You will notice that I haven't done many blog postings due to the work required for the changeover.  This is temporary and I will be back to several postings (2 - 5 per week) after the changeover.

 

 

Why the change to The No Tool Zone?  Many reasons, including the fact readers requested it.  Since systems thinking is more about the thinking and not the tools . . . it seemed appropriate. 

 

Tools can mean a lot of things but really it is about making assumptions (without knowledge) about what will improve the work.  Things like best practices, standardization, scripts, written procedures, technology, automation and (of course) 5S, Value Stream Mapping, and anything where service organizations make assumptions about ways to improve the work.  Systems thinking tells us that all systems are different in customer demand, structure, work design, technology, etc. and to copy another organization based on assumptions more often leads to sub-optimization and waste.

 

 

I will be writing an executive series for IQPC on ways to improve organizational performance through contact centers.  This series will cover topics like taking a systems view; measures (productivity/financial vs. customer); designing against customer demand; innovation; and motivation.  

 

 

 

For comments or to share your experiences contact me at tripp@newsystemsthinking.com.

 

I was glad someone else besides John Seddon, Vanguard and I weren't the only ones seeing the promotion of lean tools as short-sighted.  Author Steven Spear wrote that a "movement" was started around lean manufacturing.  He also noted that the Womack book Lean Thinking was organized by tools.  You can read more about Steven Spears comments by clicking here.

 

I was impressed with a comment from Catus Lee to one of my blog posts.  He wrote:

 

"Maybe it is because tools usually produce tangible outputs (not necessarily results!) and people like to feel that they have done something! Tools are just the realization of thinking and concepts. Without the thinking and concepts and reasoning behind, tools are dead useless or even harmful. Once I worked with a colleague who like to use tools to demonstrate his "expertise". He even instructed a client to do statistically analysis to find the correlation between the floor size of a shop and the profitability, and then claimed it a causal relationship: size-->profitability. But what was the thinking or reasoning or hypothesis behind this was not considered (or left it as intuitive). Size is not important compared to pedestrian traffic, location characteristics, and other factors. Blind application of a tool is worse than wild guessing. For wild guessing, you know it is prone to be wrong; for results from tools, you may rely on it completely. Surely, every tool has its value. We need to know the specific conditions that a tool works, the assumptions or prerequisites that makes the tool work, and be critical enough to question if it is a poison."

 

I know a few people are angry with me about tools (especially lean folks), but to me the madness has to stop before we dig the hole any bigger.  This "tools approach" has to stop before we can start thinking about the next level.

  

To learn more about how systems thinking can improve your organization.  Contact me at tripp@newsystemsthinking.com or call me at (317) 250 - 8885.

 

 

 

There are many bad things that happen when service organizations use targets to manage their business.  I outlined the statistical thinking of Dr. W. Edwards Deming in my webinar at IQPC (click here).  In this webinar I discuss the importance of understanding that improving the system is what is important and that can only be improved by method (not targets).

 

Targets become the defacto purpose of the service organization.  When you lay targets out, people become real clear on what is important to the organization and it is not the customer . . . it is the target.  With most organizations focus on customer purpose is hard enough without creating a fog of targets.

 

Some folks claim that targets set direction for the company.  One gentleman declared that increased fuel mileage was a good thing in cars and setting a target of 100 MPG was a good thing.  My question is . . . "why is 100 better than 200 or worse than 75?"  and "will I get more effort when the target is set at 100 vs. 75?"  The best we can do is create a system devoid of failure demand and provides value to the customer . . . this is a never-ending journey.

 

In sales, the same problem.  A friend of mine in sales was asked to increase his customer base 20%.  There were not 20% more customers in his territory! 

 

Targets are arbitrary and do nothing to advance the thinking of the organization.  Worse they create waste, suboptimization and create a lack of focus around customer purpose.