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.