What checks can we install to ensure that the information we send to our downstream colleagues is 100% complete and accurate? What error-proofing tools can we create? It's not that hard to insert data validation tools into a spreadsheet or a web form. Checklists and templates are other tools that can help ensure built-in quality.

"I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special." (Dr. Edward Deming)

What's more important… going to gemba (the place the work is done) or being able to performance basic and/or advanced statistical analysis?

Couldn't resist posting an article that links Bruce Lee with productivity!

This morning I had a ton of work to do, and I felt the anxiety building, the moment I woke up and started thinking about all that work. Instead of getting moving, I watched my anxiety. It's an interesting feeling of rising panic, of adrenaline shooting from my chest outward. My mind was racing, my heart was beating fast. This happens to me from time to time - I feel like I have so much to do, and I start to worry. I've learned to deal with it, so that while it still comes up, I now have trust that I'll be fine. And that, in turn, helps it to go away sooner. So what do you do when you're overwhelmed and have a crapload of work to do?

Here's what I did that worked, in hopes that it might help you if these feelings ever come up..

Great short statement on the power of standards

One can learn a lot about Poka Yoke and Human Errors. This is a story about what a coffee cup taught me about how poor design in our products and systems invite human error.

Some cool apps for helping us get better. I use Lift.

Good problem solvers use a combination of intuition and logic to come up with their solutions. Intuition has more to do with the emotional and instinctive side of us and logic is more related to our cognition and thinking. Good problem solvers use both of these forces to get as much information as they can to come up with the best possible solution. In addition, they are reasonably open minded but logically skeptical.

BUT, lean principles in action are initiated, taught, coached, and reinforced by lean leaders largely through their behaviors within the context of the lean management system.

Toyota is famously credited for living by their "we don't build cars, we build people" motto but in fact this same sentiment can be traced back nearly a century ago to the Reverend Samuel Marquis, head of the Ford Motor Company's employee relations department, when he said: "Mr. Ford shoots about fifteen hundred cars out of the back door of his factory every day just to get rid of them. They are the by-products of his real business, which is the making of men."

The perseverance is what is so compelling to me.

But just as importantly, they'll help you overcome the fear of failure and fear of discomfort that's holding you back, that's keeping you from making positive changes in your life.

One of their techniques is the "project blitz." They put a team of engineers together (literally - they move their desks right next to each other), protect them from interruptions (they stretch police riot tape across the engineers' area so that no one can enter), and work exclusively on a single project until it's completed. Work flows from one engineer to another with no waiting and no distractions. They've realized, as I've written about before, that task switching is toxic to productivity.

Creative visual management can be found in any environment - and it doesn't cost anything.

I love the persistence of Kelly's story!

The other day, if I had taken the time to take one stair at a time, I probably would have stepped in just as the meeting began and wouldn't have scattered my papers.  If I'd taken the time to consider WHY I was running late and avoid those conditions next time, perhaps I'd have found out more about the root cause of my problem. Do you ever find yourself wanting to "take the stairs 2 at a time" to do a little more in your current role?  What helps you avoid this temptation?  Please share your thoughts with us.

Good advice for all of us.

Good article about problem solving.