Simplify to be Productive

Work often expands to the time available. This is urgent! Can you fit this is? The tyranny of the To Do list. This is not where you want to spend your time.

Don’t make yourself busy. Look for what would make a difference. Improvements, new products, new services and innovations. Schedule time for the big projects.

The secret is to minimize unimportant work, and focus on work that benefits the customer in the long term.

Business is Imagination

This thought is generated from columnist Leonid Bershidsky on the reasons wars will happen.  His point boils down to the reaction of governments is determined by leader’s imagination and viewpoint. Geopolitics are a major factor as well.

If you are from an honor society, you will react differently than someone born in Western Europe. The mistake most people make is thinking that rational people will all think and react alike. “Like I think” is the common answer.

We know this is not true. Asian societies look at persona interactions much differently than the individualistic United States. Look at recent reactions to news events. Inside the USA there will be dozens of different viewpoints displayed on any topic.

So how does this apply to your business? If you only sell locally to people of your background, there is probably not much effect. As soon as we start selling to other cities, states, or countries there will be differences in culture to account for. Successful international companies need to be able to adapt to diverse cultures to sell products and services.

Most companies start from a small business run by one or a few people. To grow they have to visualize and dream of ways to reach & help more people. They have to hire more people and bring them into the vision of success. Sometimes it is an outsider like Ray Croc who helped develop the McDonald brothers business.

Take a look at your thinking. Where does it need to grow?

If World Slips Toward War, Blame Leaders' Imaginations

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-02/if-world-slips-toward-war-blame-leaders-imaginations

PS - Long time reader of George Friedman and Stratfor quoted in the article. Great place for intelligence, investing, and learning about geopolitics.

Simple Productivity

What does every company need from their employees? Productivity.

What does every business owner want for himself? Productivity.

What do superior performers desire? Productivity.

How can we get our company to be more productive? Better processes, better procedures, better quality, better throughput.

So how do we get there? Simplify.

Have you looked at your processes and procedures recently? Your co-workers have to look through pages to get what information they need. Why can’t they be written in plain English with pictures rather than legalese?

Then look at your business from your customer’s eyes. How hard do you make it to order from you? Where can you make it simple?

How did Japanese automakers grow their market share? Their customers did not choose every individual option like American automakers. They offered standard and deluxe models with options included. The customer’s main choice was color. Inventory and pricing were streamlined, and they focused on making the models that were selling. Result - increasing profits. 

Where can you simplify today?

Day by Day Success

Success is built day by day. It does not appear magically overnight. The overnight successes you see on the news come after years of hard work.

What should be on your daily to do list?

•       Care about others
•       Listen & take feedback
•       Work on the important projects
•       Learn something new
•       Be 1% better than yesterday
•       Take Action
•       Repeat often

Build your success today.

Conceptualization The Most Important Skill

 Business (and life) is hard. Conditions are always changing. New customers have new needs and desires. Competition is always getting better and offering lower prices. Keeping your job requires flexibility, intelligence, persistence, quality work and caring. Knowing what needs to be done next is key to your success.

Abstract thinking is called Conceptualization. Defining conceptualization is subject to disagreement by experts and there is no degree in it. Probably because the uses vary depending on need.  Meridian Webster defines conceptualization “to form (an idea, picture, etc.) of something in your mind.” Math is a form of conceptualization.

Seeing what needs to be done next (planning) and problem solving are where you will see conceptualization applied. My usage has been developed through process planning, project management, and new product development. Visualizing 3D plus motion helped my engineering career.

Conceptualization is understanding how pieces fit together in a whole big picture. Then by manipulating the pieces you can optimize or improve the whole. Steve Jobs is famous for his visualization of how the future of technology should work and integrating existing technologies for the benefit of users.

Because the brain both thinks visually and in language, this is hard to teach. Different techniques have been developed to help us organize work for efficiency. Storyboards, Mind mapping, 5S, Lean, WIP boards, spreadsheets and project management all relate to conceptualization. Depending on your profession there are others you can use.

The best way to develop your skills is to apply them to your work. Albert Einstein called Imagination more important than knowledge. Users of conceptualization are found everywhere and often do not have the right degree. Presenting this skill through resumes is often unappreciated.

Yahoo Finance: “This one uberskill will always keep you employed”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-one-uberskill-will-always-keep-you-employed-172655122.html

“the ability to see how the elements of an abstract whole fit together and to identify problems that need to be addressed before others do.”

3 Networking Secrets

Being self-employed had to learn how to network. Being naturally shy it was difficult at first until learning these secrets.

1. Act as the Host/Hostess

Help someone prepare, show someone around, tell them where to find the registration table or bar. It is natural to start conversations with the people you help.

2. Ask Questions

People like talking about themselves. It is natural. So asking their name (and repeat it soon), what they do, how does the customer benefit, why they like their job, and who is their best prospect? After talking with you the good listener, they are ready to hear you and help.

3. Treat Everyone as Your Peer

Realized this week have done this my whole life with everyone from presidents to the new hire. Everybody is wired to be concerned about their own status with their neighbors. By being your equal they feel comfortable, and so are you. 

   Summary

The secrets are all based on focusing on the other people and their needs. Not focusing on our nervousness and neediness. By being human we make better connections and get customers and friends.

Networking is helping other people get what they want. Everyone offers valuable services and products including you. We add value when we connect people, which is why we network. By helping others we get what we want.

Clearing Your Mindset

Reading about Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analyst work.  Why? Because in a world that is always changing you have to be able to adjust your thinking. Look at things from different perspectives. See what has been done before, and think about other ways to create something new or solve a problem.

Coming up with the same solutions is a path to being outdated, stuck and competing only on price. This is the path to irrelevance and obsolescence.

Seeing the World.

How we see the world is shaped by our assumptions and perceptions. This is an issue because we see only what we expect to see. This mindset is formed from our education, training, viewing, reading and experiences.

There is nothing wrong having a mindset. We all have mindsets. But they can limit what you learn, think about, and the answers you come up with. This is why we work in teams and workshops with people of different responsibilities, professions, and backgrounds. To build a bigger diversified pictures.

The other thing to realize is teams often are as limited as we personally are. Groupthink is a truth we must face and overcome.

Problem Solving Errors

Initial analysis, ideas, and solutions are anchors that can prevent us from going further. They are strong and it takes more information to overcome our snap judgments.

This is why you often see teams trying to solver the wrong problem. They don’t realize they have jumped to a conclusion based on their experience. Have often seen managers blame production people for quality issues and just change the worker.

My saving grace is blaming the system, not the people involved. Allows me to see a bigger picture before trying to define a problem. The problem may have be out of tolerance parts, worn out tooling, bad design, machine wear, chips in the fixture, weak clamping force, and insufficient training.

My weakness is being stuck on one solution, the ‘best’ one. Was especially true when I was young. Experienced co-workers would often want ‘plan B’s to follow. I was try this and adjust if it does not preform as expected. Did not explore options as well as needed. My mindset has changed from learning more about mitigation. 

Mind you often simple problems are often resolved with the first solution. Complicated issues having more risks and less predictable results require us to look deeply, create multiple ideas, and mitigate everything.

A tentative hypothesis is the enemy of new hypotheses. How long does it take you to change your mind?

This comes from our mindsets, and we need to get past our limits to the best of our ability. Especially when dealing with ambiguous situations.

How do We Clear Our Mindset?

Being disciplined and have a checklist is a great start. You want to have a method to follow to not skip steps.

Research the Issue

Who is complaining? Why? What are the consequences?  Costs? Who is affected? What will be the effect for the customer? Effect for their consumer? Collect as much information, data, view points and issues as possible to mitigate.

Use an Organized System to Collect Possible Solutions

Do not overlook anyone’s ideas. Often we can ignore people because they don’t have the credentials. One of the best cost savings involved with came from the material handler and floor sweeper. Great ideas come from anywhere and we can build on them to make them better.

Rank and Prioritize Solutions

Get as many solutions together. How much will it cost to enact them? How much time will it take? Which issues do these solutions solve? The best solution is usually a combination of ideas and methods beyond the initial proposal. Don’t forget the quick fix has to be followed by a permanent solution.

Follow up

Failed solutions are often incomplete implementations. Other issues come up. Orders and new tooling have delays. Project manage plans until they are complete. Save solving the same issue next year.

More reading: 

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis - online book on critical thinking, written by Richards J. Heuer of the CIA

The Liar’s Club: Concealing Rework in Concurrent Development

MIT posted this interesting article about the issue of hidden rework in the development cycle. Your project can crash with surprise delays that destroy delivering on time, much less on budget.

http://web.mit.edu/jsterman/www/Liar's_club.html

Firms seeking competitive advantage to increase market share, profit, and growth have turned to concurrent development to speed the introduction of new products and beat their competitors to market. However like any other improvement process there are weakness and difficulties. Human nature does not want to be the bearer of bad news, and the managerial attention does not always help resolve the issue.

The F-35 is an example of concurrent development. While it looks like the development is now progressing well, the program looks like a money pit. The idea was instead of doing all the development on test planes, they could start production while still testing and writing the software necessary. Several years into the program design changes are still being made which require existing models to be changed, and the software is years behind schedule. The software on this program is critical to be able to use all the technology and weapons available.

The cost of the F-35 was getting close to breaking the Air Force budget before recently turning the program around. Some critic wondered if the day would ever come. (Don’t ask my thoughts on building one airplane to fill the needs of 3+ airplanes though) 

Did work with a smaller company that successfully implemented concurrent engineering in their development cycle. Why did it work? Reality was included with the plan, and being flexible enough to realize meeting schedule with an inferior product was worse than redesigning the product again.

On our first project we were working on the development schedule. The initial proposal was the standard design, prototype, testing, order machines & tooling, then start production. I asked, “Has any design worked the first time after testing?” The answer was no one could remember that happening. We need to plan for at least one redesign after testing and have a contingency plan for a second redesign. Including normal contingencies with average lead times in standard planning processes made the concurrent engineering process work. We used it both for new product development and product line extensions.

Back to fudging and hiding rework during development. This is a dangerous practice that can come back to hurt the team and the company. The natural tendency this setback is a small problem, and management does not need to know. What you don’t realize is your sponsor and other leaders may have more resources available that can speed up the redesigning and keep your project on schedule. Second the later a problem comes to the surface, the bigger the consequences for everyone involved.

Worked for a company that taught about Malpractice and the dangers to your career and the business. They made a video and repeated it yearly. Such danger for fudging, and little reward for doing it. We had one customer, the US Navy, and could have lost the business without their trust.

Leadership is doing the real work of getting things out of the way of your teams so your people succeed. Leaders have to make sure teams know they have your support to be comfortable to innovate. Besides only about 40% of software development project complete all features, on time, and within budget. Projects failing should not be a crisis but a normal situation to be handled calmly.

The quote jumped out at me ‘‘... don’t tell someone you have a problem unless you have the solution. You’re supposed to solve it—and then tell them.’’ This thought limits the chance to get more suggestions, ideas and develop more alternatives.

Found it helped if I showed up with the bad news, with some suggestions of my own or my teams, and was prepared for getting feedback & suggestions. More productive engagement came from being prepared and open. Make sure you are ready to deliver bad news and have leaders engaged when necessary.