Nov
16
A Sense of Urgency?
Filed Under Human Architecture, Leadership, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
I saw Steve Forbes Friday night and listened to a fairly compelling argument that our current financial crisis is a series of bad decisions. President elect Obama, you should talk to him. The rest of you should find what he has been writing over the past months because his knowledge and depth were wasted on my short-term memory.
Four things that did stick with me –
1) We need a policy of a strong dollar. This is not negotiable.
2) We need to help our domestic auto industry in ways that will help their sustainability. Simple question we all need to understand is why are GM and Ford phenomenally successful outside the US? Forbes made the point that if GM and Ford would close down their US operations they would be seen as world-class companies. Wow – something to think about and it has little to do with unions, although the unions need to get their workers to work more often. Ten percent absenteeism is obscene – if the UAW deals with that they will be seen as more relevant. The work needs to be made more interesting as well, which is on the leadership of GM, Ford and Chrysler.
3) Taxes cannot be raised in a crisis. This means that spending must be cut. This is combination of stopping dumb things like bailouts that don’t address root causes. It also means efficiency in government vs the current placebos. Cut non-entitlement budgets across the board including the Pentagon and hire consultants that know how to implement and advise - instead of the mass training houses. Also buy all managers in government agencies a copy of Kotter’s latest book. Fire all who whine or block instead of seeing the opportunity. Efficiencies will be found and the work will be more interesting.
4) Health care has to be addressed with efficient system wide solutions. Piece-meal solutions will not cut it which means expansion of existing programs won’t do. Forbes’ example was that of medical tourism – why is a flight to Singapore and surgery to have a knee replacement one-fourth the cost of doing it in the US? How can these hospitals offer first class results with infection rates that are nonexistent? Lasik surgery is another example – success rates are up and costs are substantially reduced from a decade ago. Why? Understand the answer and you will be looking at what efficient reform looks like.
Forbes says it is time for Obama to turn into a pragmatic politician to make sure he is there for 8 years. Steve has some good thoughts, take some time to understand them and encourage your government officials to understand them as well. I personally would like to keep a smart person in the White House and have them surrounded by smart people. I don’t want Steve as my President, but I would be impressed if he became a trusted advisor to Obama.
Read what Steve is writing at - http://search.forbes.com/search/colArchiveSearch?author=Forbes
Gary
Nov
10
What’s Important?
Filed Under Human Architecture, irRelevant Reflections | Leave a Comment
With the economic turmoil and the elation and fear to go with the recent elections, we sometimes make things more important than they are.
I listen to Christian radio sometimes and also NPR. I have been intrigued with the absolute negative response to Obama in some circles - the sign of the coming apocalypse because of some of his views. I wonder how that is balanced with the killing going on daily on false premises. I honestly don’t know the answer.
I would never want a child brought into this world that will not be loved often and always. I would not choose to impose my position on anyone, but I see children on a daily basis that are not loved, that are not taught values, that are not taught self worth. Life is tough anyway, and those children don’t have good chances in life - it is not their fault.
Tonight I held and danced with my almost four-week-old niece. I sang Jimmy Buffet songs to her and she cooed and made baby sounds and slept in my arms for more than an hour.
I cried.
Tomorrow is my birthday – what a great birthday present.
Life does not get any better than this.
Gary
Nov
7
People and Processes
Filed Under Human Architecture, Leadership, Lean Enterprise, Six Sigma, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
These are interesting times we live in.
An economic crisis bigger than any in my lifetime.
Job losses in the US at catastrophic levels and it’s even worse in areas dependent on the US Big 3 automakers. Reports of GM buying all or part of Chrysler and the cascading effect on employment. Optimistic views talk in terms of 30,000 displaced in the metro Detroit area. Some reports say it will be 124,000. I think it is like what we have seen with the bank and credit crisis, it will be worse than current projections. GM announced just in the last few minutes that they will lay off 30% of their work force and stop funding 401K’s.
How are companies responding to this? They have stopped spending money. They are looking for cost savings in 2009. This will mean more job loss and it will mean many okay processes will be broken.
It is a time of hope and opportunity.
At a macro level in the US, it is the presidency of Barrack Obama. Many, many are willing to take the risk that he is real and that he can move us out of these troubled waters.
On a smaller level, many companies can use this time to redefine and reinvent themselves. Some companies get the opportunity of high risk investment by the government, some get the opportunity to take advantage of grants for business development in areas like alternative energy.
On a personal level, if you have been displaced in banking or the auto industry, it is a reasonable assumption you will not be going back to your old job. The opportunity is to learn new skills, to go into new industries, or maybe to start your own business.
What is the role of people who have dedicated their life to teaching, mentoring, and making companies processes better?
I think there are three distinct areas in which we should play –
1) For those displaced and looking for new skills, we should help find the grants and teach them new skills. This is not confined to training as Lean Masters or Six Sigma “belts”, but how about things like taking the person who has been working in Quality and has been taught the “real world” approach and getting them certified as a Quality and/or Reliability Engineer?
2) For companies that are in survival mode, we should go in and help them make quick gains by leading the improvement projects. Many companies will not be worried about training their internal resources in 2009, it is hard to think that way if you don’t know if you will be in business in 2010. I will offer a company gains on a focused project in one month or they do not owe me any money. They just have to commit the time and team on their end.
3) On the companies in the emerging sectors, they will be making the transition from startup to fulfillment. Many companies struggle with that. They also will not see clearly how to go to the outside for help since they have limited resources. Again grant money will need to be found, but we can go in and teach them to set up an efficient business system that can comply with things like ISO 9000 or 14001. We can go in and help set up their processes to flow and we can teach them best in class methods to run their processes with efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness.
How does this impact the traditional Lean Six Sigma consulting model?
In short, I think the model is dead.
Few companies will go for the idea of adding infrastructure and diverting 1% – 5% of their resources. Of those that have been doing it, many will pull back. For what it is worth, the original model had process improvement being everyone’s job where everyone got trained.
Does the focused full time model have merits? Of course, especially where is an apprenticeship every professional serves as they transition into a company or as we transition from professional to manager. But the idea of setting aside a significant portion of a scant resource in 2009/10 – companies will be running away from this idea in mass.
What is the new role?
The new role is the ability to give companies very focused help on people and processes.
People – two factors here, knowledge and behavior. Both can be assessed fairly succinctly. Companies will need to know if the remaining people in their enterprise are right people in the right jobs.
Processes – Are they efficient and effective at least with respect to their competition? If they are not, how do we offer to make significant gains in a very short amount of time.
This means we need new skills with respect to people and we need to be people who know how to really do what we have been teaching.
My opinion.
Gary
A special thanks to my friend and mentor, Elmano Nigri, of Arquitetura Humana in Sao Paulo, Brasil for helping me talk through this.