Archive for November, 2006

The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace, and today’s great idea may be tomorrow’s anachronism. The learning roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused and remind the organization not to be so smug about what you know. People who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own worldview, and in doing so, they remain open to new insights every day.

1. The Anthropologist brings new learning and insights into the organization by observing human behavior and developing a deep understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with products, services, and spaces. When an Ideo human-factors person camps out in a hospital room for 48 hours with an elderly patient undergoing surgery, she is living the life of the anthropologist and helping to develop new health-care services.

2. The Experimenter prototypes new ideas continuously, learning by a process of enlightened trial and error. The Experimenter takes calculated risks to achieve success through a state of “experimentation as implementation.” When BMW bypassed all its traditional advertising channels and created theater-quality short films for bmwfilms.com, no one knew whether the experiment would succeed. Its runaway success underscores the rewards that flow to Experimenters.

3. The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures, then translates those findings and revelations to fit the unique needs of your enterprise. An open-minded Japanese businesswoman was taken with the generic beer she found in a U.S. supermarket. She brought the idea home, and it eventually became the “no brand” Mujirushi Ryohin chain, a 300-store, billion-dollar retail empire. That’s the leverage of a Cross-Pollinator.

The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals who are savvy about the often counterintuitive process of how organizations move ideas forward. At Ideo, we used to believe that the ideas should speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler, the Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and resources. Those who adopt these organizing roles don’t dismiss the process of budget and resource allocation as “politics” or “red tape.” They recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.

4. The Hurdler knows that the path to innovation is strewn with obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming or outsmarting those roadblocks. When the 3M worker who invented masking tape decades ago had his idea initially rejected, he refused to give up. Staying within his $100 authorization limit, he signed a series of $99 purchase orders to pay for critical equipment needed to produce the first batch. His perseverance paid off, and 3M has reaped billions of dollars in cumulative profits because an energetic Hurdler was willing to bend the rules.

5. The Collaborator helps bring eclectic groups together, and often leads from the middle of the pack to create new combinations and multidisciplinary solutions. Not long ago, Kraft Foods and Safeway sat down to figure out how to knock down the traditional walls between supplier and retailer. One strategy–a way to streamline the transfer of goods from one to the other–didn’t just save labor and carrying costs. The increased efficiency sent sales of Capri Sun juice drinks, for example, soaring by 167% during one promotion.

6. The Director not only gathers together a talented cast and crew but also helps to spark their creative talents. When a creative Mattel executive assembles an ad hoc team of designers and project leaders, sequesters them for 12 weeks, and ends up with a new $100 million girls’-toy platform in three months, she is a role model for Directors everywhere.

The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People in these roles are highly visible, so you’ll often find them right at the heart of the action.

7. The Experience Architect designs compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customers’ latent or expressed needs. When Cold Stone Creamery turns the preparation of a frozen dessert into a fun, dramatic performance, it is designing a successful new customer experience. The premium prices and marketing buzz that follow are rewards associated with playing the role of the Experience Architect.

8. The Set Designer creates a stage on which innovation team members can do their best work, transforming physical environments into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude. Companies such as Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic recognize that the right office environments can help nourish and sustain a creative culture. When the Cleveland Indians discovered a renewed winning ability in a brand-new stadium, they demonstrated the value of the Set Designer. Organizations that tap into the power of the Set Designer sometimes discover remarkable performance improvements that make all the space changes worthwhile.

9. The Caregiver builds on the metaphor of a health-care professional to deliver customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service. Good Caregivers anticipate customer needs and are ready to look after them. When you see a service that’s really in demand, there’s usually a Caregiver at the heart of it. Best Cellars, a retailer that takes the mystery and snobbery out of wine and makes it simple and fun, is demonstrating the Caregiver role–while earning a solid profit at the same time.

10. The Storyteller builds both internal morale and external awareness through compelling narra-tives that communicate a fundamental human value or reinforce a specific cultural trait. Companies from Dell to Starbucks have lots of corporate legends that support their brands and build camaraderie within their teams. Medtronic, celebrated for its product innovation and consistently high growth, reinforces its culture with straight-from-the-heart storytelling–patients’ firsthand narratives of how the products changed or even saved their lives.

IDEO’s Innovation Ideas

Design guru Tom Kelley shares his secrets in his new book The Ten Faces of Innovation. Here are some of the best

In The Ten Faces of Innovation, Thomas Kelley of design firm IDEO introduces the 10 roles that people can play in an organization to help foster innovation and new ideas. In between his descriptions of personas like the Collaborator and the Hurdler, he drops lots of other useful advice, from how to supercharge a brainstorming session to how to build teams that work. BusinessWeek has collected the best of those tips below:

Seven Secrets of Effective Brainstorming

1. Sharpen your focus. Focusing on a specific latent customer need or one step of the customer journey can often spark a good ideation session.

2. Mind the playground rules. Go for quantity, encourage wild ideas, be visual, defer judgement, one conversation at a time.

3. Number your ideas. Numbering your ideas motivates participants, sets a pace, and adds a little structure. A hundred ideas per hour is usually a sign of a good, fluid brainstorm.

4. Jump and build. You may have a flurry of ideas, and then they start to get repetitive or peter out. That’s when the facilitator may need to suggest switching gears.

5. Remember to use the space. Write and draw your concepts with markers on giant Post-Its stuck to every vertical surface.

6. Stretch first. Ask attendees to do a little homework on the subject the night before. Play a zippy word game to clear the mind and set aside everyday distractions.

7. Get physical. At IDEO, we keep foam core, tubing, duct tape, hot-melt glue guns, and other prototyping basics on hand to sketch, diagram, and make models.

How to Build an Innovation Lab

1. Make room for 15 to 20 people. Even if the core project teams will be small, you’ll want to share the results (and even work in process) with lots of your colleagues.

2. Dedicate the space to innovation. Your creative efforts need to live on without scheduling or moving.

3. Leave ample wall space for sketch boards, maps, pictures, and other engaging visuals. Don’t use delicate surfaces or precious materials that would inhibit maximum creative use of all vertical and horizontal surfaces.

4. Locate your lab in a place convenient to most team members. Make it near enough for even part-time team members to drop in…but far enough away so they can’t hear their desk phone ringing.

5. Foster an abundance mentality. Stock the lab with an oversupply of innovation staples: prototyping kits, Post-Its of every size and color, masking tape, blank storyboard frames, fat-tipped felt markets for drawing, X-Acto knives, and so on.

How to Observe with the Skill of an Anthropologist

1. Practice the Zen principle of “beginner’s mind” — they have the wisdom to observe with a truly open mind.

2. Embrace human behavior with all its surprises. Don’t judge, empathize.

3. Draw inferences by listening to your intuition. Don’t be afraid to draw on your own instincts when developing hypotheses about the emotional underpinnings of observed human behavior.

4. Seek out epiphanies through a sense of “vuja de.” Vuja de is the opposite of déjà vu. It’s a sense of seeing something for the first time, even if you have witnessed it many times before.

5. Search for clues in the trash bin. Look for insights where they’re least expected — before customers arrive, after they leave, even in the garbage. Look beyond the obvious, and seek inspiration in unusual places.

How to Cross-Pollinate

1. Show and tell. The IDEO Tech Box, a collection of hundreds of promising technologies, is a systematic approach to collecting and sharing what we know.

2. Hire people with diverse backgrounds. Sift through the job applications looking for someone who will expand your talent pool or stretch the firm’s capabilities.

3. Create multidisciplinary project rooms and create lots of space for accidental or impromptu meetings among people from disparate groups.

4. Cross cultures and geographies. A well-blended international staff seems to cross-pollinate naturally from other cultures.

5. Host a weekly speaker series. Nearly every week, a world-class thinker shows up to share their thoughts with us.

6. Learn from visitors. Listen to what clients or prospective clients say about their industry, their company, their point of view.

7. Seek out diverse projects. A broad range of client work allows you to cross-pollinate from one world to another.

How to Build Better Teams

1. Coach more, direct less. Good executives and managers inspire their staffs to develop their confidence and skills so they can seize critical “big game” opportunities.

2. Celebrate passing. Break teams into smaller groups of three to six to increase the number of triangles where team members can pass ideas and responsibilities.

3. Everybody touches the ball. Find one or more responsibilities for every player.

4. Teach overlapping skills. Create opportunities for team members to assume nontraditional roles and push forward initiatives. Find out team members’ unique passions and interests and put them to work.

5. Less dribbling, more goals. Encourage the sharing of ideas and initiatives. Solo dribbling can give a project the critical first push, but then you need teamwork to bring a project home.

How to Set Expectations — the Seven Questions Every Company Should Ask Itself Before Launching an Innovation Program

1. How will your company define a successful innovation program?

2. How will your organization fund the innovation process?

3. What corporate resources will be available to support your effort?

4. How often will the stakeholder groups meet to review your innovation propositions?

5. How many task teams will you sponsor yearly? How often will you put together these teams?

6. How much logistical support will be given to your innovation staff?

7. What rewards or recognition can people expect for participating in this program?

evolution of quality management: An overview of the TQM literature

Total Quality…
The success of Japanese competitors in North American and European markets has long been attributed to the superior quality of their products (Feigenbaum, 1984; Lee & Ebrahimpour, 1985; Mito 1982). Various initiatives have been proposed to enable Western businesses to attain these levels of quality, including quality circles, total quality control, and, most recently, total quality management (TQM).

This paper is based on an extensive literature review of the area of TQM. Early approaches to quality management are reviewed first. The evolution of TQM from these approaches is then summarized. The diffusion of TQM through various parts of the economy is described, along with the problems and criticisms that were made during the process. Lastly, the aspects of TQM that have received attention in the academic literature are summarized, and areas that could benefit from further study are suggested.

Early Quality Management Initiatives

Formal efforts to improve quality management have been undertaken in North America since the late 1970s, in response to increasing competition, particularly from Japanese firms. The first step for many North American companies was to break the pattern of assigning quality management to a quality department, which had reduced the quality function to one of control, largely through inspection. The deficiencies of such an approach were noted by people such as Juran and Deming shortly after the Second World War, but have only begun to be addressed in North America in the last two decades.

The first attempts to improve the management of quality used quality circles to attack the need for training in traditional quality control techniques and for employee involvement. Quality circles were not generally very successful in Europe or North America (Hayward & Dale, 1984; Hill, 1991).

In assessing the failure of quality circles, two requirements of a successful approach to quality management became clearer. First, to be effective, quality management could not remain the concern of the production department, but must be the concern of all departments. It was also recognized that obtaining the full benefits of statistical quality control even within a production department required a change in the traditional role of the employee. This change is variously labelled as employee involvement, participative management, or empowerment (Haley, 1985; Stein, 1991). The change recognizes that it is not sufficient to train groups of people in traditional quality control techniques. They also need training in broader, problem-solving methods, and in team management skills.

The next step in the development of quality management was to address the need for quality control to be a company-wide exercise. The concept of company-wide quality control, often known as total quality control, was diffusing into North America by the early 1980s (Furukawa, Ikeshoji, & Ohmori, 1984; Hattori, 1984; Karatsu, 1982). This was the approach used by many companies in the mid-eighties. The use of total quality control in areas other than the production department brought to light problems in defining quality since quality management had moved outside the manufacturing plant walls, beyond the product and its direct production processes (Tenner, 1991).

TQM uses the idea of a customer focus, on either an internal or an external customer, to provide a framework for assessing quality. As the need for a focus on the customer and the important role of employee involvement in successful quality management became clear, the term TQM began to replace total quality control. The concept of a customer focus, and the development of traditional quality control techniques for use outside the production area, made TQM applicable to both service industries (Hattori, 1984; Kunishi, 1984; Milakovich, 1991) and government agencies (Hyde, 1992a, 1992b; McCabe & Lewin, 1992). It was adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense in the mid-eighties (McCarthy & Elshennawy, 1991), and spread particularly rapidly in the healthcare field in the U.S. at the same time (McCarthey, 1991; McConnell, 1992; Rago & Reid, 1991).

Gurus and Awards

In North America, the so-called quality gurus have been instrumental in diffusing TQM (Jackson, 1990), while in the U.K., the government has taken the initiative (Lascelles & Dale, 1989b). The best known proponents of quality management are Deming, Juran, Crosby, and Feigenbaum. Unlike earlier quality initiatives, TQM is not tied to one particular author, whereas the quality control circle concept is attributed to Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, of the University of Tokyo (Juran, 1967), and total quality control is strongly associated with A.V. Feigenbaum, who wrote about it as long ago as the early 1950s, under the title Quality Control: Principles, Practice and Administration.

Three authors, W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Philip Crosby, are regarded as the philosophers or gurus of quality. A brief biography of each man and a critical comparison of their different approaches is given in Evans and Lindsay (1993, ch. 4). Deming (1986) calls for a complete change in corporate culture in order to achieve high levels of quality. His view is that poor quality comes from variability, and that most sources of variability can only be affected by changing systems that are management’s responsibility. Deming’s approach calls for a radical change in the roles of both managers and employees to induce more cooperation and “drive out fear.” Juran’s (1981) approach is directed at a firm’s management, and is much more compatible with current North American management practices. Like Deming’s approach, it also assumes that the major opportunities for improving quality lie in management’s hands, and that employees are constrained by systems that they do not control. However, Juran advocates specific steps for improving quality–such as gathering data to identify where improvement is required, using Pareto analysis, diagnosing the cause of a problem, and identifying the solution–that do not call for alterations to managers’ philosophies. Crosby’s (1979) approach is quite different. He focuses on altering attitudes and behaviours of the workforce, since he attributes quality problems to a lack of standards and attention to detail among employees.

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the seven wastes

Over-production
Waiting time
Transportation
Processing
Inventory
Motion
Scrap in manufactured products or any type of business.
By eliminating waste (muda), quality is improved, production time and costs are reduced.

To solve the problem of waste, Lean Manufacturing has several “tools” at its disposal. These include constant process analysis (kaizen), “pull” production (by means of kanban) and mistake-proofing (poka-yoke).

Most experts now agree, however, that Lean Manufacturing is not just a toolset. Rather it is a holistic, comprehensive, enterprise-wide program designed to be integrated into the organization’s core strategy. In addition, experts in this field believe that philosophy-based Lean Manufacturing strategy is the most effective way to launch and sustain lean activities. The so called “Toyota Way,” popularized by Dr. Jeffrey Liker’s book of the same name, emphasizes the creation of the right kind of environment in which to grow and support Lean Thinking.

Key lean manufacturing principles include:

Pull processing: products are pulled from the consumer end, not pushed from the production end

Perfect first-time quality – quest for zero defects, revealing & solving problems at the source

Waste minimization – eliminating all activities that do not add value & safety nets, maximize use of scarce resources (capital, people and land)

Continuous improvement – reducing costs, improving quality, increasing productivity and information sharing

Flexibility – producing different mixes or greater diversity of products quickly, without sacrificing efficiency at lower volumes of production

Building and maintaining a long term relationship with suppliers through collaborative risk sharing, cost sharing and information sharing arrangements.
Lean is basically all about getting the right things, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity while minimizing waste and being flexible and open to change.

Lean thinking got its name from a 1990’s best seller called “The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production”. The book chronicles the transitions of automobile manufacturing from craft production to mass production to lean production.

The seminal book “Lean Thinking” by Womack and Jones, introduced five core concepts:

Specify value in the eyes of the customer
Identify the value stream and eliminate waste
Make value flow at the pull of the customer
Involve and empower employees
Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.

Finally, there is an understanding that Toyota’s mentoring process (loosely called Senpai and Kohai relationship) so strongly supported in Japan is one of the ways to foster Lean Thinking up and down the organizational structure. The closest equivalent to Toyota’s mentoring process is the concept of Lean Sensei, which encourages companies, organizations, and teams to seek out outside, third-party “Sensei” that can provide unbiased advice and coaching, as indicated in Jim Womack’s Lean Thinking book.

Experienced kaizen members at Toyota, for example, often bring up the concept of “Senpai, Kohai,” and “Sensei,” because they strongly feel that transferring of Toyota culture down and across the Toyota can only happen when more experienced Toyota Sensei continuously coaches and guides the less experienced lean champions. Unfortunately, most lean practitioners in North America focuses on the tools and methodologies of lean, versus the philosophy and culture of lean. Some exceptions include Shingijitsu Consulting out of Japan, which is made up of ex-Toyota managers, and Lean Sensei International based in North America, which coaches lean through Toyota-style cultural experience.

Open Book Management

Open-Book Management (OBM) is almost certainly the best communication approach organisations can adopt to dramatically improve productivity. Despite being around for about 20 years, and being enormously successful in many American private and public sector organisations, OBM has not really achieved the level of popularity it deserves, especially outside the US.

The concept involves all employees understanding the financial objectives and progress of the organisation and trusting them to manage the business by “the numbers”. It sounds simple, but in practice OBM requires a total change in the way an organisation is run. Many challenges will need to be overcome. For example, some managers will not wish to give sensitive financial information to employees; and in listed companies there may be concerns about the release of market-sensitive information before the stock exchange is notified.

Employees at all levels need to be trained to understand the finances of the organisation, in particular the measures applicable to their own business units. Concepts such as operating income, gross margin, inventory turns, billable hours, cash flows and net revenue are not likely to be familiar to many employees.

Employees are trusted (“empowered”) to run the business in a way that goes beyond normal employee involvement. Communication about the progress of the business is largely about planning and achievement of the numbers.

A challenge of Open-Book Management, particularly in the public sector, is that if employees are responsible for dramatically improving the financial performance of their organisation, then they usually expect to get some share of the proceeds as a reward (“skip the praise, give us the raise” Jack Stack). This is typically done by profit or gain-sharing schemes. But in some cases, the opportunity to run their business units most productively will be enough reward for employees.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of Open-Book Management, download a few articles or read Jack Stack’s book (which some regard as “the best business book ever written”). The history of the concept alone is fascinating.

Resources on Open-Book Management

Books

The Great Game of Business, Jack Stack, Currency Doubleday, 1992, paperback edition from the originator of the concept – “unlocking the power and profitability of open-book management” $US17

Open-Book Management: The Coming Business Revolution, John Case, Harper Business, 1995, paperback 1996, $US15

The Open-Book Experience: Lessons from over 100 Companies Who Successfully Transformed Themselves, John Case, Perseus, 1999, $US14

The Power of Open-Book Management: Releasing the true potential of people’s minds, hearts and hands, John P Schuster et al, Wiley, 1996, $US25

Creating an ‘Open Book’ Organisation : Where Employees Think & Act Like Business Partners, Thomas J McCoy, Amacom, 1996, $US55

Open-Book Management: Creating an Ownership Culture, Thomas L Barton et al, Financial Executives Research Foundation, 1998 (paperback $US50)

Guidebooks

Open-Book Management – Getting Started, Cathy Ivancic and Jim Bado, Crisp, Menlo Park, Calif., USA 1997 (Fifty Minute Series Book) $US11 (simple introductory workbook)

The Open-Book Management Field Book, John P Schuster et al, Wiley, 1997, $US35

The Great Game of Business Methodology, six implementation modules (e.g. Appraisal Module), The Great Game of Business Inc., Springfield, Missouri, USA (what you’ll need if your serious about implementing OBM)

Articles

Opening the Books, John Case, Harvard Business Review, March-April 1997 (“companies of all sizes are discovering the value of open-book management”)

Open Book Management – How companies are enhancing performance through financial openness, articles from James Shaffer and Ardith Rotz, Strategic Communication Management, April-May 1997

Newsletter

The Open-Book Management Newsletter, from Open-Book Management, Inc., John Case (editor), Boston, Mass., USA

Websites

Great Game Associates, Lakewood, Colorado, USA (site of authorized distributor of Great Game of Business resources including awareness seminars, coaches, methodology modules). Great Games Associates

Inc Magazine (inc.com) Guide: Open-Book Management

Basic Financial Statements serves as an introduction to financial statements and financial statement concepts. Some of the concepts covered are the accounting equation, double entry accounting, and debits and credits. Also, two basic financial statements—the balance sheet and the income statement—are introduced.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is an integrated, disciplined proven approach for improving business performance. Six Sigma.us is a leading consulting and certification firm supporting companies implementing the Six Sigma Process by offering Six Sigma Training and Six Sigma Certification.

DMAIC stands for Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control. There a step zero before you start and it is six sigma leadership.

Six Sigma is management methodology driven by data.
Six Sigma focuses on projects that will produce measurable business results. For example GE Capital saved $2 Billion in 1999 using Six Sigma.
Six Sigma is based upon improving processes by understanding and controlling variation, thus improving predictability of business processes.
Six Sigma is not just training. Each participant, called a “Belt” (either Black or Green) is required to have a leadership approved project prior to training.
Six Sigma Champions

* Unclutter your life — get rid of stuff you no longer need
* Clear your calendar of unwanted and unnecessary activities — learn to say no
* Be sure to keep your free time free
* Choose to take time to do things that keep you inspired
* Return to the simplicity of nature — spend time outdoors
* Keep a distance between you and your critics
* Take some time for your health
* Don’t forget to play
* Slow down
* Remove any debts from your life
* Take your attention off what everything costs, but instead focus on their values
* Remember your spirit — who you really are