Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs - Brainstorming Under Attack
Brainstorming is about creating an opportunity to bring new ideas the forefront.
There are other useful tools such as the affinity diagram which can serve as another option (or can serve as a tool to work with the results of brainstorming).
And Edward DeBono has excellent creativity tools, like his 6 thinking hats. Brainstorming is a useful tool when applied properly but it is only one tool and other tools should be used also. continue reading: Brainstorming Under Attack - Management Advice Failures
I share this frustration with declaring old ideas new: Management Improvement, Better and Different, Quality, SPC and Your Career, Deming and Six Sigma, Management Lessons from Terry Ryan, Everybody Wants It, Toyota’s Got It, Fashion-Incubator on Deming’s Ideas and on and on.
Why does this matter? Two reasons, most importantly to me is that when we fail to value the best ideas, instead valuing the new ideas, we are not as effective as we could be. We often accept pale copies of good old ideas instead of going to the good old ideas – which will often lead to a much richer source of knowledge. When I compare copyrighted versions of management thinking to ideas from people like Ackoff, Deming, Ohno, Scholtes, McGreggor the depth and richness of those I admire is much greater than the packaged solutions as I see it (and they are often more concerned with furthering the practice of management than further their brand). Second, it is often dishonest, or at least sloppy thinkers, that don’t acknowledge the history of management ideas. continue reading: Management Advice Failures - The Cat and a Black Bear
A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree - twice. Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.
continue reading: The Cat and a Black Bear - The Cat and a Black Bear
 House cat chases a black bear up a tree. Cats are unpredictable and amazing. continue reading: The Cat and a Black Bear - If Tech Companies Made Sudoku
We often seem to add unnecessary complexity to software; creating fragile code that is frustrating to use.
Unnecessary complexity in internet development has increased greatly since I wrote this in 2006. I can't believe how often simple actions like clicking a link on web sites with huge budgets fail because instead of just being a link it is some complex code that is fragile and fails. The huge downloads needed for many websites today should shame them but the explosion of waste continues unabatted. At some point it will stop, but I am amazed how long the extermely poor management practices have continued.
Related: The Edge-case Excuse
continue reading: If Tech Companies Made Sudoku - Lean Beyond the Factory Floor
Experts (in TQM, Deming’s idea’s, Six Sigma, BPR, Lean…) always stress the importance of involving not just others (when talking to management) but their (managers) work too. But fairly consistently management adopts improvement ideas mostly for others, not for their own work. As organizations apply management improvement ideas on some portion of the work the talk of going beyond “factory floor” improvements becomes more common as improvements are seen where it is applied.
Fast Cycle Change in Knowledge-Based Organizations by Ian Hau and Ford Calhoun, Jun 1997 is a good example of lean thinking, eliminating waste… outside the factory floor. continue reading: Lean Beyond the Factory Floor - Companies in Need of Customer Focus
My brother has suggested several times I should arrange for companies to pay me to point out their weaknesses (and suggest improvements). I wish I could get them to do so.
Often 1 interaction with their customer service is enough to provide examples of several systemic weaknesses in how customers are treated. continue reading: Companies in Need of Customer Focus - Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines
What management claims as the reason for results is not necessarily actually the reason (and this is true not just if they say forced ranking is good [which I disagree with] or lean thinking is good [which I agree with]).
A great difficulty in evaluating management concepts is that the complexity (including interaction) makes it very difficult to determine the results of specific management decisions (separating out the effects of one or several decisions from the hundreds that were made and outside influences, etc.). How much of the success of Google is due to the 20% “engineer time.”Can you calculate the return? I don’t think so. But you can make a judgment that it is a benefit. continue reading: Lean, Mean, Six Sigma Machines - Signs You Have a Great Job ... or Not
I believe managers need to look to provide opportunities for the people that work with you. They need to make time for doing so (because it is something that often is neglected). If someone doesn't want new opportunities, that is fine, but don't accept that as a permanent state. Make sure you continue to offer opportunities, people may want to change at a later date. continue reading: Signs You Have a Great Job ... or Not - Lean Software Development
Software development can be extremely complicated and can benefit greatly from making problems visible – jidoka.
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Lean thinking has a great deal to offer for those involved in software development. continue reading: Lean Software Development - Improving Engineering Education
Olin’s aim is to flip over the traditional “theory first, practice later” model and make students plunge into hands-on engineering projects starting on day one. Instead of theory-heavy lectures, segregated disciplines, and individual efforts, Olin champions design exercises, interdisciplinary studies, and teamwork.
This requires radically changing the normal university education model. To me this is definitely a different versus better (see last post) improvement effort. It will be interesting to see the success they achieve going forward. It almost makes me want to go back to school. continue reading: Improving Engineering Education - Better and Different
The answer, as I see it, is to be better and different (when necessary).
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if you have to choose one, just being better will work most of the time. The problem is (using an example from Deming, page 9 New Economics) when, for example, carburetors are eliminated by innovation (fuel injectors) no matter how well you make them you are out of business.
Often people mistake Deming’s ideas as only about being better. He stressed not only continual improvement (Kaizen, incremental improvement, SPC) but also innovation. He stressed innovation both in the normal sense of innovating new products for customers and also innovation in managing the organization. continue reading: Better and Different - Financial Education
The financial decisions we make have huge impacts on the quality of lives. This blog focus largely on management improvement: in such posts we often mention the importance of long term thinking and systems thinking. When planning our personal financial paths long term thinking and systems thinking (to optimize our long term financial well being given the options available in our individual situation) are necessary.
Related: Curious Cat Investment blog - financial literacy posts continue reading: Financial Education - Forget Targets
While targets and goals can distract from improvement some guidance is useful. Systems thinking is important when using targets. As is an understanding of psychology (given the tendency to manage to what is measured the system can often be distorted to achieve a target). See more in: dangers of forgetting proxy nature of data. continue reading: Forget Targets - Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin
 Parfrey’s Glen is about an hour outside of Madison next to the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The trail covers over 1,200 miles throughout Wisconsin. continue reading: Parfrey’s Glen, Wisconsin
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