Complaining

10/3/12...My energy level is sapped. By what? Hearing complaining. A team meeting I attended last night was full of complaints; here is a sampling:

* why did so and so team get to do this and we did not; they stole our ideas
* why do we have to meet twice a month now
* i knew sooner or later attendance would be part of our reviews
* management only does an idea they can take credit for
* the new bathroom blowers are disgusting because they blow air from the bathroom air
* the new blowers blow water in my face
* we don't want a free dinner if we have to come in to work and not be able to change
* we don't want to go to that restaurant for a free dinner because they made the last team wait an hour
* people are not made to crosstrain on changeovers, not fair
* some packers still refuse to come over and work and they get away with it
* I put in a work order, I don't know why it is not getting done; just take it off the list
* the production wheel is not followed at all; management does not know what they want

One definition of complaining is this; to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault. Complaining occurs, in part, when one does not want to be part of the solution for a myriad of reasons, but still feels the need to express dissatisfaction, resentment or find fault. What I listed above represents most of the discussion in our 1 1/2 hour meeting. At one point, I just listened and marveled. After the meeting, I went home exhausted. Then during the night I thought about this. Why do people complain? What is really at the heart of complaining? At the church I am attending, people were complaining regarding where the capital campaign money would go; a brother talked about running into someone at a convenience store and the person complained about the hypocrites at the church; at work people complained they couldn't read the writing, it was too small; at work someone complained about too much administration in Lean; the Israelites complained to God so much over and over He called them stiffnecked; I complained to the Plant Manager about being on a team with someone I don't really get along with; and on and on and on and on and on and on. In a typical day, I wonder how many people at some point in our work lives or family lives complain. I bet the number would be staggering.

When anyone complains, I think there is underlying discontentment in a person's soul. We expect and desire perfection but human beings are imperfect. We see the imperfections and complain because we know this is not right. This is not how it is supposed to be. I don't have control or perceive I have control over the situation so therefore all I can do is complain about the injustice or unfairness or...the way it makes me feel. Therein lies the problem. I believe when I complain, the complaint reveals my own self-centeredness. After all, when I complain, the complaint is generally about how it makes me feel, or the injustice to me, or the unfairness to me. The root is my selfishness. 

I find there are times in my life when my spirit-filled joy in Christ ceases the complaining. Unfortunately, to date, I have not been able to maintain this spiritual high. Therefore I still complain. I wonder if people like Mother Teresa or C.S. Lewis ever complained. Were they able to rise above complaining? Is it not true spiritual joy does not cohabitate with complaining? The two seem at odds. Is it also true loving others and complaining are incompatible?

From now on, when I hear others complaining, this is what I want to say.

"I would like to share something with you. When I complain, and there are times I do, I find the reason why is two fold. One I do not want to be part of the solution for any number of reasons, but still feel a need to express the perceived injustice or unfairness to me. I want the easy way out so complaining is alot better than working with someone on a solution. Plus, when I complain to someone else, I put the burden on their shoulders. Two, when I place these burdens on others, I find my complaining is rooted in my own selfishness and self-centeredness, because complaining is indeed about me wanting others to do or treat me in a certain way. I am not really wanting to love others, because I would rather have my own selfish needs met."

This is sort of a rambling post. I may come back and add some more thoughts later. Why? Because in my work career, hearing complaining regarding The Toil is a reality. Somehow, I need to express to others something deeper by being open with my own admissions.

Ok, I am done complaining about how others complain. And yes...I understand my own irony in writing this post. Stop complaining about it.


Update: Later on I talked with the Production Manager about the team meeting which generated this post. Part of what the team wanted to do was invite him to their next meeting and unload all this stuff. Again, when one complains to someone else, they relieve their responsibility to be part of the solution, and perceive because they voiced it, the other person is now responsible. Then three months later when nothing has been done because the Production Manager has 100 other priorities to work on, they complain about their complaint not being heard. Not fair. The reason behind teaming is not to pawn off complaints on to someone else, but to be part of the solution to their own voiced issues.

What we talked about was the team has to tell the Production Manager what they want to complain about. He responds, great ideas, please work with your team leader to complete an A3 with solutions and I would be glad to come to the next meeting to hear about the wonderful fixes.

Also in team meetings, we have joked, everytime a complaint is voiced and no one wants to work on the solution, write it on a post-it-chart with the heading "Complaints". Then at the end of the meeting, in front of the team, wad it up and throw it in the trash. I wonder what the reaction would be?

Withering and Choking

9/12/12..."Listen! Behold, a sower went to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced; some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." Mark 4

I marvel at how another passage in the Bible comes to my mind, and yet why am I so surprised? Not only does the passage speak of the spiritual but it speaks of The Toil. Are the two not intertwined? Sowing is Toiling. The spiritual is in my work. As I reread this passage over and over and think about the deeper meaning, I realize why these words came to mind. And I also am humbled regarding how God keeps his promise to those who meditate on His word day and night, because He does indeed guide our paths through His word. Suddenly as I write this a thought comes to mind.

I can use this passage to convey to the leadership team what I am facing in my role and how I can best help the organization. We are getting ready for our annual Policy Deployment Kaizen next week. This event sets the strategy, tone and focus for the coming fiscal year starting in October. As I wrote in my previous blog entry, I am struggling with a plethera of objectives, all with good intentions, but generating unintended consequences. I am sure going into next year if a course correction does not occur, I will be beseiged with 29 more objectives to work on, as will many of my peers. 

Let me now tie this to the parable Jesus speaks of. In the first part of the parable, some of the seeds the sower throws end up by the wayside and devoured by the birds. How can we prevent this in our organization? In our case, using the approach called Policy Deployment or Hoshin Kanrin.  During the week long event, we will generate a whole list of potential seeds to plant next year. Then through much discussion, prioritization and reality checks, we will only pick the top 4 or 5 seeds to plant in the coming year. By using this tool, we will discard the wayside seeds and instead focus on the seeds with the most potential to yield a crop a hundredfold.

In the second part of the parable, the seeds thrown on stony ground wither because there is no depth to the roots to support the plant. A little sun, and bam, the plant is scorched. I see this potentially happening to our organization, and in my job. We are always on to the next thing, never enjoying a jubilee season nor tending to the ground. Roots are in constant danger of not taking hold, and core tools such as 5S are suspect in effectiveness. However, I think there is an answer. As I think about my job, what I need to convey is the use of a Skills Matrix lean tool. A Skills Matrix defines the skills needed to do a job. My role is to define those skills and certify those who are using the lean tools like 5S or running Kaizen events so they 1) understand the tool, 2) can explain the tool, 3) can demonstrate the use of the tool, and 4) can teach others. The Skills Matrix is the answer to the second part of the parable. Using the Skills Matrix develops the roots. Also spending more time on education by executing a training program using Gemba Academy videos will further aid root development.

In the third part of the parable, seeds thrown among the thorns are choked out and never yield any crops. This speaks directly to my previous blog entry regarding Stress Objectives. In my case I had 29 objectives to work on last year. I am choking. I literally feel like I am among the thorns and in every direction I move a ping of stress attacks my skin. There is so much on my plate, I find it hard to focus and instead skip around addressing the most pressing issue of the day or week. Tough to admit this, but today I realize the parable of the sower describes the condition I am in. What is more troubling, is this carries over into other areas of my life. My only hope here is pushing back when it comes to setting next years objectives. Maybe by relating this parable in the Bible, I can assert positive influence in this coming year.

Hmm...I have some hope now.

One final thought. Sustainment speaks of the root depth. Sustainment yields ongoing crops. Wayside seeds eaten by birds, shallow earth scorched by the sun and seeds choked by thorns do not yield crops. The parallels between my work life and the spiritual are linked. And I must always keep in mind, apart from the Vine, there is no fruit.

Stress Objectives

9/10/12...This is day one upon returning from a week long vacation at Holden Beach, North Carolina. I write this to acknowledge posting an entry in The Toil a day after vacation may not be the brightest thing to do. But alas I have a thought important enough to document on this day.

Three years have passed since I truly had a vacation, two years since my wife and I had a vacation. Visiting the in-laws does not count. What I learned from being off was the importance of being off, as in off-line. Off the internet, off the cell phone, off attempts to blog, off the email, off any form of work contact, and off the computer. My wife and I feel refreshed.

During vacation I realized and acknowledged to my wife my disbelief regarding how tightly wound I have become over these last two years. The Toil has been a contributing factor, though not the sole factor. As this blog is dedicated more to The Toil, I wanted to focus more on this aspect. As I reflected on why I became so tightly wound, I realized the Stretch Objectives set in our organization heavily contribute to this. I love the company I work for because they treat their people well, but they also expect alot in return. For example this year I had 4 objectives to work on. Sounds reasonable right, well yes until someone adds sub-objectives to the objectives. So in 2012, in truth I actually had 11 seperate objectives to work on. Then, as part of our Human Capital Development System (an individual performance improvement system), add in another 15 seperate core values and job competencies to work on. On top of this, add in a personal Development (a mandatory optional) plan consisting of a Lean Certification and 2 other objectives. Did you lose count? If so, I will add it up...so far 29 different objectives. Oh and I did not mention the ongoing tasks coming my way, all with good intentions, from the Plant Manager whom I consider a good friend and the different Corporate Global Teams. Wow. I need another vacation.

In a Lean environment stretch objectives are set both to move the organization and the individual forward. However, a potential problem occurs when those who are setting these do not understand the concept of the "critical few." What I wrote above is not the critical few, but the critical many. And because my personality is to take these to heart, I embrace the stretch and try my best to accomplish what everyone says is important. Notice how above I did not even mention those things which I think need to be done in my job to help everyone become better, and that is because I hardly ever get to those things. And by the way, I really envy those people who just totally dismiss their objectives or not even worry about them, and lose no sleep. They are my heroes.

Here is my realization: Stretch objectives are good. I have seen a positive change in focus and improvement in the organization since using these in Policy Deployment and the Human Capital Development System. However, there is a two-fold potential flaw if stretch objectives are not used in the correct manner. One, people setting objectives and not understanding the concept of the "critical few" means the few, not the many. In turn this creates stress, not stretch. Two, organizations operating in silo's, especially in a corporate environment, are prone to create many more objectives not necessarily aligned with each other. Not to say what is being worked on is not good, but corporate functions operating apart from each other tend to place additional workloads on plant level personnel. In turn this creates stress, not stretch.

Here is my challenge: In the coming year, how can I prevent Stretch Objectives from becoming Stress Objectives? No answers right now, just a personal challenge.  

This shift is the problem...

8/15/12...Last night we had our 12th report out since the inception of teaming in our plant, way back in May 2010. Report outs occur about once every 3 months and give our nine teams a chance to report their accomplishments and discuss their metrics. We also spend time letting our six committee's talk about all the wonderful things they are working on. At the end of the night, most agreed the report out was successful, not perfect, but there is no need to be, we are all on a journey. Plus, after twelve of these, it is still nice to know we are energized by the engagement of our folks and we see them still engaged as well.

So what prompted this entry? A number of things. One I was watching a youtube video of Robert Miller discussing the Shingo Prize. The prize is only awarded to companies approaching or in a Principled driven organization. Very enlightening. He discussed the companies they have audited for the prize. I was most curious about the typical metrics from those who are approaching Principle driven. One in particular popped out. He said the average number of implemented ideas by employees were 60 per person per year. I paused. And thought hmmm...I know we are nowhere near this number. In fact over the last two years we celebrated implementing 200 ideas and even threw candy out at Fun Day to document this fact. As a comparision, 200 ideas in 2 years equates to about 2.5 implementations per person or 1.25 per year. This is far from what is mentioned above. If I take the 60 ideas reported by the Shingo prize recipients and times that by our 80 people, I come to a  total of 4,300 per year. Yikes!! The discrepancy is incredible.

So I wondered, is this indeed a good thing? The Shingo prize people readily admit five years ago they made changes in their criteria because 80% of those who received the prize, when they were reaudited....failed. Hmmm. So I wonder what the sustainment percentage is of the 4,300 implemented ideas per year. Also, I have been on both sides of audits and have seen how people manipulate the audit criteria on both sides, so when the Shingo people report the improvement ideas, are those companies being audited really presenting the facts or just presenting the lipstick on a pig? I do not know. I am curious to find out the following from those organizations:

1. What is the depth of the ideas? I think our depth is deeper so therefore the effort takes longer.
2. Of those ideas, how many our sustained? Are the ideas audited for sustainment?
3. Do the stakeholders take ownership of the ideas?
4. etc.

So I do have some questions. However, in our organization I do think we have more opportunity to generate more ideas. Our people are not quite seeing the 7 muda's nor using their insight to see waste on a daily basis. So our training, positive reinforcement, and accountability or a mixture would need to increase.

I know with our teaming, one of the embedded principles is the team taking ownership of all ideas before proceeding. This tends to slow down the process, but if we are sustaining 80%, is this bad?

Also, in my work history, I have always heard shifts blaming other shifts for problems, etc. In a four shift operation it is even worse. Once we went to teaming, I never hear people complaining about other shifts...I mean ever. So do the intangibles of getting people to look out for each other's back and work together outweigh decentralizing and getting more ideas implementing?

You're Invited to the Gospel Jubilee!

7/26/12...Today I wondered about the idea of Jubilee. In the Old Testament there were periods of time called the Jubilee and the Sabbath Year, as quoted below from Leviticus;

25 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. ⁶ Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, ⁷ as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

What I am wondering is this. The last two and half years the rate of change at our company is incredible. In fact there is a lady at work who is getting ready to retire. She has been with us for fourteen years, twelve more than me. Our location only started fifteen years ago. As I talked with her wishing her well, she said part of the reason she is now retiring is the change is just too much. There is no doubt, due to Lean and Six Sigma, our Plant is realizing improvements at a rapid pace. As she said, there has been more change in the last two years then she has ever seen in her fourteen years at the company. One of our newer leaders who just started this year said we were on a "psychotic pace of change." Quite funny...and true.

What I have noticed though is due to this unrelenting pace of change, there is never time to adequately rest and reflect. There is never time to tie up loose ends. There is never time to just hang out and fix all the small things not quite working in the created systems and programs. Instead it is on to the next big thing. What I have noticed is when there is a breather week ever so often, I am able to tend to the smaller things and fine tune at my own pace. Sort of like the Jubilee. The above passage speaks of not sowing new fields, or pruning the vineyards in the seventh year. Nor of reaping what grows or harvesting. There is a year of rest for the land, and man is to enjoy only what his untended crops yield by themselves.

What would this look like in business? The concept intrigues me and I imagine even pondering this would cause some in the business world to cringe with any number of thoughts. To me, I think of this a little more, some possibilities,

Not sowing equates to no new ideas, no new concepts, no new programs, no objectives, no performance reviews.

Not pruning equates to no fine tuning of existing systems and programs.

Not reaping equates to...well I am not sure. The dictionary meaning is to get as a return. We still have to produce and sell product to meet customer needs. There has to be a collection of money in order to stay in business. The concept is on a little shaky ground at this point. I suppose whatever our processes and systems yield is what we live on. In this vein, maybe this is how we reap.

Not harvesting equates to not gathering. Maybe in a way saying producing no more than the customer orders. No gathering of huge inventories or working more than necessary trying to build inventory. No going out and harvesting more knowledge is another possible thought.

I feel there is something to this, but I am not quite connecting to the possibility. This may take some time to ruminate for a while before I come back to it. Conceptually I just think what if we had an entire year in business of doing nothing more in a leadership capacity than letting the systems rest. We spend time listening, and in dialogue at only a day at a time. We create no task list. We simply take whatever fine tuning presents itself and work on it until completion. There is no sowing of task lists. We work but in a different way in that year. I certainly wonder if a year of rest in Lean Six Sigma is a need. Our plant officially started the journey in 2007, we are getting ready to enter our sixth year. Hmmm...maybe God will plant further thought regarding this matter in me in the coming year. Right now, not all the dots are connecting.

One final thought on Jubilee. I just remember when I was a young boy hearing the Gospel Jubilee music hour on Sunday mornings. Very catchy theme tune.

Jubileeee! Jubileee! Jubileeee! Jubileee! You're invited to the Gospel Jubileeee!

Clear as Mud

7/12/12...Muddled. This word seems best when trying to describe me in the context of workplace personality tests. I both cringe at these and in some masochistic way enjoy taking them. Here are some of the ones I have taken, both in personal life and in workplace life:

Meyers-Briggs

Personalysis

True Colors

Spiritual Gifts

DISC

Strengthsfinder 2.0

Work Teams

Now that is alot of personality testing going on, trying to figure me out and supposedly offering me insight to help me figure my own self out. Alot of figuring. I figure there has been some worth to these. Spiritual speaking from The Toil perspective, the Spiritual Gifts test and Strengthsfinder were immensely valuable. Both of these I have taken over the last five years and the insights really helped me affirm who I am, and to embrace how God created me versus lament over what I am not. I use to focus more on trying to improve what I was not versus focusing on what I was. Very liberating day when I realized the Holy Spirit uses me more for what I am, instead of me striving to be something I am not.

With that said, I also figure when it comes to employers trying to use this information, it is not such a good thing. Employers seem to want to always work on what I am not versus celebrating what I am. I not only see this happening to me, I also see it happening to others around me. Because none of us are the "be all" or "end all", there is always deficiencies in us. And this is how business sees us, or at least in my experience. And so now I have to work on a "development plan" to strengthen my weaknesses. Whatever. Now me and the other someone will spend 80% of our time to improve my weaknesses by 20%. Why not spend 20% of our time harnessing my strengths and getting 80% more results. After all what comes easy to me are my strengths. They are natural.

Some more rambling...the other issue with all these tests from a work environment perspective, is in general they stereotype everyone, but each of us are really complex. There are so many factors influencing us, it is therefore difficult to truly "peg" someone with a personality test. Humans are complex. I think back to my elementary and middle school days when we had to break plants and animals down into classifications, i.e. plant or animal, mammal or non, etc. I think when God created us, a beautiful complexity is what He had in mind. When employers or even myself ask others to take these tests, what happens is not an appreciation of the beautiful complexity, but a realization we really cannot define people in such a simple way. We "muddle" up God's beautiful complexity, trying just like scientists do, to figure it all out.

By the way this is who I am as a result of these tests:

A "C"

Connectedness

Maximizer

Belief

Ideation

Intellection

A "Barney"

Feeling

Warm up to Change

Confronter/Glad Hander

Ideas

A "Green"

A "Gold"

Creative Communicator

Knowledge

Giving

Encourager

And lastly elements of Controlling, Understanding, and Authoritative at the Instinctive Level, elements of Questioning, Involve and Direct at the Socialized Level, and elements of Self-Directed and Structured at the Rational Level.

So there you go...clear as mud.

Lineup Change, Not So Sure About It

7/11/12...Yesterday the Plant Manager came in and announced the departure of someone in the leadership team. Certainly the news was not good because this person in a short amount of time made some good contributions to our psyche. And also since he is a brother in Christ, my heart ached somewhat, somehow sad to know I may not be able to have some deeper conversations with someone who can relate.

The thing is this, the departure represents an opportunity to change the lineup. Not so sure this is a good idea. Even though I wrote in a previous post regarding the merits of changing the lineup in poorly performing teams, I wonder if changing the lineup in well performing teams is a good idea. The Plant Manager is someone who does not hesitate to pull the trigger on change. Me, I have to warm up to change. Somehow in our careers, this tension in our approach to change has helped both of us, one being a little more cautious and the other a little more riskier.

In my past, I have made changes in personnel who were doing a great job at one thing, but were weak in some other business need area. However, making the lineup changes did not always work well. I simply put another person in the place who had other deficiencies. And so it is. No matter who you are at The Toil, I think all of us have deficiencies. So I need to be careful. If someone is doing a fantastic job in one area, I should not deceive myself in thinking a lineup change will solve everything. It will not. It may solve the one deficient area but it will only be replaced by another area of deficiency. Once the euphoria wears off and reality sets in with the new person, it is just a matter of time before the new deficiency is uncovered.

This is why I believe harnessing the strengths of people is paramount. As long as a team is performing well, only make the lineup change if it continues to utilize the strengths, not shore up weaknesses. I need to remind myself of this.

Dirty Laundry

6/25/12...In teaming, there are always challenges, as The Toil is a constant force reckoning our idealism. Therefore airing the dirty laundry is a good thing because I know dirty clothes smell bad...especially my hiking socks. I also know I sometimes lose sight the comfort of clean clothes brings me. I remember wearing the same jeans in China for seven days. The jeans could have walked on their own. How refreshing though when a local Chinese merchant washed them for me and I put them on for the first time. I think I literally let out a sigh of joyful relief.

There is dirty laundry in teaming. I know one of the challenges facing us at the moment is the movement of people across teams. In work requiring ergonomic breaks, our challenge is moving people around without them losing their identity on the functional team. After all, one of the strengths of functional teams are members taking ownership of all decisions, unlike with cross-functional teams where decisions are made for others who have no say or little opportunity to say. Teams require identity. When a team member changes, identity is lost, and teams go back to Stage 1 called Forming. Although this is a dirty laundry item, I have also seen this as a blessing. Over this last year I see poor performing teams get a boost of energy when new members are rotated on. With good performing teams, changing members does not seem to disrupt the flow as much. Good teams continue to perform. Poor teams seem to get stuck. However, when new members rotate into a poorly performing team, the team dynamics change, usually for the better. So from now on, if a team is performing poorly, air the dirty laundry, change the lineup, and keep moving. An analogy would be baseball coaches who change their lineups if poor performance is occuring. Changing lineups is not always a guarantee for better performance, but it is much better than letting the team flounder.

There is other dirty laundry we have, such as movement of Star Points across teams and not using basic problem solving tools so instead of identifying the correct root cause, the tendency is jumping to results. Teams struggle with these. Another one is keeping teaming fresh and fun. The challenge is how to keep the team engaged, encouraged and motivated to continue pursuing change. If not careful, the team will continue wearing the same pair of jeans for seven days. After a while, the freshness is gone. Staleness in teams is a reality especially when teams do not have a finite end. Keeping it fresh requires diligence, perserverance and creativity, not to mention a little bit of Tide...and maybe some Bounce.

Mini-Business Anonymous

6/21/12...I went out to lunch with the teaming coaches today. At times it felt like a support group meeting, which actually was a good thing, because the coaches need to know there is support for them and an avenue for them to share. Of course ordering Turtle Cheesecake and Cocunut Pie for dessert definitely helps the mood as well...but I digress. I picked up some good tips today to keep in mind for the future so I thought I would share them, and also write them down as future reminders:

Meeting on company grounds is not always a necessity. In fact, to keep teams fresh, let the teams decide if they would like to meet offsite somewhere. One coach tells the story of their team meeting at a local park. Even with people all around and Intersate 81 traffic right across the river, the team enjoyed more relaxed conversation and there was more participation by members who were usually more quiet.

Another coach shared the story of how a Minute Taker wanted to resign their role after diligently serving for eight months. However, nobody on the team wanted to step up. The Team Leader asked the Minute Taker to leave the room until the team made a decision. Why? because, and I have also seen this, is the team will "wait" out the person until they cave in to continue to do it, or they will "wait" out the Team Leader. In the future, the good practice is to have the Role person such as Minute Taker and the Team Leader step out, and then have the team make a decision on who will do it. Make sure the team knows they cannot leave until a decision is made. By approaching the role decision this way, the team no longer has the person in the current role or the Team Leader to literally look at to make a decision or cave in. Indeed, a stroke of genius...

Along the same lines, if a team is not having people step up to do tasks, proceed with a regular meeting. While the meeting is ongoing, have the team list tasks needing to be done on a post-it-chart as the tasks present themselves, like a running Kaizen newspaper. Then, towards the end, the Team Leader leaves and asks the team members to take on tasks with the rule that each team member can only take 1. The team cannot adjourn until this is accomplished. Sequestering is a powerful dissuasion to non-participation.

Back to the cheesecake. Between bites of the Turtle decadence, which by the way was absolutely delicious, I learned a few other tips. One, with our structure, it is important to have job descriptions for the Maintenance role on the team. I am not sure we communicated effectively enough on the front end the expectations of this role. Also the other coaches reinforced another tool, the Effort/Impact grid. Using this grid to help stay within scope is vital for the teams. Every idea should be run through this grid so the team is not working outside what they can influence or make decisions on. Through using this grid, it is also vital to challenge repair items, and instead of filling out a work order to repair, turn the repair into an improvement so the issue does not reoccur.

Last of all, the last tip I learned was always eat the last bite of Turtle Cheesecake. Trust me, you will never regret it. You may have to join another type of Anonymous group, but I think it is well worth it.

Mythology of the Shingo Prize

3/6/12...I was reading some online content regarding the Shingo Prize, named in honor of Shigeo Shingo, one of the innovators of Lean. As I was reading a thought struck me. Shigeo Shingo is dead. The prize is named in honor of him. Deming is dead. Taiichi Ohno is dead. JFK is dead. Martin Luther King is dead. Einstein is dead. Michaelangelo is dead. C.S. Lewis is dead. In other words, there is a lot of dead people. What I find interesting in all this deadness are a couple of things. One, how most on this list spent a lifetime crafting their trade or calling or purpose, usually with very little recognition to the collective whole before their death. Only in their death, whatever true worth they created in society sustained itself and almost became what some would call mythology. After all, when a person dies, we can then form in our minds who they were, or what they meant to us, and I think most of us tend to discard their flawed humanity. It is almost as if we are elevating them to a "savior" status, or someone who exemplified what is the best in us. Lately on the news, there has been a woman coming out discussing her affair with JFK, a president that most of America holds in high regard. Even if it is true, I think most people while acknowledging the story also dismiss the story all at the same time.

Look at rock stars and athletes. I marvel at how we hold them up to some status level, and then somehow we become disappointed when they fail and they do not live up to our desired expectations. A great example is Tiger Woods.

What is it in us that wants us to mythologize those who are living, and mythologize those in their death? Shigeo Shingo now has a prize named in his honor. All these people who administer this prize now speak on his behalf as if they actually knew all his thoughts, and doubts, and fears. They do not. Therefore they present a mythological character based on some truth. I do not get to see the blood, sweat, and tears it took Mr. Shingo to succeed in his trade. I do not get to see his humanity. I only get to see the mythological result, and to now be told by those who administer the prize if I do not achieve the Tools, Systems, Principles progression, that somehow I am not living up to the mythology.

Yes, to seek perfection is noble and ideal. To acknowledge we can never reach it, but should strive for it is also noble and ideal. But I am wondering if this is rooted in truth or mythology.

What becomes apparent to me in these ruminations is grace. Grace is rooted in perfection, but not my own. Perfection in this earth I live on only exists in mythology. The Shingo Prize is nothing more than mythology. Oh, it has it's good points so do not get me wrong, but it is rooted in something of which can give me false hope. I can spend my career leading others in pursuit of this prize, but the prize is mythology. In my lifetime, I have chased after many mythological things of this world, only to find every single one of them let me down.

The beauty of grace is rooted in the acknowledgement and realization that I am not, nor will I, become perfected. This is a hard pill to swallow, because deep down I desire this, and so there is an ongoing battle between pursuing perfection, realizing I will not get there, and yet still carrying on.

This also requires a decision. Jesus Christ presented himself as God. Whoa! Jesus Christ in his humanity presented himself as God. Therefore when He died, I can no longer mythologize Him because He already presented Himself as God. Perfection. Shigeo Shingo became mythologized by others in his death but he never claimed to be God during his lifetime either. Jesus did.

There are more thoughts to this that I am afraid are swimming around in my head, but are not finding connection. Alas I am tired so I will stop the blog entry for now.

A Seed Sprouts?

3/5/12...I just read through all my Toil entries starting in 2010. First of all I can't believe it is going on two years. Second of all, I am beginning to see connection. After reading a Gungor blog today at gungormusic.com, he makes the assertion that sometimes we get caught up in the details and cannot see the bigger picture. The example he gives is marveling at the beauty of the Grand Canyon when viewing it from the top. However, when you walk to the bottom and simply look at the ground prostrate, all you notice is some dirt, maybe even a bug walking by. The beauty alludes you.

After reading this blog entry, I read the entire Toil entries. The feeling I had which manifiested itself in a metaphor was a seed sprouting. For these last two years, the seed has been in the dirt. Water and nutrients, some deliberately, some unknowingly, have been given to the seed. Suddenly the tiniest of tiny sprouts have appeared. With the Son now appearing above the sprout, might something happen. What awaits the tiny little seed sprout?

a story...

When I graduated college, I went to work for James River as a Graphics Specialist. For two years I worked on projects such as how to mix ink offline and bring it to press with it coming up to the correct color with minimal downtime and scrap. After two years I was promoted to Printing Department Manager with 85? people reporting to me including one supervisor and four team leads. Back then I was pretty green and dumb. Now I jokinlgy tell others I am just old and dumb. But alas, when I first started this position, there were 85 people who had ideas of how to make things better. Sometimes these came out in the form of complaints, sometimes, very rarely, in solutions. Me as 1 person could not physically handle all this even though I had a sincere desire to make their work lives better. For them, I imagine they sometimes thought I did not care or maybe that I was not listening, all of which was untrue. This is the moment when teaming, although I did not use the word at that time, first took hold in me. Back then I did not call it teaming. Back then, I called it; there has got to be a better way.

Interlude: Taiichi Ohno and Shigeo Shingo, widely regarded as the innovators of Lean, spent a lifetime developing the tools, methods, and culture of Lean. They failed many times. They revised many times. They learned many times. They pressed on many times. Sometimes it is good to remember this. Their end product is a result of a lifetime, mind you a lifetime. I can now read about their lifes work in a book; takes about four days. Or I can go to a week long seminar, of which I have done on a couple of occasions. Their entire lifetime is now summed up in a book or a week long seminar. Reminds me of those HGTV shows. In 30 minutes they flip an entire dilipidated house into an amazingly beautiful home. Me, when my wife and I flipped our house, it took 2 YEARS!

Back to the Story; Back when, there were too many unanswered questions in my relationship with God. Therefore I chose to ignore Him. What I find ironic, is now that my redemption and faith have been reignited, I find teaming answers in my spiritual journey in Exodus Chapter 18...

There is Hope for the Longing...

3/5/12...At times, the Toil is such an annoying albatross. Let me explain what I mean. Over the last couple of months, we have focused more on the People development side of Mini-Business (see diagram of 11/28/11 entry). We hired a local organizational development specialist and she has done a remarkable job with our people, not only encouraging the Team Leads, but also providing valuable insight into leading people and running meetings. Over the last two years, myself and a colleague have coached well over 200 meetings. Some of these meetings were great, some were horrible, and the majority were just average. What has been encouraging is with the added training and development side, the meetings lately have gone very well. On a scale of 1-10 I would give them an 8 whereas before it was more hit or miss around a 4 or 5. One thing I have learned is how important the fun factor is in energizing a group meeting. Doing an icebreaker or something to laugh and get the blood moving before a meeting starts really helps the quality of the meeting and bonds the participants more.

With that said this morning's meeting with one particular team went back to a 6 where I am used to quite a few 8's lately. I was a little disheartened as well as the Team Leader. The Team Leader to her credit planned a good agenda, put icebreakers in, had great content, but alas things did not quite go as hoped for. One, it was snowing so some team members did a no show. When 4 of 11 people are out, it sets a bad tone from the very beginning. After all, teams require all members to be there to be a team. Also there were some issues regarding team members who were getting moved around to other machines, etc. etc. At the end of the meeting, when doing an evaluation for the group regarding how the meeting went, I asked the question, is there anything we can do better next time to make a better meeting. Ugghhh, and uh oh. One member's response was EVERYONE in the organization was "burned out" from Mini-Business. Wow! What a statement! EVERYONE. And then the lady next to him said she liked Mini-Business, just everyone needed to be there for the meeting. Hmmm...

What hit me later was this: The previous Friday, I told a story to future coaches regarding my early career and how my story was woven into Exodus Chapter 18. I left that day feeling great, as in one, I got a rare opportunity to share my spiritual journey and two, I actually got to use something in the Bible in a business setting. Fast forward to this morning:

What became apparent to me was this. Adding the fun factor into teaming was necessary and great, but alas even it will not be enough. Within myself there is a longing for something more than this world can offer. Therefore I will always be discontent with something. That is not to say I want enjoy different seasons or moments in time, but deep down a longing (hunger) remains. The longing in words sounds like this: There has to be something better than this. As a leader though, what do I do with this when leading others? If I have this deep longing, what makes me believe that those I am leading do not also have this same longing. The truth is they do. The Toil that has been promised to me beats me down, and beats those I lead down. My only hope and their only hope is in the next world. Until then, all we can do is slog through the bad and average times and cherish the few enjoyable times on the far side of the bell curve.

Flashback to this morning: What does this say about the person this morning who makes a grandiose statement that EVERYONE is burned out, when in fact the lady beside him says no she is not. What does this say about him? I think the Toil has worn him down. I do not know if he is a believer or not. What I do know is this. No matter what I or we do as leaders will ever be enough. For Christians, all I can do is point their deep rooted longing towards their Savior, and encourage them that while here on earth, it is to the glory of our Father to point others to Him. For non-Christians, all I can do is tell them no matter how good we make Mini-Business, it will never be enough, because there is some deep seated longing within them that I cannot ever fill no matter how many fun factors I put in, icebreakers, team building, listening to them, solving issues and complaints, etc. My heart sinks for the non-Christians.

After all what a terrible way to live. An entire life spent in complaint, distractions, chasing, maybe even addictions, trying to fill a longing that the world cannot satisfy. If we as Christians face the same dilemma in longing, at least we have hope and grace in Jesus Christ from our complaint, distractions, chasing, and addictions. For a non-Christian, what do they have? This world...

I shake my head at this realization. I pause. My eyes lower to the ground and my heart sinks...

This is gut-wrenching.

A Vision (Me)

11/28/11...Well I took the challenge given to myself. Put myself on a spiritual vision roadmap. Below is the result. The points in the web are the 10 things that come to mind when thinking about my walk. As I relect on this, the first thought that comes to my mind is hmmm...if a 5 in each web is to be like Christ, and at 44 years of age this is where I see myself, then what is this saying about me? I guess, maybe one is this. Christ was the perfect human sent to me to give me an example of what living for God's glory means. God sent Him as my 5. Two, because of my pride, I probably overscored myself which means I am even closer to a 0 or 1 on all the webs more than I care to admit. Three, I will say it makes me want to be better, not necessarily do better, because all power is in yielding to the Spirit within me. I can do nothing to my Father's glory apart from the Spirit. Anything I do is in vain. Fourth, I also must say this was an interesting exercise to do. Fifth, if I ever score myself 4 on humility, then that means I am not humble and therefore am really a 1, or probably a 0 because I have no humility if I rank myself a 4. I laugh at this paradox.

Last of all, I put the two greatest commandments on this radar map, and when I look at how I self-assessed myself, I must say I am a little distraught.

CI at All Levels...

11/28/11...A diagram first shared by one of our VP's on a post it chart and then tweaked by me to communicate to everyone effectively how improvement occurs at all levels in the organization, as well as defining who the primary initiators are...

One important note is changing the shopfloor term to point of work. Shopfloor indicates only manufacturing environments where in fact Mini-Business works anywhere at the point of work, such as accounting department, nurse station, customer service area, etc.

A Vision (Mini-Business)

11/28/11... A visual roadmap of where we are now and where we want to be. A radar map is an excellent way to communicate vision and provide a visual regarding the baseline. People seem to gravitate towards those things which can be measured. I wonder if I do the same thing with my spiritual journey, how that would look and what would the visual say about me. What would be the points on the web? Would it narrow my focus to the good or to the detriment by trying to put my journey in a box? After all, I do not think God is constrained by a box, and He surely thinks well outside of it more than me. Although I must say, most of the time I still think I am the center of the universe so I still perceive myself being at the center of the radar map. I laugh at this thought, but I also quickly remind myself how true this thought is.

An Updated Model

11/28/11...At the beginning of The Toil postings, I shared the diagram below. This is an updated one based on new learnings. Please remember, everything is constantly growing and maturing if we are seeking to grow and mature in our learnings.

5 Dysfunctions of a Team

11/18/11...A great resource to tap into. Just like God has provided capable doctors for us to go to when sick as an answer to a prayer for healing, so too can a resource such as this be used to help develop teams and working together as an answer to prayer.

http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions/

Evolving...

11/28/11...A diagram to illustrate the evolution of shopfloor teams. Shopfloor can be manufacturing, administration, etc., wherever there are a group of people doing the work.

Finally Figured Out? Maybe so...

11/28/11...The other component. At the center is the Spirit. Without His involvement according to the will of the Father, the diagram still only has short term possibilities at best, and gradual discontentment probably guaranteed. There has to be something beyond ourselves and the answers are not in this world; never have been and never will be. The truth is the Toil we are relegated to assures us of this. But how do we begin placing the Spirit in the diagram when the secular world says no. Human Resource people cringe at overt Christianity in the workplace due to litigation fears. The country I love, America, has slowly drifted to saying no to God, and I have to take responsibility that I am part of the problem, not of the solution. If I count the cost, what does this mean, will mean, or could mean? Lots of questions about the circle in the middle...but if the circle (Spirit) is not addressed, then all is futile...

Finally Figured Out? Maybe not...

9/19/11...I made this diagram in PPT to illustrate the linkage of shopfloor teams and how each piece has to be in place in order for the tools/system/behavior axiom to have a chance to work. Early in my career with teaming, I had a system (structure) in place, but lacked tools and people development. With Lean so prevalent, it answers the tools part, and now the last challenge is the people development part. But wait...that is not correct. This triangle will also run its course if there is not another component...

An Evolution

4/6/11...There seems to be a natural evolution in the development of teams. Yes there are stages teams go through in order to reach a performing stage. But what happens when an ongoing team reaches the performing stage? Because we humans are discontent, where will contentment next come from? I know this. If it is of the world, the contentement will not last...

12

3/15/11...Did you ever wonder why Jesus chose only 12 to be his disciples? Attention to detail, exactness, and intent are words I see everywhere in God's creation. Therefore I have a hard time thinking anything related in scripture is happen stance. Why not choose 11 disciples, or 6, or 20? What is the intent of the number 12?

Then I think of teams and how they function. In my experience 8 - 12 members on a team are ideal. Any more than 12, a team seems to become bogged down with too many voices. Any less than 8 the team sometimes does not have the best diversity to come up with solid solutions. In most cases, 12 seems to be an ideal number.

Maybe Jesus chose the 12 based on knowing the exact diversity needed to see the gospel spread. 12 was just enough to develop intimacy. 12 was just enough to bring different personalities into the mix, thereby tapping different strengths into the spread of the gospel. 12 was just enough to water a seed that changed the world.

12...

Exodus 18 and Mini-Business

2/23/11...

10 And Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. 14 So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. 19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”

24 So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. 25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26 So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.

27 Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.

What an insightful passage. I continually am amazed at the depth of God, although at this point I am not sure why. God's word is amazingly insightful, covering all aspects of life throughout its pages. Even as I am now starting to read the Bible from beginning to end for the third time, I unexpectedly come across this chapter in Exodus and immediately it speaks to me. I am somewhat taken aback. After all it is Exodus, a book worn out by its stories of Moses and the exit of Israel from Egypt. Ahhh...but here is the spiritual joy. If one digs beyond the obvious story, there is so much more and my Father opened my eyes to this one, a stand alone chapter in the middle of the book of Exodus, seemingly out of place and yet exactly in place.

In my company, Mini-Business is a concept they are promoting which engages the hearts and minds of our people. Some say the 8th waste of Lean is the underutilization of human resources. Mini-Business seeks to address this 8th waste. At this time, two plants including the one I am in are engaged in this concept. It goes beyond self-directed work teams and yet has elements of self-direction. Where it differs is a recognition that leaders (supervisors and team leads) continue to play a critical role. There was a time when self-directed work teams meant that a team would function together as one with no person above another. And yet this concept died out with only pockets of success at some companies. Why? I believe one can look to Exodus 18 and better understand why. The wisdom of this chapter speaks to the importance of natural leaders who can bear the burden of decisions as one goes up the ladder. It speaks to the importance of having natural leaders within teams for teams to function well.

Yes, I realize this passage speaks to appointed leaders judging situations among the people in ancient Biblical times. However, it also smacks me in the face that God is speaking beyond this, indeed if I just listen. It is interesting that the passage speaks of leaders all the way down to "rulers of tens." I ponder these words. Coincidentally or maybe not, our Mini-Business teams are around 9 - 13 people, in the tens. I think one of the elements in the Mini-Business concept is possibly at fault. Follow my thoughts on this matter. We are letting the teams select their own leaders which is a good thing because the people who are selecting their leader have respect for them and a vested interest in seeing them succeed in their role. However, what we are seeing is there are natural leaders who rise, but sometimes these leaders are not quite developed and thus struggle in their role. At times, I believe I may be letting them flounder too long in my coach/facilitator role. We need to be intentionally developing them and also realizing that the rotation of leaders among a team is probably a fairy tale. Not everyone makes a good leader and to try and place a square peg in a round hole is only going to cause frustration.

Father, let Your Spirit guide me in my thoughts. Let me see truth here to the proper depth. Let me exact truth from the dusty Old Testament book of Exodus. Let me exact truth from this obscure chapter. Oh Father, how I marvel at Your wisdom and Your knowledge. How thankful I am for it.

Some thoughts:

1. Let a group of those of faith get together for morning prayer and honor God. 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. In morning prayer, let us humble ourselves before God, thank Him for this company, and ask for His guidance and wisdom to glorify Him in all that we do according to His will.
2. Let us train our people regarding what the Lean and Six Sigma Production System means. Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 
3. Let us continue Mini-Business and ease the burden of leadership by giving authority to small (but just as important) matters to the shopfloor and thus give them peace in eliminating their frustrations in doing a good job. 23 "If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.” Indeed! This is exactly why Mini-Business has to remain intact! Our people will go home in peace. Why? Because they have had a say in their work, making improvements and managing their work area. No longer are they frustrated. Now they have an avenue to be heard and more importantly BE involved in the change, the kaizen. The Mini-Business leader becomes a key component in leading this effort. When involvement goes beyond suggestions and into DOing, then people leave work each day feeling more at peace with their job. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.
4. Let the teams continue selecting their own leader.
5. Let us be intentional in identifying natural leaders (HR Function). 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
6. Let us survey the teams for others who desire leadership.
7. Let us develop an intentional training program that grows their leadership skills. Let us celebrate them being a Mini-Business Team Leader as an honor. Thus we have the following organizational progression at our manufacturing plant; Mini-Business Team Leader, Team Leader, Supervisor, Department Manager, Plant Manager.

Wile E. Coyote

2/21/11...Although in the last few weeks The Toil has been energizing in a learning sense, this last week has been difficult. This is why. A while back, I wrote in my book that our lives seem to mimic Wile E Coyote. At the most inopportune times on our walk, we seem to continually blow ourselves up. Thus was my last week at work. After feeling God's divine hand in my life so clearly over these last few weeks, and enjoying  my time in meditation and prayer, I literally blew myself up at work. I let the stresses of work affect how I talked to someone. In fact it was enough that this person had to come to my office, close the door, and tell me so. Talk about making me feel like an inch tall. Yes there were some extenuating circumstances, but the bottom line is I failed to glorify God with my tongue. This person forgave me after I gave an apology, but still I am incredulous at how I sometimes seem to blow myself up at the most inopportune times, and thus either lose a potential testimony to my Father in heaven or worse yet derail my relationship with Him because of my deep rooted flaws. Grace is never more evident in these situations. I wish I was growing more Christlike in my walk but the sad truth is the longer I am on this journey, the more I realize I need grace on a daily basis. Without the forgiveness of grace, I have no hope in this life.

The Powdered Monkeys

2/14/11...Just got through leading my second offical Kaizen Breakthrough event. I enjoyed it immensly. There is something very satisfying about facilitating/leading a group of 9-12 people and creating something from scratch, especially when those on the team all come together towards a common goal. This event focused on Leader Standard Work and MDI (Managing for Daily Improvement). The objective was identifying standard work for the team leads, supervisors, value stream manager, and plant manager. Once the tasks were identified, then visual controls were setup to help ensure the tasks were being done, and that abnormalities in the process were being worked on.

Traditional manufacturing is very much about firefighting at the team lead and supervisor level. In Lean, firefighting is acknowledged but a system is developed so that there is a proactive component once the fire is put out.

Once the tasks are identified along with frequency, and the visual controls are in place, then a tier 3 or daily walkthrough occurs to ensure the system is working as it should every day.

Also, what happens when a team member's poor penmanship is misinterpreted by other team member's? In this case, a very funny team name.

Policy Deployment and Value Stream Mapping

1/31/11...Just got through leading my first official Kaizen Breakthrough event. I must say the experience was very gratifying, mostly because I was able to learn something new and apply its application. You see, learning for me is what energizes me, but the learning has to be for a specific reason, not just to learn.

Policy Deployment is a strategy planning tool used to help an organization focus on the "vital few" objectives both in the short term (1 yr) and longer term (3-5 yrs). Equally the Value Stream Map is a way for an organization to map out a process and take a snapshot of its current state. Once the current state is developed, then "opportunity clouds" are identified and a 12 month Kaizen roadmap can be established. I know. Alot of buzz words. The PD and VSM can be independent of each other, but they are more effective when done in tandem.

Our team name for this event was "The Penmanship Police" because, apparently for those who know me, my penmanship is horrendous. I must agree, in that sometimes I have trouble reading something I handwrote just moments ago. Alas, the penmanship police stayed on me the whole event, trying to prevent any erroneous interpretation of my handwritten words.


"The Penmanship Police"

Suggestions versus DOing

1/19/11...In a well-known book discussing managing a Lean culture, the author goes into detail regarding how to tap into employee suggestions within the normal scope of business hours. Since he says 95% of a shopfloor employees time is on the floor, this leaves little room other than overtime in working on suggestions or creating a team environment with their peers. In the author's experience, the shopfloor brings up the suggestions but the team leaders and supervisors dictate whether to pursue the idea or not. There are good points to this, but I also have concerns. They are the following:

• Is it better to have the functional team evaluate the idea for merit? This obtains buy-in from all team members, instant training, and instant communication about the potential change. It also engages the team to find a solution and be more in the DO phase.
• Will higher sustainment occur because of total team involvement versus individual?
• From a relational perspective, will higher satisfaction in their job occur because of working as a team? Will intangibles result in tangibles, although it may not be as easily tracked?

Inventory + Firefighting = You Decide

1/18/11…I am learning a lot about Lean Systems right now, sometimes feeling I am behind the curve. In fact, there was no such thing coined as Lean Systems until the mid to late nineties when a groundbreaking book or two came out and coined the term Lean. Before it was known as Lean, it was known as the Toyota way or the Toyota Production System. As in all things, when someone is doing something right, others want to know about it. Toyota up until last year was definitely doing something right.

I must admit the companies I worked for over the last eighteen years clearly did things right, but they also did things that decreased their bottom line and growth to their detriment. I have mixed feelings about this fact. The manufacturing world I grew up in loved inventory. Inventory covered up a myriad of issues, even so far as customers demanding certain inventory levels maintained at all times in contracts, “just in case”. The motto was produce it, eventually it will be sold, and if some of it is not, then just leave it on the books because we do not want to take a hit on the financials. A byproduct of this was space. Space was always an issue. There was never enough space.

Another fact about the manufacturing world I grew up in was everyone fought fires everyday in their job. It was a huge effort to try and get people to work on fixing the issues versus just solving it for the day. Most of the supervisors I came into contact with were great firefighters, but they were horrible at improving. Most of the managers I came into contact with were equally good at firefighting, and indeed at times made improvements to the system, but they struggled with sustainment and consistency in their focus on improvement. Most of the executives I came into contact with were either raised in the environment I was raised in, or tried to read a book or attend a seminar, but the “hope for instant pudding” as Deming described was not enough to enact real change without their direct involvement.

These are the key learning points and application I am taking from Lean:

• Takt your production needs to real customer demand
• Put in place a system to address abnormalities on a daily basis; i.e. fix the fires
• Stay in business by designing products that work and lead the innovation
• Conduct breakthrough events to improve the systems everyone works in, office and shopfloor
• Consider the whole process, from supplier to customer, not just the manufacturing

For me, this is how I am beginning to relate to Lean. Every tool or term used can probably be placed as a bullet point under one of the above headings. There can be more written on this subject but for now I think this captures a thought or two that I needed to capture.

Meeting Feedback

1/7/11...Ahhh, communication. Us human beings require it. We are not meant to work in isolation of one another or be in relationships apart from one another. God created us for relationship. With that said, communication and relationship goes hand in hand. Stay with me for a minute as I ramble a thought. I just logged on to the blog to capture this thought in its raw form. That is how important I think this thought is.

Currently our teams are meeting to work on improving their work and manage their work area. This is a tall task, especially when the history of the plant was more of a dictatorship versus engagement. Now we are asking our people to come together as teams and collaborate to make their work better. Some are in roles such as minute taking, team leading, reporting out, and devil's advocating. These are foreign roles to them and do not necessarily come naturally. So the question becomes, how do we help them through these roles and help the team come together. Team building events are good and necessary but in our current format there needs to be more. Since they are meeting every 2-4 weeks for 1 1/2 hours, our time to coach them is limited. Here are the bullet points:

• In early team formation, the coach/faciliator position is in a tough position. If they disengage and let the team learn by failure, this may lead to excess floundering. If they insert themselves too much in a leader role because they see floundering, they risk the team not ever growing and them becoming the defacto team leader. All of this rests on having effective team leaders, but when we are asking our people to lead teams with no prior experience, it presents this dilemma. We are not making the time to send team leaders to 6 month training classes therefore we have to address the issue here and now.
• The coach/facilitator position becomes a quasi role of coach/faciliator and team leader mentor, meaning to keep things moving they have to insert themselves ever so often. Also with them ensuring the technicial side of the meeting is flowing smoothly, i.e. staying on agenda, questioning whether something is an improvement, placing on effort/impact grid, entering in work orders, etc., this leaves little time to really do the pure coach/facilitator role, at least in our current format. The issue falls back to an inexperienced team leader not knowing what to do even if they have natural abilities.
• In the forming stage of teams, it then becomes important to do something different. Here is what we are going to do. The coach/facilitator will continue their role. We will have another coach/facilitator attend the meeting with a totally different role. We will use a form to assess how the meeting and team is working, i.e. testing 4 consensus, leader holding opinion to end of discussion, everyone participating, understanding the metrics. This person will make notes in key areas where we think behaviors need to be reinforced. Then we will schedule 5 minutes at the end of the meeting to give the feedback, to all team members. Before we were just providing feedback to the leader after the meeting, but I think it is more impactful to do in during the meeting. Reinforcing positive and negative behaviors during the meeting and communicating this feedback we believe will help the inexperience side of our people working in teams. After all, this is a somewhat foreign concept to them, especially after years and years of just being asked to work on their own.

Maintenance

Some thoughts of maintenance role in teams:

• Critical because they bring technical and resource expertise.
• One maintenance person per 9-12 team members.
• Enter in WO's (Work Order) during the team meeting. Laptop access to MP2 during team meetings.
• Categorizing WO type as MB/Action
• Adding contact information in WO so maintenance knows who to talk to regarding what was brought up.
• MP2 great way of tracking and prioritizing.
• Adding WO number to improvement status report.

Change Culture. Make a Decision.

12/23/10…A thought or two more on this idea of culture change. Many times when leadership is facing the need for change, they soon realize it is culture related. The culture is what is holding everyone back. Many times this insight is seen from the middle management side of companies. The front line supervisors and team leaders are usually caught up in firefighting and are normally worried about what today brings. Therefore by the nature of their job, even if they know change needs to occur, they still are unable to get past today.

On the other hand, middle management is not so involved in the daily as to know change needs to occur, and sometimes can be the one to enact change. However what you may often hear is we need to change the culture. If senior and top management are not supportive then culture change cannot happen. By supportive, this means engaged, and not solely by delegation. There has to be an active element involved otherwise sustainment will not occur and only pockets of change will happen here and there.

What most fail to realize is this. Changing the culture is what happens now. It is every decision made on a daily basis to get to an end target. By saying we need to change the culture, then this means someone is waiting for a magical event to occur. No. Set the vision. Then start making decisions towards that vision. Pretty soon you will look back and realize the culture changed at the point that different decisions started to be made.

Consultants who teach Lean principles commonly say that 70% of a transformation is culture related and 30% is using the tools. TBM, an accredited training organization, says they teach the same tools to all companies, but some are successful and some are not. Why? It all has to do with the culture. If all we ever talk about is a need to change the culture, then the culture will never change. Culture change starts today and starts with a decision. Each decision then builds on itself, pretty soon creating a wave of decisions that are impacting the culture.

When I think of this I can think of the parallel in my spiritual life. I can read the Bible and in essence, bear with me, learn the tools to become more Christ-like; i.e. spend time alone with my Father, fast ever so often, meditate on the word, pray, entertain strangers, and so on and so on. Those are the tools. But if I do not start making decisions today to support God’s desire for me to model my life after Christ, then the culture change within my heart will never start. One cannot change culture until one begins making decisions to change culture.

I will end this post for now, somehow feeling I have left a loose thread or two. I feel like there is more to be written on this subject and maybe I have not quite grasped all the connections in a yet undefined beautifully woven tapestry.