The Holidays are almost over, and we are faced with the daunting prospect of starting the new year a few pounds heavier and a few dollars poorer. During this time of the year, I have often committed to a New Year's resolution (or two). I start out with great expectations - if I can only do this "X" number of times in a row, it will become a habit! I set reminders on my smart phone, enlist my wife's help, and build "mutual accountability" relationships with friends.
Even after all that effort, I am often disappointed in myself as the resolution doesn't stick and the changes don't happen!
Common in the Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma worlds, Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continual improvement throughout all aspects of life.
At work, it implies that we "make room for the future". Commit to doing something everyday, or at least every week, that will improve the future. This is harder than it seems, as the concerns of everyday leadership and management tend to overwhelm us and make us focus on the tactical vs. the strategic. So it needs to become a commitment to Kaizen - make room to improve the future on a regular basis.
In the world of technical management, it may be as simple as improving or implementing a process. Or investing some time exploring a new technology. Or upgrading an IDE. Simple things can make a big difference, and they often don't take a lot of resources or time.
In my personal life, I tend to focus on incremental improvements that will make others happier. Or make their burdens lighter. Some examples in my life are doing dishes and laundry, cleaning up after I cook and keeping the cars filled with gas.
And some of my changes are enjoyable - like committing to reading the classics. Or learning a new song on my guitar. Or spending more quality time with my wife.
The point is - it's not a one-time, annual event. It is a commitment to continuous improvement. So, if you do make a New Year's resolution this year - resolve to commit to Kaizen!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Project Management: The Vasa
Have you ever worked on a project or at a company where you knew that things were headed in the wrong direction? How did you react? Did you have the nerve to tell the truth and confront management?
If you aren't aware of the Vasa, she is a beautiful Swedish ship that went down in the Baltic in 1628 on her maiden voyage. 333 years later, she was re-discovered. She has been fully recovered and is displayed in a museum in Stockholm ( http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ ).
When you see the ship, it is mind-boggling to think about the effort that it took to create it. Two years and hundreds (maybe thousands) of people working on it. The coordination of raw materials, skilled and non-skilled labor, and the myriad of details involved is amazing. And all in an age before power tools and Microsoft Project!.
But in spite of all the effort and attention to detail, the ship never made it past it's maiden voyage. It was towed along the water front to the southern side of the harbor, where 3 sails were set. Winds were not high and the sea was calm. As the Vasa emerged from the protective bay, a breeze caught her sails and she rolled to the port side. She recovered once as the sheets were cast off, but another gust rolled her onto her side and water rushed into the lower gun ports. She went down quickly, in front of thousands of on-lookers, taking approximately 50 people with her.
Years of effort and finances disappeared below the surface, a severe blow to Sweden's war effort and economy.
It did not have to happen. During a "rock test" after the ship was first floated, it was readily apparent that the ship was not stable (in a rock test, workers run back and forth across the beam of the ship). The Admiral refused to address the issue, saying "if only the King were here!".
Even prior to the rock test, there were certainly ship-builders (Dutch, "consulting engineers") that realized that there was a problem. I suspect many of the experienced ship builders and laborers knew that the ship was too narrow and top-heavy. Why didn't anyone speak up? The answer is apparent when you read the history of what happened after the ship went down; the King's response to the news was that "imprudence and negligence" were the cause of the disaster, and a full scale investigation was launched.
So the people around the King rightly judged that delivering the truth was risky.
How about you? Would you have confronted the issue and told the King? In retrospect, you would think that saving 50 lives would be worth the cost of confrontation.
What about your current environment? Are you willing to tell the truth and confront the facts? And if not, why not?
If you aren't aware of the Vasa, she is a beautiful Swedish ship that went down in the Baltic in 1628 on her maiden voyage. 333 years later, she was re-discovered. She has been fully recovered and is displayed in a museum in Stockholm ( http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ ).
When you see the ship, it is mind-boggling to think about the effort that it took to create it. Two years and hundreds (maybe thousands) of people working on it. The coordination of raw materials, skilled and non-skilled labor, and the myriad of details involved is amazing. And all in an age before power tools and Microsoft Project!.
But in spite of all the effort and attention to detail, the ship never made it past it's maiden voyage. It was towed along the water front to the southern side of the harbor, where 3 sails were set. Winds were not high and the sea was calm. As the Vasa emerged from the protective bay, a breeze caught her sails and she rolled to the port side. She recovered once as the sheets were cast off, but another gust rolled her onto her side and water rushed into the lower gun ports. She went down quickly, in front of thousands of on-lookers, taking approximately 50 people with her.
Years of effort and finances disappeared below the surface, a severe blow to Sweden's war effort and economy.
It did not have to happen. During a "rock test" after the ship was first floated, it was readily apparent that the ship was not stable (in a rock test, workers run back and forth across the beam of the ship). The Admiral refused to address the issue, saying "if only the King were here!".
Even prior to the rock test, there were certainly ship-builders (Dutch, "consulting engineers") that realized that there was a problem. I suspect many of the experienced ship builders and laborers knew that the ship was too narrow and top-heavy. Why didn't anyone speak up? The answer is apparent when you read the history of what happened after the ship went down; the King's response to the news was that "imprudence and negligence" were the cause of the disaster, and a full scale investigation was launched.
So the people around the King rightly judged that delivering the truth was risky.
How about you? Would you have confronted the issue and told the King? In retrospect, you would think that saving 50 lives would be worth the cost of confrontation.
What about your current environment? Are you willing to tell the truth and confront the facts? And if not, why not?
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Bad news should travel fast ....
As a leader, I am keenly aware that I need to know what is going on inside of my department and inside of the business. It's often easy to know about the positive things that are going on ... people naturally want to share their successes and victories. It is much more difficult to ferret out the darker side of the environment - mistakes, failures and errors - "bad news".
I always tell my teams, "Bad news should travel fast!", because, as a leader, I often have resources and options that may not be readily available to my team members. Additionally, I can help manage customer expectations by resetting delivery dates or negotiating a compromise. And, finally, I don't want to get blindsided by bad news from a CXO.
It is easy to say "Bad news should travel fast", but it is difficult to implement. The conduit that bad news travels upon is trust. In order to hear bad news, I need to engage with my team in a way that builds and maintains trust. If I drop the ball while managing my relationships within the team, I can easily lose their trust, and therefore be cut out of the information loop.
In the end, it's Leadership 101 as defined by John Maxwell. Invest in relationships, treat everyone with respect, be honest and expect honesty. And never, ever punish someone for bringing you the truth!
I always tell my teams, "Bad news should travel fast!", because, as a leader, I often have resources and options that may not be readily available to my team members. Additionally, I can help manage customer expectations by resetting delivery dates or negotiating a compromise. And, finally, I don't want to get blindsided by bad news from a CXO.
It is easy to say "Bad news should travel fast", but it is difficult to implement. The conduit that bad news travels upon is trust. In order to hear bad news, I need to engage with my team in a way that builds and maintains trust. If I drop the ball while managing my relationships within the team, I can easily lose their trust, and therefore be cut out of the information loop.
In the end, it's Leadership 101 as defined by John Maxwell. Invest in relationships, treat everyone with respect, be honest and expect honesty. And never, ever punish someone for bringing you the truth!
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