of respect required. Even fewer will use hansei and look at performance gaps releasing their own pre-determined reasons. Few will ever practice continuous improvement in sales and marketing.

Will you?

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Highly Visible and Collaborative Execution

This is part of my blog series on using the principles of Demand Drive MRP and its five primary components. I would recommend reading the blog posts in order for better understanding:

  1. Is Orlicky’s MRP relevant today? Think DDMRP
  2. What Sales and Marketing can learn from Demand Driven Manufacturing
  3. Positioning your organization to learn from your customers
  4. Profiling the customer by knowledge gaps
  5. Dynamic Buffer: Think Self-organized Teams
  6. Systemizing the transfer of knowledge at the execution level

This particular blog focuses around Highly Visible and Collaborative Execution.

Simply launching purchase order (POs), manufacturing orders (MOs), and transfer orders (TOs) from any planning system does not end the materials and order management challenge. These POs. MOs. and TOs have to be managed effectively to synchronize with the changes that often occur within the execution horizon. The execution horizon is the time from which a PO, MO, or TO is opened until the time it is closed in the system of record. Demand -driven MRP is an integrated system of execution for all part categories in order to speed the communication of relevant information and priorities throughout an organization and supply chain

The above is from the Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning 3/E. written by my recent podcast (Is Orlicky’s MRP relevant today? Think DDMRP) guest Carol Ptak and Chad Smith of the Demand Driven Institute.

Highly Visible and Collaborative Execution starts in one place in a sales and marketing environment and that is in the customers’ playground. If you want to be visible, if you want the opportunity for collaboration, you literally need to play with the customer. Even more precisely, it should be synonymous to your prime target market. This allows you to see the market swings at the same time your customer does. For example, if your customer has a downturn in business you will sense that immediately versus seeing months later. Your market upswings will also be maximized for basically the same purpose. Theoretically it sounds great but is it that easy? Again, the customer-vendor relationship and the degree of trust in one another are imperative. It is not simply something that just happens it must be orchestrated.

Not everyone wants to be your partner. As a result, other segments may produce wider swings in variability and may require different lead times or even more frequent contact (touches) than even your prime customers. It based on what your customer needs are and the resources you are willing to dedicate to the segment. This is not an arbitrary thing; it is a well conceived execution of the plan developed.

When we talk about visibility and collaborative execution, it is not just an external requirement. It is an internal one as well. You must have transparency, open collaboration and no hidden agenda that will compromise your organizational efforts and especially your sales team.

In the sales and marketing arena the ability to execute is dependent on two major themes; clarity and autonomy. On both macro and micro level clarity has to be well established to enable a team to work autonomously. When considering a particular customer segment at the macro-level a well-defined value proposition with revenue goals must be established. At that level, I use the Business Model Generation template to provide the clarity for a particular customer segment.

Within that customer segment, the micro-level will be dealing with the individual cycle that is facilitated the increase of knowledge for the customer decision making process. This individual cycle is where the sales team needs to have total autonomy to make execution happen. They are on the street with the customer and should contain the expertise and authority to complete the mission. Many would compare them to a Swat Team or even a Navy Seal Team. That being said the teams may require extensive training in these specialized areas to assist in the customer decision making process. In these Customer decision making cycles I use the Sales PDCA outlined in Marketing with PDCA as my execution template.

Service Innovation – Rethinking Customer Needs

True service innovation demands that you shift the focus away from the solution and back to the customer. To achieve this shift in your business--one that takes you from making educated guesses to building a clear model to guide service innovation—Lance Bettencourt instructs on the finer points of how to rethink your approach to the customer's needs: how the customer defines value in a product or service.  Among the numerous key ideas and practices are:

  • Insight on understanding the different types of clients you serve—and how your products deliver value to them
  • Ways to design specific frameworks for discovering service innovation opportunities for new, improved, and supplementary service products
  • Practical guidance on staying focused on the "fuzzy front end" of service innovation
  • The fundamental elements of a winning service strategy

We did not get to all of these points in the podcast with Lance. You would have to read his book,Service Innovation: How to Go from Customer Needs to Breakthrough Services to find all of them. But we did begin the conversation discussing Job-Centric Innovation, an idea that Lance is an expert on.

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

After several years on the marketing faculty at Indiana University, he began his career as an innovation consultant with Strategyn. His book is a melding of his personal skills and passion for services and innovation. He is currently an independent innovation speaker and trainer, providing executive education to many of the world's leading companies.

Related Information:
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

Alan Shalloway discusses the state of Agile!, part 1 of 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

Download Podcast: Click and choose options: State of Agile 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 some great content and we could hardly stop talking. His view of the Agile community, Scrum, Kanban and Lean is unique and refreshing.

Related Subject discussed in podcast: A transcription of the Business901 Podcast, Should you Manage your Organization with Agile Techniques?. My guest was Steve Denning’s, author of the new book, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century (Jossey-Bass, 2010).

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

Monday, October 17, 2011

Data Driven Problem Solving Program

Steven C. Wilson, one of the leading Lean Six Sigma trainers in the state of Iowa has released a new program, Data Driven Problem Solving. The entire program can be downloaded as a PDF and MP3 on IowaQualityTraining.com.
PowerPoint Presentation
Data Driven Problem Solving includes a 100 page book with over 4 hours of audio. In addition, a copy of Lean Six Sigma for Leaders book is included. The Data Driven Problem Solving program is a result of material covered in a 2-day workshop presented by the author Steven C. Wilson. It was created to support the training both before and after the class. It provides many of the questions people had about problem solving utilizing DMAIC. They need not fully comprehending the tools of Six Sigma. With an understanding of Data Driven Problem Solving, it will allow more participation in your organization’s problem solving efforts.

Data Driven Problem Solving uses activities based approach and is comprised of multiple separate sessions, which follow the Six Sigma DMAIC approach without the need of the typical Black Belts, Green Belt hierarchy associated with Six Sigma organizations. It is presented in a unique question and answer format providing information about how to use and implement a problem solving methodology in an organization.

Topic that are covered:

  • Process Improvement Basics
  • Roles and Organization – Teamwork
  • What is Our Quest? – The Define Phase
  • How is the Current Process Performing? – Measure Phase
  • What are the “Deep Dive” Causes of a Problem? – Analyze Phase
  • What will We Change? – Improve Phase
  • Are We There yet? – Control Phase

About: Steven C. Wilson is the host of Quality Conversations and can be found at Wilson Consulting and Training Services, Inc (WCTS, Inc – www.stevencwilson.com). Wilson has over 20 years of experience applying quality improvement tools, methodologies, and principles in a variety of industries that include automotive, healthcare, logistics, distribution, education, and numerous manufacturing venues. He has dedicated himself to the cause by training/coaching over 600 Six Sigma practitioners in over 70 companies with an emphasis on getting results. Wilson possesses a very engaging style of leadership, training and consulting, and provides an experienced eye for companies on the road to organizational improvement.

Program is also available on Amazon:
Ring Bound:Data Driven Problem Solving
CD Format: Data Driven Problem Solving

Related Information:
Is Continuous Improvement Continuous?
Marketing with PDCA.
Pair Problem Solving in the Workplace
Sustaining Lean using Continuous Improvement: The Toyota Way
Continuously improving thru PDCA

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Systems2win will exhibit at the Dallas AME Conference

Systems2win will exhibit at the AME, Association of Manufacturing Excellence, Dallas 2011 International Lean conference to be held October 24-28, 2011. Systems2win is a supplier of Lean and Six Sigma software tools and will be highlighting their Value Stream Mapping, A3 Management tools and their Standard Work template.

Dean Ziegler, founder and owner of Systems2win says, “Along with the Value Stream Mapping, A3 and Standard Work Management templates, we will also be highlighting our recent Multi-Language Excel templates. Now with a simple click of a button, every Systems2win Excel template can switch between English and another language." Dean also added, "Our software actually provides a learning platform that strengthens your Lean experience. It is not an additional step in the process; it is part of your Lean journey.”

Systems2win booth will display their collection of Lean and Six Sigma software that are bundled in the following groups:

  • Lean Tools
  • Value Stream Mapping
  • Kaizen and Project Tools
  • Six Sigma Tools
  • Free Training Tools

Also, in the booth will be yours truly providing a High Level Overview of the product! Stop by and say hello if you are there!

These bundles have been created to provide an organized structure in supporting the above process. In these bundles, the Lean Management tools of Hoshin Kanri, Standard Work, A3, Fishbone, SMED, 5S, Setup Reduction, Balance Scorecard and more are supported. In addition, the training tools provide not just introductory Lean material but a comprehensive Lean and Excel learning tools that are embedded in the templates providing you help and assistance on exactly what you need, when you need it. They are also designed so that a training course can be developed separate from the templates. An overview of the tools:

About Systems2win: Systems2win provides business process improvement tools and training to companies all over the globe. People are provided with easy-to-use fill-in-the-blanks Excel templates that come with self-help online training to improve the speed and reduce the cost of every step of your project. Systems2win templates were originally developed during 14 years of manufacturing systems consulting by the founder of Systems2win, Dean Ziegler, CPIM. The Systems2win templates and online training has been field proven, and continue to be continuously improved by hundreds of Systems2win clients.

Related information:
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
Lean needs Marketing, more than Marketing needs Lean!
Will Lean always internalize the customer?
Customer Experience more powerful than the Supply Chain?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Lean needs Marketing, more than Marketing needs Lean!

In The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing edited by Robert Lusch and Stephen Vargo they present the case to use SD-Logic as a foundation versus a total integrative marketing method. I believe that Lean viewed through the lens of PDCA as a knowledge creation platform can serve as the vehicle for implementation of this Logic. The principles of SD-Logic cannot be implemented in various silos of an organization, just as the basic principles of Lean cannot. It requires a cultural and fundamental shift within the organization placing the customer and user experience becoming the center.

Let me start by listing the foundational principles of Service Dominant Logic described in the before mentioned book:

    1. The application of specialized skill(s) and knowledge is the fundamental unit of exchange: Service is exchanged for service.
    2. Indirect exchange masks the fundamental unit of exchange: Micro specialization. organizations, goods, and money obscure the service-for-service nature of exchange.
    3. Goods are distribution mechanisms for service provision: "Activities render service; things render service"
    4. Knowledge is the fundamental source of competitive advantage: Operant resources, especially know-how, are the essential component of differentiation.
    5. All economies are services economies: Service is only now becoming more apparent with increased specialization and outsourcing; it has always been what is exchanged.
    6. The customer is always a co-creator of value: There is no value until an offering is used—experience and perception are essential to value determination.
    7. The enterprise can only make value propositions: Since value is always determined by the customer (value-in-use), it cannot be embedded through manufacturing (value-in-exchange).
    8. A service-centered view is customer oriented and relational: Operant resources being used for the benefit of the customer places the customer inherently in the center of value creation and implies relationship.

My premise is that if you are Lean Zealot and understand Lean as a knowledge Creation machine versus a waste reduction machine these principles are not only compatible but harmonious. There is little or no difference.

I asked Dr. James Womack this question in a podcast:

Joe:  Most people don't think of Lean as, a capturing knowledge mechanism. Do you?

Dr. Womack:  Well, of course. That's what the whole idea is. It's an experimental process that you try things. They are right. Deming most famously captured it in PDCA. But again, Deming didn't exactly think of science. Hey, let's give Galileo a little bit of credit.

Now look, it's by design and experimental process. By the way, Kaizen is nothing but an experiment. There's a plan based on grasping the situation, I hope, which is to say what is the issue? Then you do it, and that's to run the experiment. You can run a valid experiment because you have baseline data on how the current state works. So then you change something in a future state, and you measure the difference and decide whether that's a good or bad result and whether to standardize it or not.

The entire idea here is to capture knowledge in books of knowledge and the product development system in a progression of A3s which, of course, we talk about a lot at LEI. But A3s are really nothing but a way to put an experiment in context. You put PDCA in context and so they become their own book of knowledge as time moves ahead. If you're not trying to learn something and not trying to cumulatively learn something, so you don't have to do the same experiment over and over, as I often see in companies. Well then, you need some sort of a way to write it down. To standardize it so you can sustain it as well as discover it.

I find a striking resemblance in the Economic Pyramid model (on right) of Pines and Gilmore (The Experience Economy) and the Toyota Supplier hierarchy (on left) depicted by Liker and Meier (The Toyota Way Fieldbook).

Toyota-Expereince Comparison

Lean offers a guiding light for implementation of Service Dominant Logic or maybe a more correct and broader term would Customer (User) Experience Centric Platform. This change is occurring and Lean can be part of the solution for many companies. It is a platform that is well understood and readily accepted. But with that understanding emanates a platform of internal focus based on a waste reduction mentality. This focus may actually hinder the growth of the Lean Methodology into the higher culture that it professes to emulate.

Related Information:
Customer Experience more powerful than the Supply Chain?
Why the Lean SALES PDCA Cycle was Created!
Will Lean always internalize the customer?
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
Profiling the customer by knowledge gaps
Does Lean Marketing deliver what the customer wants?

Can Agile work at the Enterprise Level with Alan Shalloway? Part 2 of 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_shalloway-1

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

Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Agile Enterprise 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

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

Monday, October 10, 2011

Preview of Political Campaign Marketing Podcast

At the end of the interview for my upcoming podcast with Derek Pillie, a fifteen veteran of the political campaign trail, we went over a few additional thoughts.

Related Information:
Political Campaigning – Strategy Update
What political campaigns can teach business
Lean Six Sigma for Government

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Lean Sales and Marketing

At Agile Cincinnati last week, I had the opportunity to present the Lean Sales and Marketing presentation, It’s not your Grandmother’s Lean Anymore! The reason I choose this title is that so many identify Lean with waste reduction where I view Lean and PDCA from the aspect of knowledge creation. The first part of my slide deck discusses that and the new thinking that social media has brought upon us. That part was delivered with a hint of sarcasm. After setting the stage, my tone change dramatically after the slide, “Why Lean!”

Special thanks to the group at Agile Cincinnati. They engaged the speaker through out the discussion and made my part very simple. An enjoyable experience.

Resources I used:

Books:
This is Service Design Thinking: Basics - Tools - Cases
The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated
The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage
The Toyota Way Fieldbook
The Service-dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate, And Directions
Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Managers

Websites:
Value Co-Creation: WimRampenSlideshare
McKinsey Quarterly: We’re all marketers now
Forrester: Welcome To The Era Of Agile Commerce
Scott Brinker: 8 things every marketing technologist should know
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy: Co-creation of Value and S-D logic

Get Clients NOW! Answer Center

New in the Get Clients NOW!TM Answer Center
Here are this month's new additions to the Answer Center. (You need a password to log in.)

  • How to Network at Professional Associations - Article by Donna Feldman
    An often overlooked place to network and find referral partners is professional associations. These associations serve people working in a particular industry or profession and can provide you with many resources, as well as valuable connections. You may not think that networking within your profession will provide any client leads, but you'd be surprised! Colleagues refer to others in their field for a variety of reasons -- it could be an issue of scheduling, timing, differing specialties, or specific expertise.
  • Future of the Coaching Business - Audio by C.J. Hayden
    C.J. Hayden is interviewed by Milana Leshinsky on the future of coaching as a business and what coaches need to do to succeed. Including: why marketing "coaching" is not the best way to attract clients, the critical difference between marketing classes or products and marketing yourself as a coach, and essential elements of marketing and sales to land coaching clients.
  • To Get More Clients, Let Your Light Shine - Article by C.J. Hayden
    "I think I'm really good at what I do," declares technical writer June, "but I don't ever seem to get a chance to show people." June is experienced, highly-skilled, and has written dozens of procedure manuals and other how-to guides throughout her career. But she isn't getting enough work to earn a living as a freelancer.
  • Success Story Template - Tool/Example by C.J. Hayden
    A helpful tool for presenting your services to prospective clients is a repertoire of success stories about the results your clients get from your work. Here's a template and example for composing some success stories of your own.
  • What Are You Choosing? - Article by Grace Durfee
    Is it human nature to keep making the same choices over and over again? Perhaps with the wisdom collected over years of experience we weed out what doesn't appeal to us and choose to stick to what we know works. There's comfort and safety in routine and the familiar. But boxing ourselves into a limited repertoire may begin to wear thin. If boredom and frustration set in because one day looks exactly like the next, it could be time to broaden your horizons and investigate new options.
 
Check out how you can get this resource Free!

This link is the only thing stopping you from getting more clients!

Offer Ends Friday!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Lean or Six Sigma which fork in the road do you take?

People will see my comments floating around the Internet on the subject of Lean Six Sigma. I am not an expert and probably take too much liberty in the application of them to even proceed but it was important to me to basically post my view.

There will always be a strong debate between Lean and Six Sigma people about using the 2 terms jointly. I am not positive of the lineage of it but I believe Michael George at the time of the George Group (later to be Accenture) coined the term. I assume he viewed the two methodologies as compatible and more effective in conjunction with each other versus separately. I am not even sure that many (Case in point being that many of today’s “Lean” consultants were trained as Lean Six Sigma Black Belts) disagreed at the time except for the very traditional Lean stalwarts.

Dr. Mikel Harry, credited as one of the founders of Six Sigma states that Six Sigma is not a culture and was developed as a quality tool to gain breakthrough performance for an organization. I adhere to that statement and think Six Sigma offers great opportunities for an organization and provides a very precise and workable structure in achieving this. I am not against the hierarchy of belts and the formalities of DMAIC, DFSS, etc. Many organizations need this type of structure to be successful. I am avid defender of Six Sigma in the Lean circles many times to the chagrin of others.

Lean was developed by the MIT group under Dr. James Womack from a study of automotive companies and more specifically the Toyota Production System. Its approach is based on continuous improvement with a direct correlation to PDCA and Dr. Deming’s philosophies. Lean made its first inroads in many companies and gains in popularities (IMHO) because of the ease of entry into the methodology. Removing waste and improving flow was Lean’s mantra in the 90’s and the tools of 5s and Value Stream Mapping soared in popularity. However, as Lean continued developing tools of A3, Hoshin and Standard Work became common place. But even more so, the culture of PDCA and the spirit of Kaizen started to take hold.

Six Sigma was the methodology of choice for many manufacturers as a result of the significant strides that GE and Motorola had made. Later, Lean seemed to gain and Six Sigma wane in popularity. Lean became the path to a customer as an enabler of some quick wins. You could then take the deep dive with Six Sigma when you wanted to get “serious”. As Lean continued to steamroll and Six Sigma still continued with somewhat lackluster performance many organizations and consultants dropped the attachment to Six Sigma and became “Lean”. Popularity does create a crowd. This may not be an entirely accurate description but it serves as a basis for my views and the following comments.

What makes Lean Six Sigma work? When you first start using any methodology, you are typically introduced through the tools. Using Lean initially versus Six Sigma makes perfect sense, it is an easier introduction. And why reduce variability on non-value activities? But sooner or later you get to the fork in the road. One path says Six Sigma and the other path is this thing they call culture (Lean). So do you want to take the deep dive with a breakthrough structured approach (still has a steep incline) or do you want to try and instill a culture of empowerment. There is not a right or wrong answer. You can take either. Where I disagree, is that you can take both.

Six Sigma has always been about structure and tools. It is very, very good and does an outstanding job when applied properly. In Six Sigma thinking, you can use Lean tools initially and get to 95%. To finish the job, you use Six Sigma. And as a result, Lean Six Sigma was developed. If your organization grew out of the Motorola and G.E. world it seems like a perfect fit.

If you adopt the Lean mentality and the spirit of Kaizen (continuous improvement is not an event) you become immersed in the culture of Lean, as Dr. Balle wonderfully described in the Zen Story about the mountain. Summed up in the blog post: Lean Tools and Culture as it Relates to Zen

Have you ever played yourself in a game? On a basketball court or even a simple game of checkers, sooner or later you have to pick a side to win. It is inevitable. This is the ultimate wedge between the two methodologies and can simply be stated. Six Sigma is a structured methodology and Lean is a cultural driven learn by doing approach. That is not to say that Six Sigma does not have its prototyping options and that Lean is not without statistical control (it did evolve from Deming). But it is saying that they are both on two completely different paths that you must choose between.

If you take the path of and see Lean as Lean, Six Sigma does not make sense and is not a compatible technology. There is a significant culture difference and approach. If you take the path of Six Sigma, you view Lean as only a set of tools nothing more and why not, Lean has a great toolbox. If you take the path of Lean you still can be just as efficient and just as effective as Six Sigma, you just do it differently.

I make no qualms about stating that I believe and follow a Lean philosophy. Lean works in my world much better. PDCA which is basically form a hypothesis, test it and adjust is what sales and marketing is all about.

I support the idea of Lean Six Sigma without hesitation. What I have trouble understanding is how you can be philosophically aligned in Lean thinking and practice Six Sigma. So I believe you must ask yourself; Which fork in the road do you take?

Related Information:
Profound knowledge for Lean Marketing
Lean Sales and Marketing Cycles are Knowledge Building Tactics
Lean is not a revolution, Lean is solve one thing and prove one thing!
Continuous Improvement Sales and Marketing Toolset

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Gaming can make a better world

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

Related Information:
7 Principles of Universal Design & Beyond
The Common Thread of Design Thinking, Service Design and Lean Marketing
Janet R. McColl-Kennedy: Co-creation of Value and S-D logic
Games maybe your only chance to attract the best and brightest talent