“Well, Curmudge, we’re up here again on top of Liker’s ‘4P’ pyramid model of the Toyota Way. The climb wasn’t too difficult, but I sure wish the wind chill up here weren’t -25ºF.”
“Put on your nose mitten, Julie, and your earmuffs. But not too tightly; I want you to hear what we are discussing today. We’re still on Liker’s fourth ‘P’, Problem Solving, and we are going to start by talking about genchi genbutsu.”
“That’s an intimidating mouthful, Curmudge. I hope you plan to translate it. It sounds a lot like gemba, which we studied months ago.”
“You’re right. ‘Going to gemba’ and genchi genbutsu have essentially the same meaning. Specifically, genchi genbutsu may be translated as ‘going to the place to see the actual situation for understanding.’ Not only must one go and see for himself, he should also take full advantage of the wisdom and experience of others. In Japan, they speak of the Ohno Circle, a chalk circle on the shop floor where one stands—sometimes for hours—to gain a deep understanding of the process.”
“That sounds dangerous. If you stand in one place in many American factories for even five minutes, you are apt to be run over by a fork lift. Nevertheless, it’s an important concept. How can we Americanize it?”
“Remember in October when we talked about leading from the front? Our scenario was knights leading their troops on a medieval battlefield. It may seem like quite a stretch between that and genchi genbutsu, but you’ll soon see the connection. In today’s Army, leading from the front is more than just the lieutenant leading his platoon. It’s higher ranking officers—even generals—getting close to the action, talking with people, and seeing with their own eyes to learn the true situation. That’s the U.S. Army’s version of genchi genbutsu, although I doubt that anyone in the military realizes it.”
“And do you know what genchi genbutsu is in the hospital, Curmudge? It’s rounding! And in both places, the hospital and the battlefield, the leader not only has to see, he has to be seen.”
“Absolutely, Julie. As a wise person once said, ‘You must be seen to be heard.’ Communications from the boss are much better received if the people know that he has been there to share their situation and knows—first hand—what he is talking about.”
“Are there more Japanese problem-solving terms that we need to explain, Curmudge? If so, my guess is that you have more military analogies up your sleeve to use in Americanizing them.”
“Next time we’ll discuss hansei, or reflection. Be sure to be here.”
“Bye, Curmudge.”
“At ease, Julie.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
The Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Reach the Summit of the "4P" Pyramid
“Julie, we’ve reached the third ‘P’ of the Toyota Way pyramid, People and Partners, but we’re not going to stop here. We’re going all the way to the top.”
“We’re already pretty high. I hope we can make it to the summit without the Old Man’s heart giving out.”
“Old Man? Heart? Is there somebody else up here with us?”
“Well finally we’re here at the top. Wow! This is really high; I can see all the way to Darboy. Liker’s book says that the summit of the pyramid represents the fourth ‘P’, Problem Solving. But why, Curmudge, did we climb right past the third ‘P’, People and Partners?”
“I knew you’d ask. Because people are at the heart of Toyota’s problem-solving process, I didn’t feel that we could address the two topics separately. You recall back in August when we pointed out that respect for people was one of the main principles of Lean?”
“Of course. Who can forget the ‘no lay-off’ policy? That’s certainly a part of Toyota’s third ‘P’, but how does this relate to the fourth ‘P’, Problem Solving?”
“Traditional American management has been hierarchical, command-and-control, but Toyota’s management system—which we now call Lean—is participative. At Toyota, a leader is a teacher. When a problem arises, the management folks go to gemba and collaborate with the workers to find a solution. They question the workers repeatedly to find the root cause and then use Deming cycles to test their hypotheses. Sometimes the questioning gets pretty intense, and the workers have to convince the leaders that their ideas are valid.”
“Curmudge, that may work at Toyota, but American workers might find these question-and-answer confrontations very foreign and downright uncomfortable.”
“It might sound foreign, but the questioning process is just the Socratic Method. It’s been around for a couple of thousand years. It must have worked well, because although the Greeks weren’t building cars, they sure built temples and amphitheaters to last a long time. I’ll bet that once American workers realize how much their bosses value their insights, they will think that the Socratic Method is the best thing out of Greece since pizza.”
“Get with it Old Guy. Pizza is from Italy, not Greece.”
“At least I know where the important things, like baklava and ouzou, come from. By the way, I hope you realize that you and I used a form of the Socratic Method last week. It was The Five Why’s that we employed to identify the reason that Lean tools alone were insufficient for developing a Lean culture.”
“I think I get it, Curmudge. The Socratic Method ties the respect-for-people concept to problem solving. The give-and-take between managers and workers using the Socratic Method develops profound mutual respect. By having management’s confidence in their ability to control and correct their processes, the Toyota workers acquire a sense of ownership. Everyone knows that ownership is a powerful driver of quality.”
“That’s it, Julie. As Liker says, from executives to shop floor workers, ‘Toyota challenges people to use their initiative and creativity to experiment and learn.’ But that doesn’t happen overnight; it takes years of training and experience, and above all, the right people. Lean must become a culture; it’s not a quick fix.”
“All of that sounds great for making cars, but what about health care? How can we apply in the hospital what we have just learned?”
“I promise that we will tackle that soon. First, there are several more Japanese problem-solving concepts that we need to Americanize. We’ll continue with the fourth ‘P’ in our next conversation.”
“Okay, Curmudge, but let’s get off this pyramid for awhile. It’s windy up here.”
“We can either slide down or we can rappel. Did you bring a rope?”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“We’re already pretty high. I hope we can make it to the summit without the Old Man’s heart giving out.”
“Old Man? Heart? Is there somebody else up here with us?”
“Well finally we’re here at the top. Wow! This is really high; I can see all the way to Darboy. Liker’s book says that the summit of the pyramid represents the fourth ‘P’, Problem Solving. But why, Curmudge, did we climb right past the third ‘P’, People and Partners?”
“I knew you’d ask. Because people are at the heart of Toyota’s problem-solving process, I didn’t feel that we could address the two topics separately. You recall back in August when we pointed out that respect for people was one of the main principles of Lean?”
“Of course. Who can forget the ‘no lay-off’ policy? That’s certainly a part of Toyota’s third ‘P’, but how does this relate to the fourth ‘P’, Problem Solving?”
“Traditional American management has been hierarchical, command-and-control, but Toyota’s management system—which we now call Lean—is participative. At Toyota, a leader is a teacher. When a problem arises, the management folks go to gemba and collaborate with the workers to find a solution. They question the workers repeatedly to find the root cause and then use Deming cycles to test their hypotheses. Sometimes the questioning gets pretty intense, and the workers have to convince the leaders that their ideas are valid.”
“Curmudge, that may work at Toyota, but American workers might find these question-and-answer confrontations very foreign and downright uncomfortable.”
“It might sound foreign, but the questioning process is just the Socratic Method. It’s been around for a couple of thousand years. It must have worked well, because although the Greeks weren’t building cars, they sure built temples and amphitheaters to last a long time. I’ll bet that once American workers realize how much their bosses value their insights, they will think that the Socratic Method is the best thing out of Greece since pizza.”
“Get with it Old Guy. Pizza is from Italy, not Greece.”
“At least I know where the important things, like baklava and ouzou, come from. By the way, I hope you realize that you and I used a form of the Socratic Method last week. It was The Five Why’s that we employed to identify the reason that Lean tools alone were insufficient for developing a Lean culture.”
“I think I get it, Curmudge. The Socratic Method ties the respect-for-people concept to problem solving. The give-and-take between managers and workers using the Socratic Method develops profound mutual respect. By having management’s confidence in their ability to control and correct their processes, the Toyota workers acquire a sense of ownership. Everyone knows that ownership is a powerful driver of quality.”
“That’s it, Julie. As Liker says, from executives to shop floor workers, ‘Toyota challenges people to use their initiative and creativity to experiment and learn.’ But that doesn’t happen overnight; it takes years of training and experience, and above all, the right people. Lean must become a culture; it’s not a quick fix.”
“All of that sounds great for making cars, but what about health care? How can we apply in the hospital what we have just learned?”
“I promise that we will tackle that soon. First, there are several more Japanese problem-solving concepts that we need to Americanize. We’ll continue with the fourth ‘P’ in our next conversation.”
“Okay, Curmudge, but let’s get off this pyramid for awhile. It’s windy up here.”
“We can either slide down or we can rappel. Did you bring a rope?”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Friday, January 18, 2008
Jaded Julie learns that to succeed, Lean must follow a plan.
“Hi, Curmudge. We’ve been reading the books you recommended last time, but the kids wish they had more pictures of animals. However, they do like the sketches in the book by Pascal Dennis.”
“We’ll use an observation from Dennis’s book in a moment, Julie. First let’s return to our discussion from last time on Jeffrey Liker’s ‘4 P’ pyramid that depicts the Toyota production system. At the base of the pyramid is the first P, which stands for Toyota’s philosophy. We ‘Affinitized’ philosophy to mean the corporate goals of Affinity Health System. The second P up the pyramid stands for Processes. Toyota uses tools like one-piece flow, pull systems, and load leveling to remove waste from their processes.”
“And in health care we should be using Lean tools like 5S, value stream maps, and standard work. See, Curmudge, I’ve been reading the books.”
“Great, Julie! Keep it up. The important point is that most ‘Lean’ organizations in the U.S. never achieve a sustainable Lean culture despite their use of Lean tools. Do you have any idea why they don’t?”
“Is it because they don’t get to the third and fourth P’s of the pyramid?”
“Why don’t they?”
“Does someone in the organization’s administration pull the plug on Lean?”
“Right. But why would they do that?”
“Could it be that Lean did not meet their expectations?”
“Correct. But why didn’t it?”
“Perhaps they didn’t use Lean tools efficiently.”
“Why didn’t they? What was missing?”
“I’ve got it, Curmudge. It was because they didn’t follow a plan. We know that most anyone can hammer a nail, but you have to have a plan in order to build a house. By the way, Curmudge, we just did the ‘Five Why’s’ to find the root cause of our problem.”
“Congrats, Julie. I knew you could do it. For our answer, let’s paraphrase Mr. Dennis: The organizations that didn’t get beyond the second P did not use strategy deployment as their guidance and delivery system to focus their Lean tools on their business needs.”
“Strategy Deployment! Isn’t that one of the English translations of Hoshin Kanri planning? You and I spent much of September and October talking about that. If Affinity Health System is successful in deploying Hoshin Kanri, we should be able to move up the Toyota pyramid toward achieving a Lean culture.”
“And that’s what we are going to talk about next time. Meanwhile, keep reading those bedtime stories. I’ll try to find some of my grandson’s books with pictures of animals.”
“You realize, Curmudge, that we used a reverse translation in this lesson. We converted Strategy Deployment into Hoshin Kanri because the Japanese term is more familiar to our Affinity colleagues.”
“Good catch, Julie. Sometimes a foreign term is more meaningful than its English translation. In that case, we’ll use it.”
“Bye, Curmudge.”
“Ciao, Julie.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“We’ll use an observation from Dennis’s book in a moment, Julie. First let’s return to our discussion from last time on Jeffrey Liker’s ‘4 P’ pyramid that depicts the Toyota production system. At the base of the pyramid is the first P, which stands for Toyota’s philosophy. We ‘Affinitized’ philosophy to mean the corporate goals of Affinity Health System. The second P up the pyramid stands for Processes. Toyota uses tools like one-piece flow, pull systems, and load leveling to remove waste from their processes.”
“And in health care we should be using Lean tools like 5S, value stream maps, and standard work. See, Curmudge, I’ve been reading the books.”
“Great, Julie! Keep it up. The important point is that most ‘Lean’ organizations in the U.S. never achieve a sustainable Lean culture despite their use of Lean tools. Do you have any idea why they don’t?”
“Is it because they don’t get to the third and fourth P’s of the pyramid?”
“Why don’t they?”
“Does someone in the organization’s administration pull the plug on Lean?”
“Right. But why would they do that?”
“Could it be that Lean did not meet their expectations?”
“Correct. But why didn’t it?”
“Perhaps they didn’t use Lean tools efficiently.”
“Why didn’t they? What was missing?”
“I’ve got it, Curmudge. It was because they didn’t follow a plan. We know that most anyone can hammer a nail, but you have to have a plan in order to build a house. By the way, Curmudge, we just did the ‘Five Why’s’ to find the root cause of our problem.”
“Congrats, Julie. I knew you could do it. For our answer, let’s paraphrase Mr. Dennis: The organizations that didn’t get beyond the second P did not use strategy deployment as their guidance and delivery system to focus their Lean tools on their business needs.”
“Strategy Deployment! Isn’t that one of the English translations of Hoshin Kanri planning? You and I spent much of September and October talking about that. If Affinity Health System is successful in deploying Hoshin Kanri, we should be able to move up the Toyota pyramid toward achieving a Lean culture.”
“And that’s what we are going to talk about next time. Meanwhile, keep reading those bedtime stories. I’ll try to find some of my grandson’s books with pictures of animals.”
“You realize, Curmudge, that we used a reverse translation in this lesson. We converted Strategy Deployment into Hoshin Kanri because the Japanese term is more familiar to our Affinity colleagues.”
“Good catch, Julie. Sometimes a foreign term is more meaningful than its English translation. In that case, we’ll use it.”
“Bye, Curmudge.”
“Ciao, Julie.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
Monday, January 14, 2008
The Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Americanize the Lean Culture
“Julie, repeat after me, ‘Lean is more than a set of tools’.”
“Okay. ‘Lean is more than a set of tools.’ But why so abrupt, Curmudge? I realize that it is a new year and all, but where are your workplace pleasantries?”
“After that long Christmas break…”
“Holiday break!”
“…I thought we needed to shock ourselves into serious thinking.”
“Okay, Curmudge, consider me shocked. My brain is booted up and ready to go. I believe that in our last serious discussion, back on December 10, you said that the real challenge of Lean is learning, accepting, and implementing its culture.”
“Right, Julie. I fear that because we Americans grew up in a culture different from that of the original Japanese Lean practitioners, we might not get beyond the Lean-is-a-set-of-tools concept.”
“So what are we going to do to overcome the problem, Curmudge?”
“My guess is that for most potential cultural barriers, we can find an American analog that might surmount it. Let’s use Jeffrey Liker’s book, The Toyota Way, as our principal reference on Lean culture. You’ve read it, of course?”
“Of course. Last week I read it to the kids as a bedtime story.”
“Do I detect a facetious note? Well anyway, let’s proceed. Liker depicts the ‘Toyota Way’ as a pyramid with each of the four levels identified by a word starting with ‘P’. Philosophy is at the base of the pyramid, and Toyota bases their management decisions on their long-term philosophy.”
“I’m beginning to see the problem, Curmudge. Most Americans don’t think much about philosophy; and if their employer had one, they wouldn’t know what it is. To many folks, philosophy is what you can study for years, earn several advanced degrees in, and still be unemployed.”
“Suppose, Julie, that here at Affinity we substitute corporate goals for philosophy. Recall a few months ago when we talked about Corporate Goals, Strategies, and Hoshins? Those terms should be more familiar to our staff than philosophy. If anyone in management doesn’t know our goals, he’d better learn fast.”
“That makes sense to me, Curmudge. Count one cultural speed bump to be out of the road. Will there be more?”
“That’s my plan. Things like hansei and genchi genbutsu. Liker translates the Japanese into English; we’ll try to Americanize the cultural concepts. Perhaps we can even ‘Affinitize’ them for our colleagues at Affinity Health System. We’ll tackle these in our next conversations.”
“It seems like a real challenge, Curmudge. I suspect that you have been hitting the books again and have found some things that will help us.”
“Right. I’ve listed some below that you will want to become acquainted with.”
Hardwiring Excellence by Quint Studer
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Getting the Right Things Done by Pascal Dennis
It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff
Be, know, do; Leadership the Army way. Adapted from the official Army leadership manual.
“Curmudge, do you really expect me to read all of those books?”
“It’s like you just said. You can read them as bedtime stories to your children. Every parent and grandparent knows that children are voracious bedtime story listeners.”
“But we might get sticky little fingerprints on your books.”
“Nighty-night, Julie.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
“Okay. ‘Lean is more than a set of tools.’ But why so abrupt, Curmudge? I realize that it is a new year and all, but where are your workplace pleasantries?”
“After that long Christmas break…”
“Holiday break!”
“…I thought we needed to shock ourselves into serious thinking.”
“Okay, Curmudge, consider me shocked. My brain is booted up and ready to go. I believe that in our last serious discussion, back on December 10, you said that the real challenge of Lean is learning, accepting, and implementing its culture.”
“Right, Julie. I fear that because we Americans grew up in a culture different from that of the original Japanese Lean practitioners, we might not get beyond the Lean-is-a-set-of-tools concept.”
“So what are we going to do to overcome the problem, Curmudge?”
“My guess is that for most potential cultural barriers, we can find an American analog that might surmount it. Let’s use Jeffrey Liker’s book, The Toyota Way, as our principal reference on Lean culture. You’ve read it, of course?”
“Of course. Last week I read it to the kids as a bedtime story.”
“Do I detect a facetious note? Well anyway, let’s proceed. Liker depicts the ‘Toyota Way’ as a pyramid with each of the four levels identified by a word starting with ‘P’. Philosophy is at the base of the pyramid, and Toyota bases their management decisions on their long-term philosophy.”
“I’m beginning to see the problem, Curmudge. Most Americans don’t think much about philosophy; and if their employer had one, they wouldn’t know what it is. To many folks, philosophy is what you can study for years, earn several advanced degrees in, and still be unemployed.”
“Suppose, Julie, that here at Affinity we substitute corporate goals for philosophy. Recall a few months ago when we talked about Corporate Goals, Strategies, and Hoshins? Those terms should be more familiar to our staff than philosophy. If anyone in management doesn’t know our goals, he’d better learn fast.”
“That makes sense to me, Curmudge. Count one cultural speed bump to be out of the road. Will there be more?”
“That’s my plan. Things like hansei and genchi genbutsu. Liker translates the Japanese into English; we’ll try to Americanize the cultural concepts. Perhaps we can even ‘Affinitize’ them for our colleagues at Affinity Health System. We’ll tackle these in our next conversations.”
“It seems like a real challenge, Curmudge. I suspect that you have been hitting the books again and have found some things that will help us.”
“Right. I’ve listed some below that you will want to become acquainted with.”
Hardwiring Excellence by Quint Studer
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
Getting the Right Things Done by Pascal Dennis
It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Capt. D. Michael Abrashoff
Be, know, do; Leadership the Army way. Adapted from the official Army leadership manual.
“Curmudge, do you really expect me to read all of those books?”
“It’s like you just said. You can read them as bedtime stories to your children. Every parent and grandparent knows that children are voracious bedtime story listeners.”
“But we might get sticky little fingerprints on your books.”
“Nighty-night, Julie.”
Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon
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