TOC, Lean, Six Sigma?

There are many methodologies to chose from when leading a company into continuous improvement project.  From the highly acclaimed Toyota Production System, to Lean, to Six Sigma, to Theory of Constraints, each of them has the same end state in mind, just different ways to get there.   

During the last decade we have seen a trend to start to join the different approaches, to get superior results.   We have even seen new buzz words such as Lean Six Sigma and TOC Lean Six Sigma, and the results of using each one alone or combined have been published in the past

There are also new books that have come out showing how you can get superior results by using TOC, Lean and Six Sigma, such as Epiphanized and Profitability Without Boundaries.  But always remember, no matter what you choose, focus on principles first and then on the tools themselves.

So what are you using to improve your organization today?

How YouTube is Driving Creativity

TED Curator Chris Anderson gave a talk last year to show how the power of crowds and technological platforms can help accelerate innovation.   According to Anderson, this concept is called Crowd Accelerated Innovation, and has three basic requirements:

• Crowd, group of people who share a common interest
• Light, clear open visibility
• Desire, or a genuine interest in something

The talk includes concepts that have also been treated in Wikinomics, Wisdom of Crowds, and Tribes

So, how are you tapping into the Wisdom of Crowds?

How Society Works - 8 Psychological Insights

PsyBlog has published a summary of 8 social experiments performed by Stanley Milgram, trying to understand and decipher social behavior.

From Milgram's famous experiment about compliance through electrical shocks, to how helpful people are with lost children, all of these experiments give some insights into how we behave in society.

How Big Is The World Economy?

Have you ever wondered how big is the world's economy?   Intuitively you know who the big countries are, but it's worth taking a look from time to time.

Having a global view of things, including the magnitude of the companies we interact with, is important to keep things in perspective.

Disruptive Innovation - Interview with Clayton Christensen

Clayton Christensen, the author behind Disruptive Innovation, was featured recently in a video interview from HBR, where he describes the basics of his ideas.

Disruptive Innovation occurs when a particular technology is produced more efficiently and opens the doors to new business solutions that markets can adopt in an easier fashion.   As an example, mainframe computers where once the norm, and only big corporations or big education organizations had them.  But later, a series of disruptive innovations happened over time, and the mainframe evolved into a personal computer, laptop and now into smartphone and tablet computers, every time making it easier for the masses to adopt and use them.

As a result of Disruptive Innovation, companies face the Innovators Dilemma.  This happens when companies  ignore markets that are susceptible to disruptive innovations, many times because they currently have a profitable solution for the markets they are currently serving.  Thus, sometimes the traditional advice of "focusing on the customer" can become counter productive for management.   You could argue that something similar happened to Kodak during the last decade, and as a result they filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.  

How are you dealing with the Innovator's Dilemma in your company?

Free Webinar on Statistical Process Control

Mark Graban, Lean author and consultant, recently held a webinar on Statistical Process Control.

Using Don Wheeler's ideas on Statistical Process Control, Mark shows how to use control charts to improve your role as a manager, emphasizing on the importance on understanding the difference between signals and noise, to clearly identify when real changes in processes are happening or not.

Many people think that control charts should only be used in manufacturing, but is manufacturing the only area in a company that needs improvement?   Control charts can be used in any process that needs improvement, and helps improve managements ability to predict.

It's available for a limited time only, so watch it soon.

The Use of Games In Corporate World

During recent years the use of Gamification in corporate settings has become more common, and companies have begun to use games to improve employee morale, productivity and innovation.  As an employer, you could have this line of reasoning:   if people spend countless hours on social networks like Facebook, why not try to ue that time more productively?  Additionally, recent studies have shown that video games improve your thinking, so why not try something along those lines?

I recently attended a webinar introducing Keas, a leading online game platform that aims to promote health behaviors among employees.  It is similar to Facebook, and allows employees to create individual profiles and teams.   Team members define their particular health goals, and if achieved, both the team member and team get points.   For example, if a team member has the goal of working out for 1 hour in the gym, and they achieved it, they would be earning points for themselves and their teams, and the more points you have, the better chance of winning prizes and recognition by the company.

After the webinar, I received a follow up call for feedback, and I asked the person how a company could ensure that team members don't cheat, just to get the points and win the prizes.   The company representative was in awe of my question, saying that it usually boils down to trust.    I am not saying employees should not be trusted, but in some company settings employees try to "game the system" just to get results and recognition.   As Dr. Deming used to say, this behavior is almost always a consequence of inadequate management, but gaming the system is common when trying to meet sales targets, production targets or inventory targets.

So what do you think?  Should we Gamify the workplace?  What obstacles need to be overcome to do so?