Lean Mentor International

19/05/2014

I am currently over in Reykjavik at the Lean Island conference
What an amazing country and environment
Been whale watching an volcano visiting the last few days
Now the fun and adventure needs to be put aside to focus time to prepare my talk and workshop

20/09/2013

The evolvement of lean over the last 80 years has a lot to thank Eiji Toyoda for. He leaves a lasting and powerful legacy

http://www.leanmentorinternational.com/_blog/Lean_Mentor_International_Blog/post/eiji-toyoda-leaves-us-a-powerful-legacy/

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11/08/2013

Is your organisation customer focused?
My view is this, many organisations are more focused on themselves, on what they can get, on how they can win more customers or on how they can reduce their own cost to gain more profit.
A true customer focused organisation is more interested and orientated towards what the can give. I don't mean giving away products or services, but on how they can give higher and higher value in their products and services
A true customer focused organisation, starts with creating customer - supplier arrangements and relationships within the organisation, from process to process, from department to department and from the leadership and management to their employees, yest that right, the employees are really customers of the management.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=37987&item=262100054&type=member&commentID=153794314&trk=hb_ntf_LIKED_GROUP_DISCUSSION_COMMENT_YOU_CREATED

11/08/2013

The more transparent you make the business or operation, the more you can involve and encourage people to contribute to both continuous improvement and in solving problems.
I always encourage, well demand actually that they set up performance centres that have visual displays of the vision, purpose, trends, targets, status and top issues or challenges for that area.

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=4344386&item=264456700&type=member&commentID=155871098&trk=hb_ntf_COMMENTED_ON_GROUP_DISCUSSION_YOU_COMMENTED_ON

01/08/2013

My view is this, many organisations are more focused on themselves, on what they can get, on how they can win more customers or on how they can reduce their own cost to gain more profit.
A true customer focused organisation is more interested and orientated towards what the can give. I don't mean giving away products or services, but on how they can give higher and higher value in their products and services
A true customer focused organisation, starts with creating customer - supplier arrangements and relationships within the organisation, from process to process, from department to department and from the leadership and management to their employees, yest that right, the employees are really customers of the management. Anyone who has been studying Peter Senge's thinking and watched the most successful organisations grow and establish themselves will agree that the New Leaders Work is supporting and leading the organisation to be successful by focusing on its employees and enabling them to think, take control, become empowered and make changes and improvements to their work and the processes around them
It doesn't surprise me that in this day and age, with all the evidence around us about customer orientation, people focus and inconsistent leadership, many organisations still do not understand how to create a customer focused organisation.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130604134550-284615-15-statistics-that-should-change-the-business-world-but-haven-t

It still surprises me, even in this day and age, how many people still need convincing that improving the Customer Experience will generate revenue and save costs. As I read this great blog the other

01/08/2013

We are in challenging times, time probably the most scarce resource for leaders & managers, it's so important to find ways to leverage & invest time on activities bringing the greatest impact in your role. This useful article, a useful perspective on the psychology & brain impact of time.
We created several programs for our clients on Releasing Time to Lead & Creating Capacity to Manage, specifically to help managers get back time so they could focus on engaging more with their people http://lnkd.in/8CEuQr

Build your Brain to Lead - Learn how to build your brain to last for the long haul.

05/06/2013

Was David Hume, the Scottish philosopher the real founder of today's business thinking and possibly Toyota's TPS?

He explored and developed much of his thinking around The Scientific Method (adopted by Toyota in its PDCA, Hoshin & Problem Solving Approach) and studied Gallilao, Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton who all championed and used Empirical Data as the basis of all knowledge

He was certainly thinking of the future and our understanding now of the value of learning organisations, when he wrote "The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so far, to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind"

Hhmmmm.....

04/06/2013

Great debate on linked in around "Respect for People" and what does it really mean
I feel that both of Toyota's pillars of Respect for People and Teamwork, are, outside of Toyota very much mis guided, misunderstood and fundamentally flawed.

I find myself helping lots of organisations over the last 26 years, that have Respect for People, Our People are our Most Valueable Asset, Mutual Respect and We Value our People and What they Do - as part of their guiding principles, values or even in their mission.
Unfortunately in many cases this is just corporate B*$$~ #*t, and there is little integrity in how "Respect for People" ideal is both executed or lived by many managers. In fact it is one of the first areas I will focus on in understanding how an organisation lives and demonstrates its values, if they want to really create a lean / learning organisation.

Respect for People is much more than treating people as you would expect them to treat you "The Golden Rule"
It is much more than lean thinking, but it has its roots in high performing teams and continuous improvement.
It is even more than servant leadership, the style of management that focuses on treating members as valued collaborators and contributors in a continuously improving culture.
When I was at Toyota and spent time with my mentors in Japan and whilst designing and delivering their Member Development Program, this is my understanding of "Respect for People"

It is the belief that the company will succeed on the engagement and contribution of all members in continually improving how their work is carried out.
That people can only add value and succeed when the whole organisation is focused on and supporting them to be successful in their roles, desiging the production systems, facility and equipment systems, management systems, HR systems and the supply systems so that people can optimise their process and maintain their own standardised work.
That people need education and opportunities for continual development and be encouraged and inspired in their creativity for solving problems and making improvements.
Whilst work can be boring and repetitive, it is the empowerment of members to stop the line, pull the andon for assistance, supported in problem solving and challenged in their creativity that helps them express their skills, ideas and personal growth.
Members are fairly compensated for individual contributions and that job satisfaction and security is one of the core goals

Whilst I was at Toyota one of the guiding principles was
"Foster a corporate culture that enhances individual creativity and teamwork value, while honouring mutual trust and respect between labour and management"
Interesting terms "labour and management, one that brings attention to how Toyota corporate thought, and one that western organisations love to cite, but is also a difficult direct translation from Japanese, a common element of Toyota's systems is in the translation
The Toyota Way quotes "
"We respect others, make every effort to understand each other, take responsibility and do our best to build mutual trust" This is respect for all stakeholders, race, culture, religion, ethics etc. Mutual trust and Mutual Responsibility, expected from all members. Sincere communication, open and clear, transparent and unambiguous.
My experience was that there was a genuine respect for people and we all belived that the success of the business is created by individual efforts and good teamwork

I could talk about much more but it would fill several pages.
I won't apologise for such a long post and thank you Norman for causing me to think this through

26/04/2013

Taiichi Ohno lived and lead by a few fundamental principles

1) Learn at the gemba - best training is always hands on
2) The teacher must stay ahead of the student in their learning - he was an obsessive learner and experimenter, always learning and improving himself at the gemba
3) Be a touch coach with high standards - he was very demanding and was always looking for perfection and someones best efforts
4) Love your students - his total focus was the growth and development of his students, whilst he rarely complimented, he valued and loved his students and would always gather them around to share his experiences and coach them in developing their thinking
5) Always be passionate, even obsessed with kaizen - passion and effort will always rub off on your students, as will any lack of passion

There are many stories from Ohno's students who will fondly relate of how his teachings positively changed their lives

26/04/2013

Taiichi Ohno never got angry with what he called "the workers" or the people adding the value in the business, BUT he did get very angry with supervisors and managers, even yelling at them out in the business, this was his way of getting his message through, of helping them and shocking then to really see what was happening in their business.
He firmly believed that managers must lead by example and engage with their people in identifying, seeing and understanding the impact of waste in the system.
When he saw a manager walk past what was obvious waste or a clear standard abnormality, Ohno would always bring this immediately to the attention of that manager.
Ohno was a genius at guiding people to new ways of looking at things
"Whatever name you may give our system, there are parts of it that are so far removed from generally accepted ideas (common sense) that if you do it only half way, it can actually make things worse. If you are going to do TPS, you must do it all the way. You need to change the way you think and what you see. You need to change how you look at things"
Taiichi Ohno