Management Meditations

Transformational Change vs. Continuous Improvement

Larry Miller — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:17:59 +0000

It may sound like sacrilege to hear someone say that continuous improvement may not always be the right answer. Of course, it is the core process of lean management. But, there are times when more significant and more rapid change is required – sometimes revolution rather than evolution is called for.

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“Respect for People” and “The Design of the System”

Larry Miller — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:48:41 +0000

Michel Baudin, a fellow blogger and author, posted a video link of a panel discussion that included Jeffrey Liker (The Toyota Way, Toyota Leadership) in which British consultant John Seddon makes the comment that "This respect for people stuff is horse shit." Seddon argues that what leads to improvement is the system and not an intervention to respect or deal better with the people. Respect for people is the result, not only of personal patterns of communication, but also the result of the nature of the system.

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Transformational Change Management

Larry Miller — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:07:53 +0000

Getting to Lean - Transformational Change Management is now available on Amazon. There is continuous improvement, and then there is transformational change. Transformational change involves rethinking the whole-system of the organization, creating alignment to the external environment and among the internal subsystems of the organization.

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Creative Destruction and Transformational Change

Larry Miller — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:47:01 +0000

This is about lean management and organizational change. It is about adaptation to disruptive technology and markets. The ability to adapt your organization's capabilities to changing technology and markets is, in itself, a core competence required of every organization today. And, continuous improvement will not get you there. Disruptive technologies and markets require transformational change, revolutionary rather than evolutionary, not simple problem solving or continuous improvement. The lean management process or Toyota Production System is founded on continuous improvement. But that continuous improvement is built on top of a stable platform that is aligned with a relatively stable market. Cars still have four wheels, for the most part still have an internal combustion engine; but, they don't fly and they don't travel over the Internet. But, what if technology completely disrupted the business model. And, how do you transform to adapt to disruptions?

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Quality of Work Life and the Toyota System

Larry Miller — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:35:20 +0000

Books on lean management and the Toyota Production System are too often presented as if this system has been a virtual heaven of production efficiency and worker satisfaction. In the author’s enthusiasm, questions about stress and work life are rarely raised or they are glossed over. In Japan there have been serious issues raised about the quality of work life at Toyota plants and Toyota has openly addressed this issue itself, along with its union, and conducted its own whole-system system redesign to improve the attractiveness and reduce the stresses of working within their system.

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Socio-Technical and Lean Systems: Design for Sustainability

Larry Miller — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 03:54:26 +0000

The goal of this article is to bring together socio-technical systems (STS) thinking and methodology and lean management thinking. There is a huge advantage in combining the two along with an important third and missing piece of the "whole-system." Without understanding the nature of these systems, lean or STS implementation are likely to not be sustainable. Organizations, whether public or private, are all organic, living, changing things. Most will die, sooner or later. The cause of failure is rarely the external threat, the attack of the barbarian or the fierce economic competitor, rather the cause is most often an act of suicide, self-inflicted by one’s own hand. Or, as Jerry Harvey said, “How come every time I get stabbed in the back my finger prints are on the knife?”

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Dr. Deming’s Joy at Work, Happiness, & the High Performance Organization

Larry Miller — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:49:00 +0000

Dr. Deming was fond of promoting the idea that every employee should be able to achieve joy at work and that joy would lead to improved quality and performance for the organization. The research on happiness supports the value of his intuition. Seeking happiness is consistent with seeking a high performance organization.

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Fast Cycle Lean and the Rebirth of American Manufacturing at GE’s Appliance Park

Larry Miller — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:09:10 +0000

The return of jobs by GE to its Louisville Appliance Park is the best evidence yet of a new trend and it is important that every company engaged in manufacturing consider the key elements that make this a sound business decision. It is an example of "macro-lean", the creation of processes that unite major functions in the organization.

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The Lean Culture Challenge: Can You Graduate from the 5S’s to The 7S’s that Really Matter?

Larry Miller — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 03:25:01 +0000

Doing 5S is easy because it requires nothing of executives and very little if any change in the behavior of managers. It does not disrupt their world. And, that is exactly why it does not address the big issues that drive the culture and competitiveness of any organization. Real competitive advantage is derived from internal strategy, building the capabilities of the organization, and that requires managing the Big Seven S's of organization culture.

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The Fiscal Cliff and Life in the Freshman Dorm, or why “The Pigeon is Never Wrong!”

Larry Miller — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:57:08 +0000

The behavior of Congress and getting to the edge of the cliff is no mystery. It is a phenomena well known to freshman college students and every mouse or pigeon subjected to behavioral psychology research.

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