On Sunday morning I noticed a post on LinkedIn. It included a visual of a quote from an article, which included these words: “…it’s highly recommended that you leverage its placement to either the CEO or one of his direct
Category: Lean Thinking
What is the Improvement Kata?
I’m working on a series of articles to document my Kata learning journey.
This article, number three in the series, aims to explain the Improvement Kata, and how it can used to achieve big goals.
So what is Kata?
I’m working on a series of articles to document my Kata learning journey.
This article, number two in the series, aims to explain what Kata is, and where it came from.
My Journey to Kata
I’ve been immersed in the world of Continuous Improvement and Lean for most of the last 23 years. But only recently I discovered the missing linked in my practice – Toyota Kata.
This article gives some context to this, and is the first in a series documenting my journey.
How to SUPERCHARGE your Problem Solving – Part 3
Problem solving can be tricky, painful, and frankly a waste of time if you are trying to solve the wrong issue.
Properly defining your problem upfront is the key to success.
This article, the third in the series, takes you through the next key step to help you quickly and accurately clarify the problem – using data and facts to eliminate the problem of opinions.
On not being perfect
I haven’t written an article in a while, and this one explains why and what I have learnt from the experience.
Striving for perfection may well be one of the key principles of Lean, but sometimes, in some contexts, I think it can hold us back.
Thank you Karyn Ross, you got me started again.
Brilliant Books for CI Managers – Book 2
If you are a CI Manager, CI Practitioner or a Lean Leader, I’d guess you might have a few books on your desk.
Of course, there are the lean classics – Lean Thinking, The Toyota Way, The Goal – but I think there are also a number of other, less obvious, brilliant books which can be hugely valuable to you.
Next up is the brilliant Black Box Thinking by @MatthewSyed – a book about marginal gains and high performance.
How Drawing Toast can help you solve problems
Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the Journey to Excellence conference held in Manchester in the UK.
This is an annual conference, organized by True North Excellence, created to inspire through sharing best practice, building new networks, and experiencing best in class learning.
I delivered a workshop to around 75 delegates, titled ‘Solving the Biggest Problem with Problem Solving’ and I used Tom Wujec’s Draw Toast activity during the workshop.
How to SUPERCHARGE your problem solving – Part 2
In the first article in this series, I said that the primary thing that needs to be done to get you on the right track to solving a problem is to clearly define the problem.
I went on to suggest that the first stage in doing this should be to Go-Look-See-Ask – go where the problem is happening, look at the process, see what is happening, and ask questions to fully understand.
So, you’ve done that. And what should you do next?
3 Ways to Brainstorm Better
Brainstorming is a very useful and valuable tool when you need to generate ideas. I’d be willing to bet that all CI practitioners (and probably the majority of managers generally) have been in a brainstorming session at some point.
But are they always effective?
Do the creative, innovative ideas flow easily?
Not always.
How to Supercharge your Problem Solving
We’ve all been there. A problem has arisen and there is a room full of people trying to figure out a solution. But no-one really knows what’s happened. There is SOME data. And a whole lot of opinions. And feelings. And emotion. And you are going round and round in circles.