Standard Work as your Whirlwind

I am an advocate of Standard Work. My approach is that it encompasses so much of our time that we should become proficient at it just to ensure we make other things possible. The amount of Standard Work that you have differs from organization to organization and from person to person but we all have some. My thoughts about Standard Work:

Standard Work should only encompass part of your time.
Every person wants some form of standard work. Most enjoy doing tasks that they are comfortable with and it gives them a sense of accomplishment when completed.
Standard Work is what provides line of sight for your team. It enables support and provides opportunity for managers to serve you.
Standardizing your work makes it easier for customers to go deeper into your organization for knowledge sharing. This provides a flood of new ideas for innovation and co-creation opportunities. More importantly, it secures a vendor-customer relationship or partnership that is difficult for others to replicate.
Standard Work does not need to be boring: Is Zappos the Next Toyota?

I could go on and on and I have in detail in the blog posts below but you get my drift.

I have been a long time fan and practitioner of Franklin Covey’s, The 4 Disciplines of Execution. In 4DEx, they use the term the “Whirlwind” in the same manner as I think about Standard Work. As they describe operating outside the whirlwind(SDCA) think of that as PDCA or EDCA depending on if you are looking for incremental or breakthrough type improvement.