The Finney Blog

DDD

2008-07-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

How should you approach a key stakeholder to help get a solution in the work space? The best of the best belts always lead with data. The approach is known as "DDD."

Data, Demand, Demonstration.

I will show you the data, that will create the demand, that will allow me to demonstrate what the solution can do. The best of the best belts always lead with data. The only time you should approach a key stakeholder without data is when you are seeking their help to develop the data collection plan. You should ask questions like: What data should I bring that will help you feel more comfortable with our solutions? You can move the crowd if you have data! Your solutions can get crushed if you try to make the sale based on emotions without data. In God we trust, all others bring data!!!!!!

Data, Demand, Demonstration

Always lead with the data!

Never Settle

2007-06-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

I had a guy in class a couple of weeks ago that used the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line in response to talking about change and kaizen events. My answer was that if you don't improve, you are settling for what you have.

Everyone in your company knows of changes that are needed to improve. Better build times, better delivery, better prices, etc., are continually pushed for by customers. Just because something "ain't broke" doesn't mean you don't have to fix it anyway in a competitive, global market. If you don't fix it, you are settling.

Listen for the Non-verbals

2007-03-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

When you are facilitating an event, whether it's a Lean Kaizen event or a Six Sigma project meeting, listen for the non-verbal feedback. Huh? Listen for non-verbal?

Be in tune with what your team or group is telling you when they aren't saying anything. For the same reason you want to keep your face to the audience, you want to look for cues that tell you more than words. Rolling eyes, shrugs, grins, sighs, leans, and far away gazes. All these hints tell you as a facilitator who is actively engaged and who has checked out.

How deep is your Pareto?

2007-03-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

Does your organization have a culture that solves problems at the root causation level or just at the surface? Pareto charts are a great tool to use for digging down to the root, but one level just won't cut it.

To be two to three levels deep in a Pareto chart requires data. You will have to work to get beyond one level, but often the solution is two or three levels deep.

Don't accept opinions to solve problems in your organization. Tell them you can't hear them unless they are at least two Paretos deep with data.

Negative Poll

2007-02-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

We work with teams that are made up of characters. For some reason, the people who know the most about our projects always seem to have strong personalities. And everyone knows what happens when you put 5 or 6 or 8 people with strong personalities in a room... a fight.

So how do you move your Six Sigma team or Lean event team forward when it feels like a draw in the 7th round of a heavyweight bout?

Unanimous consensus is great, but remember, this is a room full of characters so unanimous agreement is very unlikely

Majority voting works too, but someone always loses (maybe necessary sometimes, but not team building)

Negative polling - "Does anyone have a problem if we try this?"

Faster by far than consensus when you are in a hurry
No one loses
Keeps the team together and moving forward, even if it is just agreement to try something

NBTA

2007-01-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

When you are training your team on lean or six sigma tools, presenting results to the project sponsor, or just about any other time you are presenting anything to anyone in your organization put this in the back of your mind - NBTA - "No Booty to Audience."

If you are not facing the audience when you are presenting, you can't manage the crowd. You'll miss when a team member rolls their eyes - maybe that team member needs a "sidebar" moment. You'll miss when your boss has a big frown on his face - maybe due to a comment that just needs a little more explanation. You might even miss some encouraging non-verbal feedback that let's you know your team is 100% with you.

If your booty is toward the audience rather than your eyes toward the audience, you may being missing something.

Lean is Lazy

2006-12-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

It seems kind of dusty in here. All sorts of cobwebs and stuff. Nothing like a new post to 5S a blog...

How does "Lean is Lazy" grab you? Is it true? We often get resistance to change when implementing a new idea or process, but in most cases (nearly all cases hopefully), we are making a process easier rather than harder. A friend of a friend used say, "Put the laziest man on the hardest job and he will find an easier way to do it." Is that lazy or working smarter?

Tent Revival

2006-08-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

A week or two ago, an attendee at one of my sessions told me my training is like an old fashioned tent revival, and he could sit there all day.

Preachers at old fashioned tent revivals shared their sermons with passion and enthusiasm, but who says business meetings and training sessions have to be boring and uninspiring.

Passion and enthusiasm for your project will inspire your team members to be more involved.

Passion and enthusiasm in meetings may actually keep folks off of their blackberry or laptops and interested...

Commitment - The Chicken and the Pig

2006-07-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

There is a story about commitment that I tell in my training classes. I'm not sure where it came from originally, but it is good.

A farmer decides to have breakfast. He decides he is going to have scrambled eggs and bacon. The chicken is involved in the process, but the pig is committed.

Developing commitment to your six sigma project or lean initiative is difficult. Too often everyone is with you until the real work starts. Then you find out they are involved rather than committed.

That is one of the big reasons we make sure to include the project champions and sponsors in our training. Six Sigma projects and Lean deployments have the biggest impact when everyone from the executives to the green belts at your company are committed, and it sure is easier to have committed green belts when the V.P. or Plant Manager is leading the way.

That Dog Don't Hunt

2006-06-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

This one goes right along with bootleg data.

Let's say you are in the middle of your MSA (measurement system analysis), and you are using a database that holds your average build time for a circuit board, the combobulator (the opposite of the discombobulator). This database was developed years ago and is the primary source of information for plant layout and process setup decisions. Of course it is made up of a super secret formula that Joe came up with six months before he left, and it has little to no useful documentation.

Now you are bringing me results based on this database reporting system, and telling me that your gauge passes with a Likert scale score of three by using the database a listening post? That dog don't hunt.

Bootleg Data

2006-06-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Bootleg data. Another Finneyism. A few ways to tell you might have bootleg data:

If you spend more time on the animations for your powerpoint than you do collecting your data, you probably have bootleg data
If your R-squared number for your regression equation is 11.3%, you probably have bootleg data
If you "knew" what the problem really was before you even started your project, and all data you have collected so far confirms it exactly without exception, then you didn't really have a project OR you probably have bootleg data
If your boss "knew" what the problem really was before you even started your project, you probably have bootleg data
If you skipped your MSA (measurement systems analysis), you don't even know if you have bootleg data or not

Another Finneyism

2006-05-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Goooooooood Mooooooooorning Claaaaaaaaaaas!!!

High energy. I don't want anyone in my training classes that is not paying attention. Share your enthusiasm in your own way with your six sigma or lean project team, and they will respond.

Finneyisms

2006-05-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

We'll start the blog with some Finneysims...

"The team takes care of the team"

Put your teams' successes in lights and work out your project problems inside the team.