Lean Lament: “Lean Out” This, Boeing December 1, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Lean Thinking, lean.Tags: culture, lean, Lean Thinking
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The term “lean” unfortunately carries some baggage. And misconceptions. Kevin Meyer at the Evolving Excellence blog focuses on a particular phrase: “lean out”. He quotes the article that recently used the term:
[Boeing VP of Business Strategy Mike] Bair called the Renton plant a “lean enterprise,” indicating Boeing plans to transfer the lessons learned to lean out the 737 production to Everett.
“Lean out” conjures up laying off people. It makes people think of “downsizing”, “right-sizing”, and other ways of saving money by body count. But these are incorrect interpretations of what is at the heart of a lean transformation. Meyer notes that lean aims to reduce waste, but more importantly that “recognition of brainpower is what real lean is about. Leveraging, not minimizing, the second pillar of lean, respect for people. Leveraging the power of human experience, creativity, and knowledge.”
Perhaps some fact-checking is in order. Either for the media that reports on lean, or for leaders who implement it.
For the post, click here.
The Special Thing About Special Ops December 1, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, leadership, military, strategy, workforce.Tags: culture, leadership, military, strategy, workforce
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Less than 200 American Special Forces troops, working hand-in-hand with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, rooted up and expelled 100,000 Al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban militants in the autumn of 2001. It was a stunning victory. Often, the same focus and discipline employed in the military is also employed in the business world. But besides focus and discipline, what else can business owners and managers borrow from the United States Armed Forces? After all, what business wouldn’t love to do so much with so little?
In an article at Strategy+Business, Andrew Sobel explains what the business world can learn from the battlefield. It is the “carefully designed and comprehensive system of recruiting, training, infrastructure support, leadership, and organizational culture” that make Special Forces so effective. The appeal of being a member of a select elite (of being the best and the brightest); thorough training and continually seeking out new, qualified talent; and the understanding of loyalty and teamwork are all military tactics that can be deployed in the private sector with great success –and great fun.
Check out the article here.
The Dark Side of Incentives December 1, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, economy.Tags: culture, economy
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American taxpayers, struggling to make ends-meet, balk at the notion of multimillion dollar bonuses and golden parachutes. Who can blame them? Bonuses were once a marvel, something worth aspiring toward –something earned. But incentives –and bonuses –often don’t just fail, but backfire. Writing at Business Week, Barry Schwartz notes that when incentives are offered, it often eliminates the moral dimension to decision making. For example, researchers found that when Israeli day-care centers fined parents for being late to pick up their children, lateness increased. When offered a token for assistance with moving furniture, people are less likely to help than if they had been offered nothing.
“The question they ask themselves,” Schwartz writes, “when money isn’t part of the equation is quite different: ‘What are my responsibilities to my country and to other people?’ Despite our abiding faith in incentives as a way to influence behavior in a positive way, they consistently do the reverse.” As far as reform of the financial industry is concerned, Mr. Schwartz suggests compensation over incentives.
Check out the article here.
Why Some People Go Green -and Others Don’t December 1, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, green business.Tags: culture, green
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One could easily imagine that someone’s political beliefs –Democrat or Republican –would influence how green that person is. But that is a misconception, according to a new book by two social scientists. According to Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton, it is not politics, but personality, that make the difference. In a survey, the answers to questions counted for or against traits like risk aversion: “Someone who said he or she always slows down for a yellow light, for example, would score more strongly as a person with a risk-averse trait.”
To identify a green consumer, de Marchi and Hamilton found three main factors. First, purchasing decisions tend to be motivated by ideology. Second, both short and long-term cost benefits and risks are taken into consideration. Third, the social behavior of an individual is crucial –whether or not one follows the group. For example, if all of my friends are green consumers, chances are, I will tend to be a green consumer –and vice versa.
For the U.S. News and World Report article at Yahoo, go here.
Harvard Study of Corporate Silos October 30, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, leadership, workforce.Tags: culture, leadership, workforce
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In her Lean Reflections blog, Karen Wilhelm points to new research that describes the strength of functional silos within organizations. We know that organizations have silos that hamper the development of a leaner enterprise, but is there a way to quantify and understand what’s happening within and across divisions and subgroups?
Harvard Business School postdoctoral fellow Adam M. Kleinbaum, and professors Toby E. Stuart and Michael L. Tushman took on the challenge by analyzing server logs of e-mails and calendars, publishing their findings in a working paper, “Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization.”
“Two people who are in the same SBU, function, and office interact about 1,000 times more frequently than two people at the company who are in different business units, functions, and offices, but are otherwise similar. Practically speaking, this means that there is very little interaction across these boundaries.”
Read the post here.
Can Zappos’ Corporate Culture Survive the Amazon Jungle? October 12, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Creativity & Innovation, culture.Tags: Creativity & Innovation, culture
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The fun-yet-focused culture at online retailer Zappos has done much to create strong loyalty among employees and customers alike. But how that playful attitude will mesh with the culture of acquirer Amazon remains an open question.
This article on workforceweek.com explores the culture that has made Zappos a success and an exemplar of freewheeling creativity. It lays out an insightful analysis of Amazon’s very different culture and how the two might interact after the merger.
Read the full story here.
Why Critical Thinking is Not a Creativity Killer October 10, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Creativity & Innovation, culture.Tags: Creativity & Innovation, culture
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How should managers in a creative enterprise balance the need for open, free exploration in the brainstorming process with the critical need to solve complex problems efficiently and effectively with a minimum of false starts? After all, aren’t most enterprises creative at heart?
In many firms, critical thinking is considered to be the mortal enemy of creativity. However, in this article, Mark McGuinness of Lateral Action presents a case for seeing judgment and creativity as essential and interconnected:
“… the function of critical thinking is to make something better. Used wisely, your critical faculty is one of the most powerful creative tools at your disposal… one reason why experts are typically better than novices at solving complex problems is that they begin the problem-solving process with sharp critical analysis.”
Click here for the full story.
Fueling Innovation Through New Organizational Forms February 16, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Creativity & Innovation, culture.Tags: creativity, culture
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New organizational forms have emerged over the past years. These new forms offer insights for organizational design and change and are key drivers for innovation and growth. This article is academic in its treatment of organizational forms, but covers a range of types. It classifies the forms and analyzes how they might influence innovation.
The article specifically examines organizations that are ambidextrous, collaborative, learning, or emergent.
Read the full article here.
Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains February 9, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in culture, personal productivity.Tags: culture, personal productivity
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In Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Maggie Jackson explores the effects of “our high-speed, overloaded, split-focus and even cybercentric society” on attention. It’s not a pretty picture: a never-ending stream of phone calls, e-mails, instant messages, text messages and tweets is part of an institutionalized culture of interruption, and makes it hard to concentrate and think creatively.This article is an interview by Wired.com with Jackson about attention and its loss.
By the way, I couldn’t pass up a book with such a happy-go-lucky subtitle. I have not read it thoroughly yet, but my initial assessment is that this is a pretty good read.
10 Reasons to Design a Better Corporate Culture January 11, 2009
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in workforce.Tags: culture, workforce
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Why is it that many of the same companies appear repeatedly on lists of the best places to work, the best providers of customer service, and the most profitable in their industries? In their new book, The Ownership Quotient, HBS professors Jim Heskett and Earl Sasser and coauthor Joe Wheeler assert the answer lies in recognizing that strong, adaptive cultures can foster innovation, productivity, and a sense of ownership among employees and customers. They also outlast any individual charismatic leader.But how can you as a manager create and nurture that special culture? In this article, the authors outline the top 10 lessons of the best practitioners, from ING Direct to Build-A-Bear Workshop to Harrah’s Entertainment.
Read the article here.
Managing Employees in a Downturn December 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Workplace Design.Tags: culture, workforce
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For many managers, recessions prompt a near-autonomic reflex: Hunker down, reduce head count, and cut every cost you can. While a certain dose of those bitter pills is unavoidable, smart leaders see downturns as having plenty of upside, too. Talent is cheaper. Companies can gain market share as others cut back. And savvy investments give bold players a head start when the economy picks up. Nowhere is that more true than in the care and feeding of employees. Even amid a hiring freeze or a workforce reduction, there are ways to engage top workers.
Learn more in this BusinessWeek article.
Six Signs You Don’t Care About Workers December 14, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in leadership.Tags: culture, leadership, workforce
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“Our People are our Greatest Asset” is an overused, hackneyed phrase. When companies talk about valuing talent but don’t put that talk into action, it shows. As a business leader, there are easy ways to gauge whether the happy talk about employees has a basis in reality. Business Week offers these not-walking-the-walk red flags:
- The talent chief is a half-chief
- HR is a finance function
- Recruitment is a black hole
- HR is a cost-reduction unit
- You’ve outsourced the most critical people functions
- Org development and HR aren’t one
Read the details here.
It’s Not about the Money November 7, 2008
Posted by Jeff Fuchs in Workplace Design.Tags: culture, morale, motivation, productivity
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What do workers want?
Over the past 10 years, one group has conducted an in-depth study into the attitudes of more than 100,000 shift workers at more than 150 companies around the world. Through face-to-face surveys taken during work hours, they sought to gather information about what employees like and dislike about their work environment, the changes they hope to see, the health and safety issues they face, and how their work schedules affect their personal lives. Of all the thousands of pieces of data collected, one stood out: Eighty-one percent of employees surveyed felt that their pay and benefits were adequate. In fact, when the study leaders determined what really affects productivity, compensation paled in comparison to good management–employee communications. In other words, although most companies try to inflate employees’ morale by shoveling more dollars at them, less expensive strategies will do.
Read the full article in Strategy & Business at: http://www.strategy-business.com/li/leadingideas/li00079?gko=5315c
