Tweddle Continuous Improvement

We can always use some good reference material.

I was recently working with a customer who works as a supervisor in a distribution operation.  She's new to lean and is tasked with developing her team to work autonomously to meet customer needs and continuously improve processes.  She asked, "How do I teach my team?"  It's a simple question, with a not-so-simple answer.  So, here are some thoughts on teaching others.  Keep in mind, I'm not trained to be a teacher, although I've facilitated many workplace training events.

Do one task, to completion, before moving on to the next.

Time management is not always all it's cracked up to be. Most people who follow time management programs find that they actually decrease their productivity and effectiveness. If you want to get things done, focus less on managing time and more on yourself and the things you're working to accomplish.

You already know about time "batching," but when those batch periods slide all over your schedule, they aren't much good to you.

Your character is determined by your attitude and how you spend your time, and so is happiness. Stop chasing the things that you think will make you happy, and start realizing that your peace and happiness are entirely up to you.

Four kinds of behavior account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness.

Do you have a habit you're struggling to break? Sometimes it can feel impossible. We've all been there. According to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 41 percent of respondents said it would take a near-death experience to permanently break a bad habit!

You and I can create a more empowering inner narratives by following five steps:

Intrinsic motivation has a better chance of changing your habits because you don't need a justification to work on your habit. You don't need a reason to eat healthy foods if you have healthy meals that you find delicious. You don't need an app to remind you to workout if you're looking forward to it every day.

A good collection of articles from 2016

Process mapping is often the first step in business process improvement. It is a necessary activity that provides a baseline from which improvements can be measured and is the key to identifying and localizing opportunities for improvement. Therefore, it is important to capture the right information to help steer process improvement initiatives in the right direction.

Give yourself some time, don't be too busy to go to the kitchen of your company, observe and ask "why" as many times as you can to understand better what's cooking there. It is the place where work gets done and the only place where value can be added to business processes: Solve the problem at hand Prevent it from recurrence  It will result in better quality, delivery and lower costs. You'll be surprised how much it contributes to the value delivered to the customer.

This is kind of a cool idea.

To get things going, there are seven concepts you need to work your process improvement plan around:

1. Always ask why. Question why we do what we do. Is there a better way?
2. Eliminate can't. Anything can be changed! Anything can be done!
3. Just do it. Be confident and have an action-oriented attitude.
4. Discard conventional thinking.
5. Question the current situation. Don't make excuses.
6. Do not seek perfection - 51% chance is good enough.
7. Seek the wisdom of ten people, rather than the knowledge of one.

In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie gives nine suggestions of ways to handle people when you need them to change.  Here are his suggestions on how to approach people and influence them to change:

Too often the principle of flow and pull is seen as applicable only in a manufacturing environment. In fact, the principle can be applied in many different ways. On a recent trip to Kenya I had the pleasure of experiencing the "Matatu" bus service in Nairobi. It really got me thinking about the principle of flow and pull. 

The practical problem solving steps… 1. It is too early to talk about solutions. 2. It is still too early to talk about solutions. 3. It is still too early to talk about solutions. 4. It is still too early to talk about solutions. 5. Did someone mention countermeasures? 6. It is still too early to talk about solutions. 7. It is still too early to talk about solutions. 8. Yes, now we can talk about solutions.

Truly brilliant!!!