Jamie Flinchbaugh had a wonderful post today on culture change, and it made me think about the sweeping culture change that I’m taking part in and what I’ve learned from it. I’ve decided that the way a team (or even an individual) can bring about culture change is to identify the behaviors they want to instill and then model those behaviors. It’s like leading by example. Or as they say over at LEI, “Lead as if you have no authority.” That’s one of the best statements of lean leadership that I’ve ever read.
And it never ceases to amaze me just how effective it really is. Over the years I’ve gotten quite a bit of mostly good-natured needling over the fact that I maintain strict 5S discipline in my cubicle. But the surest sign to me that real culture change is happening is the number of people around me who have begun to do the same. I nearly fell over yesterday when I walked into the cubicle of a notoriously messy coworker to find the entire workspace cleaned of years worth of clutter and everything organized and in its place. This person was even experimenting with a stand up desk, as I blogged about earlier this week.
This and other signs of gradual change in culture are happening without mandate or decree, without formal training or outside consultants. It’s merely a matter of establishing good habits, practicing what you preach, leading by example, and demonstrating good results.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Stand and Deliver
After reading about experiences with so-called “stand up desks” at Evolving Excellence and Gemba Panta Rei and LSS Academy, and after years of doing lean conversion and preaching that chairs impede flow, and after much indecision and procrastination, I finally decided to put my desk where my mouth is.
It’s only been a week and a half, but so far the experience has been positive. As with all change there is period of adjustment. Things were a bit uncomfortable in the beginning, and I’ve had to tweak the height a little to ensure proper ergonomics, but it gets a little more comfortable each day. In addition to the expected benefits – I’m more focused and less distracted, and I spend less time at my desk and more time at gemba – I’ve also learned a couple of other things.
It’s All About Flow
On the shopfloor, sitting down and getting up over and over again is waste and inhibits flow. But I’ve found that in knowledge work the situation is very similar, but from more of a psychological standpoint. There seems to be a mental stopping and starting, almost a recalibration, each time I get up from or return to my desk. Like shifting gears in my head. Now as I move from my desk to the floor to meetings to coworkers’ desks there is a much smoother mental flow. As opposed to a bunch of discrete tasks.
Visual Management
I’ve had more than one person tell me that now they can look out over the top of the vast cubicle village and see my head when I’m at my desk. This saves time in hunting for me. (So in an indirect way I’ve made others more productive as well.) From my standing position I can also peer out across the cube farm and get at least some sense of what’s going on around me.
Of course I’ve had more than my fair share of curious head-scratchers come by and ask me if I’m having back trouble. And not one to be without a witty rejoinder, I’ve come up with the following canned responses:
I got a “raise”.
I’m moving up in the world.
I decided to take my work to the next level.
I’ve always been a stand-up guy.
It’s a new year and I wanted to rise to the occasion.
Feel free to use any of these if you decide to try this, and let me know if you think of any others.
It’s only been a week and a half, but so far the experience has been positive. As with all change there is period of adjustment. Things were a bit uncomfortable in the beginning, and I’ve had to tweak the height a little to ensure proper ergonomics, but it gets a little more comfortable each day. In addition to the expected benefits – I’m more focused and less distracted, and I spend less time at my desk and more time at gemba – I’ve also learned a couple of other things.
It’s All About Flow
On the shopfloor, sitting down and getting up over and over again is waste and inhibits flow. But I’ve found that in knowledge work the situation is very similar, but from more of a psychological standpoint. There seems to be a mental stopping and starting, almost a recalibration, each time I get up from or return to my desk. Like shifting gears in my head. Now as I move from my desk to the floor to meetings to coworkers’ desks there is a much smoother mental flow. As opposed to a bunch of discrete tasks.
Visual Management
I’ve had more than one person tell me that now they can look out over the top of the vast cubicle village and see my head when I’m at my desk. This saves time in hunting for me. (So in an indirect way I’ve made others more productive as well.) From my standing position I can also peer out across the cube farm and get at least some sense of what’s going on around me.
Of course I’ve had more than my fair share of curious head-scratchers come by and ask me if I’m having back trouble. And not one to be without a witty rejoinder, I’ve come up with the following canned responses:
I got a “raise”.
I’m moving up in the world.
I decided to take my work to the next level.
I’ve always been a stand-up guy.
It’s a new year and I wanted to rise to the occasion.
Feel free to use any of these if you decide to try this, and let me know if you think of any others.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Work Scheduling
Some time ago I began experimenting with a visual management system to help me manage the projects I’m working on. This is not a new idea of course. You can find tons of examples of this all over the place, especially in agile software development. So I thought I’d give it a whirl. I’ve been in the Check phase of the PDCA cycle for quite a while now, and I’m finally ready to Act.
The Old Board
I called my original effort a heijunka board, since I felt like its primary purpose was level-loading. Projects are on blue Post-it® notes and move from left to right in priority order (P2, then P1 being the next on deck) until they reach the ORDER column. This column lists the 4 projects that I am actively working on at any one time, in priority order. To the right of that, each project is broken down into component tasks (SMART goals) on yellow Post-it® notes. The WIP section shows the tasks actually being worked on. I work on each task from left to right, top to bottom, until it reaches a barrier (usually waiting for someone else) and then I move on. Once completed, a task is removed from the board and another takes its place from the IN section.
The UNLINKED TASKS section at the bottom helps me keep track of tasks that are not linked to specific projects but are important nonetheless. These are usually requests from peers and/or superiors and typically get worked on during “free” time in between other tasks.
I also use small red Post-it® notes to indicate projects or tasks that are stalled or in need of outside help.
The idea of course is to keep focused on only the things that are most important and not to become overloaded with too much work. It also helps keep me from bouncing from task to task before they are complete and from cherry picking only the stuff I feel like working on.
Basically I find the system to be extremely helpful, but I’ve made a few changes based on what I’ve learned working with it.
The New Board
First is the name. Since it seems like everyone else who uses something like this calls it a kanban I decided to bow to popular pressure.
Next I cut the number of active projects from 4 to 3. Having too many projects active at once is counterproductive, and 3 has seemed like a good number. This will vary, of course, depending on the length and complexity of projects and how finely I choose to break them down.
I also stopped trying to prioritize projects I’m not working on yet. Instead they just go into a pool and when it’s time to pull the next one into the active column I can prioritize at that time.
Finally, and most significantly, I cut the number of WIP, or ACTIVE, tasks from 16 to 8. This makes 2 for each project. I found that 16 was simply too many, and the ones in the 3 and 4 slots typically didn’t get worked on at all until the 1 and 2 tasks were completed. This will help to focus on a smaller number of tasks and force me to complete them before jumping to the next thing.
So from a process perspective I really haven’t changed anything. Mostly I’ve just adjusted the system capacity. I hope that once I’ve had a chance to run this way for a while I can find other enhancements.
The Old Board
I called my original effort a heijunka board, since I felt like its primary purpose was level-loading. Projects are on blue Post-it® notes and move from left to right in priority order (P2, then P1 being the next on deck) until they reach the ORDER column. This column lists the 4 projects that I am actively working on at any one time, in priority order. To the right of that, each project is broken down into component tasks (SMART goals) on yellow Post-it® notes. The WIP section shows the tasks actually being worked on. I work on each task from left to right, top to bottom, until it reaches a barrier (usually waiting for someone else) and then I move on. Once completed, a task is removed from the board and another takes its place from the IN section.
The UNLINKED TASKS section at the bottom helps me keep track of tasks that are not linked to specific projects but are important nonetheless. These are usually requests from peers and/or superiors and typically get worked on during “free” time in between other tasks.
I also use small red Post-it® notes to indicate projects or tasks that are stalled or in need of outside help.
The idea of course is to keep focused on only the things that are most important and not to become overloaded with too much work. It also helps keep me from bouncing from task to task before they are complete and from cherry picking only the stuff I feel like working on.
Basically I find the system to be extremely helpful, but I’ve made a few changes based on what I’ve learned working with it.
The New Board
First is the name. Since it seems like everyone else who uses something like this calls it a kanban I decided to bow to popular pressure.
Next I cut the number of active projects from 4 to 3. Having too many projects active at once is counterproductive, and 3 has seemed like a good number. This will vary, of course, depending on the length and complexity of projects and how finely I choose to break them down.
I also stopped trying to prioritize projects I’m not working on yet. Instead they just go into a pool and when it’s time to pull the next one into the active column I can prioritize at that time.
Finally, and most significantly, I cut the number of WIP, or ACTIVE, tasks from 16 to 8. This makes 2 for each project. I found that 16 was simply too many, and the ones in the 3 and 4 slots typically didn’t get worked on at all until the 1 and 2 tasks were completed. This will help to focus on a smaller number of tasks and force me to complete them before jumping to the next thing.
So from a process perspective I really haven’t changed anything. Mostly I’ve just adjusted the system capacity. I hope that once I’ve had a chance to run this way for a while I can find other enhancements.
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