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.

Deming + Lean + Six Sigma = An Impactful Leadership Style

12/17/10…At a Forum for manufacturing last week, someone gave me some valuable insight. Deming was someone whom I philosophically modeled my leadership style after. I would say reading the book The Deming Dimension by Henry R. Neave was one of the top 5 business books I ever read that actually affected my behavior.

At my second job, I remember leading a book study of The Deming Dimension with the management group. We would read a chapter a week, discuss it, and then develop plans on how to implement changes in the organization that would bring us more in line with Deming’s vision. During that time I worked closely with an associate who also believed in a similar style. We were thirsty for knowledge and immersed ourselves in many deep conversations regarding how to apply Deming’s 14 points. The problem was this. Deming did not give a lot of how’s. Therefore, while we were thirsty for knowledge, we were left with a lot of unanswered questions. Deming seemed to present more of the culture transformation versus the tools needed to help impact the transformation. In many of his forums, it was not uncommon for participants to ask questions trying to understand the how, and in turn Deming giving back to them a circular response. However, this was part of the lure of Deming, at least to me. It seemed to fuel my desire to seek more versus having a nice tidy package of answers. The funny thing is, if you watch a youtube clip of him, Deming is a dry, boring speaker who presents everything in a monotone voice. There is nothing engaging about him other than the content of what he speaks. With that said, for anyone to say anything negative about Deming would cause quite a protective reaction by me. How dare they!?

But last week someone did a how dare they. The person said Deming did not quite get what happened in Japan. What!? I thought when I heard this person attack my mentor. How dare he!? But dare he did. Deming was a catalyst in helping Japan recover from WWII with his philosophies, but he never quite caught on to the Toyoda way. The Toyoda way, which back then had no label, is what eventually became known as Lean. Lean is a methodology for improving and staying in business. Nowadays, if a company, especially in the manufacturing sector, is not actively engaging in a Lean or Six Sigma approach, then they are behind the bell curve.

Now to Deming’s credit, he was someone who was always refining his thoughts and philosophies. He was very astute at seeing cultural change and then updating his thoughts on the matter. Deming never seemed to be static and was not afraid to wipe out previous thoughts on a matter. Born in 1900, he passed away in 1993. Lean, or the Toyota Production System, had been around for a number of years in Deming’s time. However, Six Sigma, developed by Motorola in 1986, was a toolset for improvement that Deming probably never became aware of. What I wonder is this? Who’s to say that eventually Deming would not have made this connection? The connection being this…

Deming + Lean + Six Sigma = An Impactful Leadership Style

I believe the Lean and Six Sigma methodologies are the toolset answers to Deming’s Cultural Transformation. In the future, I want to spend some time revisiting his 14 points and seeing how they tie in to today’s world.

Ecclesiastes cont.

12/10/10...I left off the last post with a somewhat cynical view, so let me clarify my last thought at the end of the last post. One can argue it does matter (read ending of last post) because staying in business requires us to improve, but what I am writing about is when this is the sole focus only, at the end of the day it seems to ring hollow. Reading Ecclesiastes this week is interesting as the words of the Preacher, i.e. Solomon, tries to grasp what will profit us under the sun.

To him, what he began to realize is there is no answer in this world. At the time he wrote Ecclesiastes, remember Christ was not yet born. Therefore imagine what it was like to live during this time. How do I get to heaven? was probably a standard question back then as much as it is now. How do I live on this earth? was probably another standard question back then as much as it is now. What is my purpose? could be another way of putting it. The human condition has not changed. Our intellect and knowledge yes, but our condition, I submit no.

Solomon pursued worldy things as in possessions, accomplishments, and even women. He was trying to fill a void that could not be filled and he realized at each turn it all rang hollow. No matter how much he accomplished, or how much he gained, or even how many women he obtained, at the end of the day, he was left with a hollow feeling. His condition was no better than a poor person even though a poor person might disagree, but a poor person would not disagree if they were in Solomon's shoes. So what do you do when you realize everything you pursue, although it may give temporary pleasure, still leaves you yearning for something more that this world is unable to deliver.

Ecclesiastes ends with a thud. Remember Solomon was one of the wisest people in the history of the world and gave us the wonderful book of Proverbs, so there is an expectation when knowing this that surely a man of this stature would be able to answer some of life's greatest questions. As one reads the book, one is hoping for some great answer to truth at the end, and instead, from my viewpoint, I am left with a thud, a movie with a bad ending that leaves me shaking my head regarding why I just wasted two hours of my life that I can never get back. But there is truth there and I know this because thousands of years ago Solomon faced the same dilemma I face with the TOIL. What was his great realization? At the end of the day...he just did not know. He continued to search the rest of his days, but it was all in vain. So instead he left us with this thud at the end.

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,

For this is man’s all.

14 For God will bring every work into judgment,

Including every secret thing,

Whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes

12/6/10...Almost a month has flown by since my last blog entry regarding the Toil. Since August, I have had to prepare for 5 different report out sessions to all levels of the organization from VP's to the President to the Owner to all the Plant Manager's. It has been stressful in the regard that I feel constantly under pressure to help those who are reporting out. Bottom line is everyone walked away with positive comments and why shouldn't they. When they see our people standing up and reporting out on the positive improvements they made not only in their area but in the community and each others lives, one can only walk away with a sense of ... not sure which word to use here. Peace, accomplishment, satisfaction...beats me which word to use.

I suppose I should feel great regarding the success of getting our people more engaged in where they work. Many people from the outside who have visited have remarked how different the atmosphere seems to be. Since I was not here before this past February, I really don't know how to compare.

However, the word I would now use is "hollow." At the end of the day what we have accomplished is better metrics, more satisfied employees (although are they), and a better working atmosphere. But where is God in all this? That is why it is hollow to me. We are so focused on the Toil to get things done that we miss this side and that's why I believe all is hollow under the sun. Where is the glory in God to this? If we called ourselves a church and made syrup bags, how would our focus look different. Church is supposed to be a community of believers getting together to worship God, grow spiritually, and figure out how we can give of ourselves to others. Can church be a manufacturing plant if that plant is privately owned? Can we take breaks each day and worship God or study together or figure out how to do something good in someone's life THAT day, not the next day? Or do we just make 8 and hit the gate.

We may achieve accodalades at work but in the end what does it really matter. We are serving the world instead of God. Who cares which metrics improve or if our employee opinion survey numbers go up? Seriously.

The World is not enough for me...

11/9/10...Wow, how time flies. Seems the Toil has a way of placing the blinders on my eyes. As much as it wants to take over, it is not enough for me, and never has been even when I thought it was. No longer does work define me. No longer do I want the status. No longer do I want to climb up the ladder. No longer do I strive for a dollar. It is all but a vapor.

With that said, the Toil has a way of reminding me that I am still in this world. Therefore I am not immune to all its trappings. My only hope is a daily surrendering to God. Lately though, I have not been. Therefore, I am afraid stress and anxiety have dominated me more than I care to admit. Once again, my only hope is in God.

The Worse Team Meeting Ever...Well Not Quite

9/27/10...Following my entry of the best team meeting ever, I guess it was inevitable to experience the worst team meeting. Once again the ole' Bell Shaped Curve raises its ugly shape. It is not so much that these meetings were the worst because I am exaggerating, but it is clear that team dynamics shape the performance of a team. Show me a well balanced trusting group of individuals and I will show you a team that is performing on a high level. But what makes this group perform and another flounder?

When teams are floundering, I am noticing that the team is not trusting of each other. They are not coming together and working as a team; instead they work as individuals to accomplish tasks apart from the team. Team dynamics, which includes team composition, plays a huge role in this. The "baggage" people bring to the team plays a role, probably more so than anything else. There almost needs to be a "redemptive" moment before the team actually comes together and begins working as one.

This topic needs further explanation going into the future. But here are two potential solutions I want to note, if only for myself.

* Create a team building event (either work or non-work related that has to be build trust in each other). The avenues here are finding an outside resource that specializes in this, or creating an internal event that challenges the team to a new level, and thus forces them to work together to accomplish the goal.

* Conduct a brainstorm with the team having each member contribute to why the team is floundering. For  one team I just led, this was very powerful and eye opening. The good thing is the feedback from team members were legitimate and now the team has a great plan going forward to get out of the floundering stage.

The Toil

9/20/10...There is no avoiding The Toil. Sometimes it is like an albatross around our necks or a 2 ton anchor on our shoulders. Our souls long for so much more. Whatever we achieve by means of The Toil is fleeting as is everything else in this world. Our Toil is probably best represented as a Bell-Shaped curve. Some days are terrific, some days are awful, but most days are just average. The terrific days make us feel on top of the world, whatever the reason caused it to be terrific. The awful days make us want to quit, or leave home early, or just give up (but we have to stay because we have to earn a paycheck). The average days are the plentiful ones where most of us live. In the average, there is neither good nor bad. Instead there is just day to day existence. Our souls sink in this realization.

Our souls really long for freedom. For freedom from the MBO. For freedom from the Performance Appaisal. For freedom from never ending Tasks. For freedom from having to Perform. For freedom to live up to Expectations. For freedom from the Bank Account. For freedom from todo Lists. My thoughts roam to a different type of freedom...

For freedom in rest. For freedom in serving. For freedom in something beyond myself. I realize if we are lucky, we find God and Christ. And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, once we have found them or them us, we find The Toil still hangs around our neck like a garlic necklace trying to keep God and Christ away. Even in the spiritual, there is still The Toil, at least here on this earth. This much I know after traveling to China and speaking with those who left it all behind to serve God, only to find The Toil followed them like a diseased shadow halfway around the world.

One day I hope I can remove the garlic necklace that hangs around my neck and experience the true freedom my soul yearns and pants for...My only hope is in Christ. I have no other hope, because in this world there is no other hope...

The HR Factor

9/18/10...When involving our people in the company, whether it be administrative or operational, HR plays a key role. It starts with hiring. HR takes the applications, narrows down the field to qualified candidates, and then involves the team in selecting the personality, etc. that they believe will work best with the team. As one employee said, well what happens if we hire the wrong person? Exactly. Our people now see the other side which management faces all the time. At best most selection criteria is 60% reliable, but for the most part (Nowlin Process), it is a 50-50 shot. The only saving grace is our people making the selection and in turn having a vested interest in who they work with. They now want to see the person succeed, they now will put them under their wing, and they now will demand more from them, all because how this person performs is a reflection on the team's pride. They care. As we all do. No longer can they say, why did you give us this person, because this person is the one they said ok to hire.

Equally as important, something of which I am now learning, is the 30-60-90 day review and 90 day probationary period. Our people now participate in these interim reviews to give feedback on performance. Some are a little hesistant because they do not want to be the cause of firing someone, but the fact is, this is a part of the process. A new employee who is not working out will generally deselect themselves from the process. Easy to write, harsh as a reality...

Also, the involvement in setting up committees is important. People empowerment without the meaning creates potential false motivation. Social Responsibility, Activities, Wellness, and Safety are some suggested ones. At a previous employer, the Plant Manager and I set up something such as this but a little different. We also pursued self-directed work teams but this was almost 12 years ago. While the experience was a success for about 3 years, eventually it died out. Why? Lean Six Sigma tools were not a part of it. Lack of resources including HR, maintenance, coach/facilitators, process technicians, and quality were not part of it. There was flawed thinking that the supervisory level could be eliminated, what really needed to happen was the role redefined. A flawed gainshare program which upper management kept raising the bar to the point the employees felt like it was not attainable. After all there is no such thing as 0 scrap. Also team building events were not part of it. This is something which needs further exploration to reinforce teams and create bonding experiences. These can come from visits to customers, fun events, dinners, involvement in Kaizen events, or crisis events.

In the future I may flesh more of these thoughts out, but right now they needed to be captured...but where is God in all this? That still remains the question and still remains how we address false motivation.

The Best Team Meeting Ever...Period

9/17/10...I just experienced the best team meeting, EVER, period. There was no management involved with the team. Just me as a coach/facilitator. The vision of seeing a self-sustained group truly manage their area and work on improvement was nothing short of joyful. What was even more satisfying was seeing the look on their faces as they solved their daily frustrations and irritations, and in turn became the conduits for improvement, versus feeling like no one ever listens. During the meeting, here are a few things that made it the best team meeting, EVER...

* the agenda made by the meeting leader

* structured meeting w/ topics, action items, and decisions

* consensus within the team

* fun, much laughter

* participation by everyone, even ones who are normally quiet

* using their training (stakeholders, test for consensus, impact/effort grid, fishbone diagram, NGT)

The description of the above items does not do justice to the experience. If every President of every company could experience a 1 1/2 hour meeting such as this, the way companies are run would change, no matter if it is manufacturing, adminstrative, anything.

An avenue to engage the hearts and minds of people...

A Concept

9/15/10...In Lean systems, the thinking from a top implementer is it is difficult to sustain Lean improvement, and it is difficult to manage more than 1 Kaizen and 1 Point Kaizen event per month per 100 people. Why? The working concept with my cohort, Gil G., is Lean involves mostly Cross-Functional teams. These teams take people from different areas to work on improvement. The work includes the event, and then the 30 day homework, followed by ongoing sustainment. The ongoing sustainment is the issue. When Cross-Functional teams have to go tell others in their work area to do something different that they had no say in, then the problem of ownership occurs. There is no vested interest or ownership because there was no involvement. However, if the Functional Team is the one involved in the Kaizen event, then there is buy-in across the board because all were involved. Both types of teams have their roles, and are important in different regards, but the Functional (some call it Natural) work teams seem to be the missing component of Lean System Thinking in 2010.

Think about it. Do you like it when others tell you what to do? Or if you are the one who helped make the change, are you not more likely to continue to do it because of your involvement? The key though, is creating an avenue where a person not only has a chance to be heard (IDEA), but also has a chance to DO the idea. This is when the % of sustainment success increases. I think Lean tries to address this issue by having Team Leaders whose job is to 85% of the time audit the Standard Work, so basically what you have is a police force, or mom and dad, trying to make sure people are following what they are supposed to do. We might as well call them Police Leaders. As Deming would say, we create the system people work in. If Police Leaders are required, then they are required, and for heaven sake, do not take them away until you put something better in place. That would be equally as stupid. There are more thoughts on this, but enough for now...

Sustainment

9/14/10...The common thread regarding what I hear from those on the Lean Journey is sustainment. TBM, a trainer of Lean, comments that they can teach the same tools to two different companies and end up with totally opposite results. Why? Sustainment is a result, but the root causes are numerous. Sustainment is the number one problem facing those on the Lean Journey, even TBM acknowledges this fact.

If the goal is to achieve 100% with a Lean Journey, then I imagine most companies would fall along the bell shaped curve regarding where they are. Is there something that can increase the odds of success? I think so. If companies are on average 40-50% successful in their Lean Journey sustainment, I believe when the hearts and minds of those doing the work are engaged, this number can jump to 60-70%, on average. A few exceptions could push it higher. Why? Creating vested interest and creating ownership of the process are at the core, but there also has to be more than just this. Creating interest and ownership is critical, but if the heart and soul is not along for the ride, then we end up back at false motivation once again. We fail to remember what it used to be like. Therefore once we are engaged in the process and things are getting done, time passes, then later, we fail to remember. Then our emptiness once again overtakes us because the heart and soul were left out of the process. Once again, we face false motivation.

Deming was a pioneer in his thinking, but what I believe he left out was the soul. If somehow we can combine both, then the answer towards sustaining the Lean Journey begins to reveal itself. Then as new tools present themselves to open our eyes to waste, it no longer matters what we call the journey, because the ending point sustains the motivation. What do we do then when some embrace the soul, some ignore the soul, and some reject the soul? Do those who embrace the soul, even in their flawed walk, point to something greater, and in turn bring the others along. Just like the ant who finds something sweet. What would happen if those who embrace the soul fast on the behalf of others? What would God's response be?

Gap Assessments

9/9/10...To begin a strategy, a gap analysis is, in my opinion, paramount. When looking at the culture of a company, the gap analysis will provide insight for the leadership team regarding present state. Sometimes it will not paint a pretty picture. Sometimes it will require brutal honesty and a letting go of pride to admit we may not be where we want to be. Some gap assessments are:

Lean Self Assessment

Quality Management System

Safety (VPP)

Employee Opinion Survey

This is not an all inclusive list, but I think they represent some key ones to consider. One of the takeaways of a gap assessment is establishing a benchmark rating. This can in turn create a rallying point or a focus regarding present state and desired future state. For whatever reason, people seem to rally around getting rated on something or achieving something. Where there is no measurable goal or objective to obtain, then it sometimes leads to floundering or apathy. With that said...I wonder if this also goes back to a focus on a false motivation. Once achieved, the energy level seems to dissipate, thus requiring another avenue to raise energy levels. Deming also warned us against the following:

Setting Arbitrary Goals

Management by Objective (MBO)

Hope for Instant Pudding

Short Termism

Another thread...I write something, it marinates for a while, and then a thought hits me. What would a spiritual gap assessment look like? There are ones out there I am sure. However, it would be very easy to make up one. Some categories might be; Bible study time, Prayer life, Journaling, Spritual Gift outreach, Small Group, Missional, Husband/Wife relationship, Friends, etc. If I put one of these together for myself, how would it look? Then I wonder, does my relationship with God then get replaced with a works based achievement plan? Does it narrow my life to where God cannot open me to bigger things? After all, God does not operate in a box, nor in a gap assessment. Alot of questions, alot of potential danger, alot of potential good.

False Motivation

9/8/10...What is the true motivator at work? Books upon books have been written, seminars taught, guru's consulted, and in the end more books will be written, more seminar's taught, and more guru's consulted. The more I think about it, the more it seems our self gets in the way of our motivation. Our motivations are false, therefore they do not sustain themselves.

Another thread...In this day and age, I am completely surprised that engaging the people that do the work to come up with better ways of doing the work does not occur. Autocracy in business still exist. In survival mode, I suppose it is necessary, but this should not be the norm. I wonder what universities or colleges are teaching our people. I wonder what plant managers are thinking. I wonder what upper management is thinking. Over and over I go back to The Deming Dimension and appreciate more and more the contribution he presented to the world, only to be forgotten, ignored, or lost in translation. I am constantly amazed at how people suddenly change from angry, frustrated employees to congenial, lets get it done employees, when a structure is in place to tap into their brains. But...is it sustainable or is it just another false motivation.

I go back to the Bible and the stories of the Israelites who quickly forgot all the great things God did for them, over and over again. Not sure if I see a parallel here yet or not to what I just wrote but the thought continues to nag me as though I need to dig in the dirt a little more to uncover the root. Just as quickly my thoughts go to some other buzzwords.

False Motivation

Program of the Month

Which Program?

% Actual vs % Desired

The Year of the Jubilee

Continual Renewal

Never Satisfied

Never at Peace

Start of the Blog

9/7/10...Because of the fall, we are meant to work in toil, and yet, God also tells us we should glorify Him in our toil. This is my attempt. It seems I continually struggle with compartmentalizing God in my personal versus work life. Somehow I need to integrate this and point to Him. I am not sure where this page is going to go but my plan is to keep an ongoing journal of toil thoughts. In the end what you may be reading is a seed with a sprout yet to be determined, we shall see. What I do know is if I do not start watering the seed, nothing will happen.

Where do I start? Officially my job titles have evolved from Graphic Specialist, Printing Department Manager, Inkroom Manager, Plant Manager, Vice President of Quality, Technical Director, to Continuous Improvement/Quality Assurance Manager. There is a spiritual DNA thread here leading to a path I may not see as of yet. The buzzwords throughout my career are the following:

Total Quality Management

The Deming Dimension

Improvement Teams

Process Behavior Charts

Team Dynamics Training

Self Directed Work Teams

Food Packaging Safety System

ISO Quality Management System

Six Sigma

Lean Management System

How does this now define me? Hmmm...that is the question or is it. How does this now define me regarding how I point my toil towards the God I love? That is probably a better question.

So now, it is time to explore this journey, both past, present, and into a future unknown.