Be Productive, Be Visual Ebook

Dr. Gwendolyn D. Galsworth is an educator, implementer, and a researcher with more than 25 years in the field of Workplace Visuality. Considered by many a leading visual expert, Dr. Galsworth is the author of a number of books on organizational improvement and workplace visuality, including Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking, recipient of the Shingo Prize for Research.

This is a transcript from two different podcasts and is packed full of stories and information on Visual Thinking.

Be Productive, Be Visual -

Related Information:

Original Podcasts:

Be Productive, Be Visual
Be Productive, Be Visual, Part 2
Start your Visual Thinking Process with Mind Mapping
Power of Visual Thinking in your Visual Workplace

Related Book(Amazon Link): Visual Workplace, Visual Thinking: Creating Enterprise Excellence Through the Technologies of the Visual Workplace

Technorati Tags: visual,lean tools,visual workplace,visual controls,visual standards

Using Excel for Value Stream Mapping Discussion

Systems2win a supplier of Excel Templates for Lean Kaizen Continuous improvement tools has introduced the Value Stream Mapping section of the Lean Starter Toolkit that includes a selection of downloadable templates, videos and instructions. This is a free downloadable trial package that covers Value Stream Mapping, and is part of a collection of over twenty templates in the Lean Starter Kit. The Systems2win Word and Excel templates and free online training are relevant to any type of organization pursuing a continuous improvement effort.

I had a chance to catch up with Dean Ziegler, founder of Systems2win and had this discussion about his new Lean Starter kit and more specifically the Value Stream Mapping Templates . Disclaimer: There is a business relationship that exist between Business901 and Systems2win at the time of this writing.

Joe Dager: You use Excel as a drawing tool. Why?

Dean Ziegler: Once someone completes the 13-minute video to learn how to use Excel as a drawing tool – they will wonder why they ever bought Visio. Drawing is the easy part. Excel has all of the drawing capabilities of Visio, but Visio can’t do math. And once your managers get over being enamored with the pretty pictures, they are going to start asking the tough questions that are the entire reason for making a value stream map in the first place. ‘How much will we save? Why are we focusing on this instead of that?’ And that’s when people realize that their entry-level drawing tool doesn’t really answer the questions that a value stream map is intended to answer.

Joe: What if I am new to Excel or even Lean, can I still benefit from your templates?

Dean: If you are new to Excel or the Tools of Lean, Systems2win offers one of the largest collections of on-line training resources free during your trial period. Free online training is one of the strengths behind our product offerings. There are built in support features each and every time you open a document. So we encourage newcomers to use our free training if nothing else to start or expand your Lean Journey.

Joe: If they are just Word and Excel templates, why don’t I just create them?

Dean: We want people to know that many of our Systems2win templates are just plain simple. In the past, we only gave away our most complex templates as trials, but now we’re giving some of the simple ones too. Our best prospect is someone that has already spent several late nights attempting to create a few of their own home-made templates, and can now truly appreciate how much time these save – and how much more professional the end results.

There has been a few discussion that I have participated in on the use of templates, so I thought I would go straight to the horse’s mouth per say. We have an expanded version of this discussion that I will release soon but thought that this was a good viewpoint on the use of templates.

Technorati Tags: Lean,Value Stream Mapping,Six Sigma,Excel,Word,Templates

Related Posts:

Value Stream Mapping
Draw your Value Stream Map in Excel

New formula for success: Deliver Today, Adapt tomorrow

I have been discussing Agile Marketing lately and recently came up on a blog post by Chris Brogan on “How We Make Businesses These Days” Chris stated in his post:

Think. Sketch. Execute. Revise

To me, the new formula of business is this: think. sketch. execute. revise. It’s important to consider contingencies. It’s important to be prepared for what can go wrong. But the best way to find out what’s going to go wrong is to launch and find the flaws.

This is top of mind to me right now, as I’m about to launch a business in a marketplace that I don’t fully understand, with a product that I’m still developing, to a bunch of people who I don’t necessarily have neatly corralled. Am I afraid? Not at all. I’ve got smart collaborators. We’ll figure it out. Will we upset someone along the way? No question. Tell me one business that hasn’t made a mistake. The goal, I imagine, is not to make any fatal mistakes.

Think. Sketch. Execute. Revise.

That looks very close to the iterative process of the five phases of Agile Project Management(book link below) and described by Jim Highsmith. I adapted the description to a marketing tone.

Envision. Speculate. Explore. Adapt. Close.

How closely it resembles it you need to have a definition of each term to see the similarities:

1. Envision: Determine your marketing vision and objectives and constraints, your community, and how your team will work together.
2. Speculate: develop the capability and/or feature based launch to deliver on the vision.
3. Explore: plan and deliver running tested stories in the short iteration, constantly seeking to reduce the risk and uncertainty of the launch.
4. Adapt: review the delivered results, the current situation, and the team's performance, and adapt as necessary.
5. Close: conclude the launch, pass along key learning, and celebrate.

But even more so the real key point is that we're not concentrating on the flow were concentrating on the cycle. Continuous short iterations are constantly happening to improve the value of the offering. No longer can we wait for the perfect scenario. We build the scenario as an ongoing process. Customer relationships need to be his collaborative as possible. Customers then can define the capabilities needed to provide value. When that scenario could no longer be adapted or improved upon the life of that marketing cycle is over or exhausted. This effort enables customers to define the value and judge your marketing cycle. Your marketing team must always be in contact with the customer and continuously asking: Is what we are doing providing value in your decision making process for our product or service?

Envision. Speculate. Explore. Adapt. Close.

Related Posts:

Improve your Marketing Cycle, Increase your Revenue

Can you have Agile Marketing?

Start thinking Cycles, not Funnels in your marketing! 

Inspiration provided by Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (2nd Edition)

Technorati Tags: Agile Marketing,Agile Project Development,Lean,Marketing Cycle,Chris Brogan