Focusing on Improvement, and Not Training

I find one of the problems that exist in Leader Standard Work practices is not at the Team Leader Level nor even the Supervisor Level but many times right at the top. In David Mann’s book Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions, Second Edition (which I consider the bible for Leader Standard Read More …

Standard Work for Knowledge Workers

Leader standard work is a concept in Lean Management, popularized by David Mann in his book “Creating a Lean Culture”, that creates standard work for managers. For many in the Agile community, the notion of “standard work” brings a repellent idea of standardization and work standards, and the oppressive boot-jack command culture that comes with Read More …

Behavior is the Variable in Every Innovation

“Companies are not so much in the business of what we buy, but the way we act.” – Thomas Koulopoulos Behavior is the unknowable variable in every innovation, and it is the variable that most determines the opportunity a new business model has to evolve and take advantage of the new behavior. It’s The Behavior, Read More …

Evolution and the Future of PDCA

In the paper, Evolution of PDCA, covered the development of PDCA from the introduction to the scientific method (you could argue between Aristotle or Galileo) to the latest development covered by the paper with the addition of the Model for Improvement published and described in The Improvement Guide. This book was published in 2009. In Read More …

Implementing PDCA

In Franklin Covey’s, The 4 Disciplines of Execution,  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. You have to allocate Read More …

A Good Feedback Cycle has the Appearance of Causing Problems

Review this Slideshow and pay particular attention to the re-productive section. This is a description of incremental improvement or PDCA. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the Check stage of PDCA or the feedback mechanism that you use in the iteration. James O. Coplein, author of the Lean Architecture: for Agile Software Development states, “A Read More …