Always learning

Employ your time improving yourself by other men's writings,
so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for.

 - Socrates.

Competitive Advantage

The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.

 - Arie De Geus

Inspirational Leadership

The ability to really change organisations lays with the senior team. We've all heard of the need for a "burning platform" as an ignition for change - put who at the top will "admit to failure" if a burning platform exists. 

We're immediately into a conundrum, which locks most management teams into continuing with what they've always done - after all, it got them into their succesful senior management positions in the first place.

It takes a great leader with real courage to see this, work on the failures, learn from mistakes, to implement fundamental change, and reach for new levels of success. These leaders are few and far between.

The question we should ask is how can we create more inspirational leaders?


Read more on LinkedIn

The difference between investing in people and training

Toyota may well train their employees, but the real investment is allowing these employees to engage their brains at work - giving them time and space to make continuous improvements. And yes, they may well need a little help in learning how to do this.

The "investment" here is time away from immediate productive work - which in the short term results in cost. But time taken today, saves time for the future, and the return on investment is achieved.

This requires a long term view. When the pressure is on, especially in an economic downturn, we look for the simple ways to cut costs - training budgets, biscuits in the meeting rooms, and a general reduction in investment. In a flash, we begin to move in the wrong direction through the Deming cycle - quality drops, costs increase, competitiveness decreases.

In difficult times, we must re-double our efforts in improving quality, not cut it out - and it starts with making sure the whole team know where they're heading, fully focussed on purpose.

See the full story in LinkedIn.

No one will ever understand Lean Systems Thinking

There is always more to learn - and when it comes to understanding the work place from a Lean Systems Thinking perspective, new learning seems to change the learning of yesterday. May be because there are always new ways to improve, and each situation has it's own unique set of circumstances.

This is a good article from Bill Trudell on Relentless Excellence - click here.

Kotter's 8 Steps to Transformation

You've decided you need to change - there's a problem, and it's got to stop.

You now understand the true purpose of the organisation - so you know where you're aiming and why.

You've understood the end-to-end process - and realise it's broken.

You now have two decisions:

• What method do you use to design the work? - the technical design.
• What method do you use to change the people process? - the social design.

I often wonder if these two questions are ever fully considered at the beginning of a transformation programme.  Do people realise there are ways to ensure the socio-technical systems design is the right one for them?  Are there really ways to ensure that the work is designed in a way guaranteed for success - scientifically? Do we really consider how people in the system might behave and react to change?  Do we recognise the difference between the work design, and the people that work in the system?

What Kotter offers is an approach to consider when designing your change programme to ensure everyone understands the process, and is ready to act to ensure success.

To read more:

Click here for the Wikipedia article.

Click here for Mindtools website that offers a great perspective.

Click here for further Kotter related blog on 595or.

Pick a hat!

It's easy to get stuck in a rut, or "turn native" when faced with a problem, a way of working, or when a decision is needed.

And when working in groups, you may also sometimes wonder where others' viewpoints are and where their suggestions (which may not always appear helpful) are coming from.

Edward do Bono suggests taking a number of different view points when in this type of situation as a way to guide the thinking process.

• White - just consider the facts
• Red - whats your gut feel
• Black - apply logic to the flaws and problems
• Yellow - apply logic to the good things
• Green - be creative, what else could happen
• Blue - think about the thinking process.

Read more at Wikipedia - and there's plenty on the web - search for de Bono thinking hats