True Crime meets Lean.

Its holiday, and I really hope you had a great time this Christmas. I hope Santa brought all your gifts and really hope that companies, as well the economy in general will get better for everybody in the world. 

Tonight I want to talk about podcasts. I´m kind of addicted to podcasts. I have been subscribed to Gemba Academy and Mark Graban´s podcasts for a while now. They are really great, so if you haven´t listen to them, I urge you to do it. You will get insights related to Lean and different other topics, such as Customer Service, leadership, continuous improvement and one of the most important, that I have been able to know other authors, speakers and leaders who work everyday to spread the knowledge and principles around Lean, and also to correct the misconceptions around it.  

Podcast: a program (such as a music or news program) that is like
radio  or television show but that is downloaded over the Internet.

Thanks to that and that I read the New Yorker, I came across with Serial. The famous podcast that during its first season, told the story of Adnan Syed, who was charged on the murder of his ex-girlfriend and locked for the last 17 years. The people who know me on a personal level, knows that I am true crime fan. And also a fan of series. So if you haven´t heard it, and you like the topic, listen to it. It is very good and the quality on the production is something that deserves a try. This is relevant because I found, recently a new podcast; Accused.  This podcast, in the tradition of Serial, tells the story of Elizabeth Andes, who´s case remains unsolved. Well at least that is what the journalist Amber Hunt says about this case. Elevator speech is; Elizabeth Andes was murdered, the police charged the boyfriend as the killer, but two different juries found him not guilty and he walked.

Accused: Podcast about the Elizabeth Andes case. A jumping to
conclusions case that has remained unsolved for 37 years.

So, what do this horrible story has to do with Lean? A lot in my opinion. Police was convinced the boyfriend was guilty, they even got a confession, but still, the boyfriend walked away. In the podcast, the Cincinatti Enquirer digs deep to try to know the truth. And what is noticeable is that despite the amount of evidence, the many suspects that weren´t investigated, the Police is still convinced that they charged the right guy, but they say that:

The justice system, just didn't work. 

This is the main reason why the police hasn't investigated further, and why this case is still unsolved and open, even though the police says they had the right guy. Through the episodes, is clear that police didn't like the fact that someone suggests that they may have Accused the wrong guy. Over and over we hear that they got the right guy, they don´t believe anybody else did it. And made me reflect why it is so hard for humans to accept the possibility of making an error. 

Basically  this story, is about jumping to conclusions before making a proper analysis: the result is that the case has remained unsolved for 37 years. Does that sound familiar? Jumping right away to conclusions? Pointing fingers to someone who was later determined to be innocent? This is very similar to business. I realize that we don´t like to be told that we committed a mistake. I believe it is because we have been taught that being wrong is bad. That we should avoid being wrong and that too often being wrong may bring undesired consequences. We are, basically taught to fear making mistakes. Being wrong is in fact, one of the best ways to learn and develop skills such as resilience, discipline and careful observation. PDSA is  based on trying different solutions, and observe the effect those solutions have on a given problem. Learning from each experiment and re-think the approach to the problem, until the issue is either solve or the solution is improved. Toyota kata are a series of routines that allow controlled experiments to be conducted in order to solver a situation or specific problem and, learn from them. So basically, encouraging, in a controlled way, failure and learning about our the plan, what´s preventing from achieving the results, and what to do next. Which I find powerful, because in the end, we are learning more from the situation we try to modify. 

Toyota Kata Process.
Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/Materials_to_Download.html

I think that´s why  babies do a lot of disasters. They throw things, paint walls, and basically create a big mess every time they can. Through this experiments, they learn, and absorb knowledge about the world and the situations around them. If this is a natural manner to learn? Why isn´t failure encouraged? Why taught kids that failing is wrong? Of course, nobody wants to fail. However, if we fail in a controlled way, is actually something really good. Just ask Toyota. 

I guess changing our beliefs, and the things we have been taught since kids, isn´t easy. But we must start at some point. And recognizing that we may have made a mistake, is a very good start. And of course, take actions to either confirm our mistake and take a new route, or be sure that we did it right the first time. In both cases great learning can be found. What have we done correctly to achieve the desired result? and of course, What have we done incorrectly and what needs to be done now in order to achieve the desired results? 

Of course, to do this, we require methods and systems that allow experimentation on a continuous basis. But also, experiment without harming our customers. Here is when Lean can help to create those systems. And at the same time, change the way failure and mistakes are perceived.  It may not be easy, but sure can be done. Probably in the case described in Accused, may not be right away, but  I´m confident that new techniques, technologies and methods will help to bring light to the situation soon. In the mean time, Lean thinkers should take lessons learned, reflect, and at the same time hear our podcasts this holidays. 

Hopefully this new year, won´t commit the same mistakes we did last year. I truly hope that this 2017 would be a better year for all!

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading. I would love to read your thoughts about this topic. Please leave a comment and read you next time. 

Lean stories at Nummi & pride at work.

NUMMI & the joy of Work

Recently I was able to find and old NUMMI episode from This American Life, where describes more less why GM wasn´t able to replicate the operational & cultural practices from its peer Toyota. Well, at least, they didn´t replicate that in a quick manner, but until the 2000´s almost 20 years later after the NUMMI plant opened in Fremont Ca, as part of a joint venture with Toyota. If you haven´t listen to this episode, I suggest that you do it. Clic here to go that episode, but please come back as i Have another suggestion on this topic. 

After re-visiting this fascinating story, I was able to find other “New” podcast on this story. “The Bridge” is a podcast from San Francisco, and it mainly is about interest topics or issues that This City experiences. Some episodes explore the bay one street corner at a time, there´s another about Parkinson´s disease, homeless people and so on. The end of the season 1, talks about a familiar story for the Lean community: NUMMI. But explores the side effect of this plant´s closure. It is called the Life after NUMMI. If you haven´t hear it, i suggest you also do it by clicking here. 

New United Motor Manufacturing, in Freemont CA.

The half hour show talks about what happened after the plant was shutdown. It examines the life of a couple of workers, they tell some stories about the jokes, the people they worked with, the struggles of finding another job. Please remember this car factory closed in 2010 when the recession was at its peak, and finding another job like that, was just almost imposible. 

Although the podcast takes a couple of workers, I believe the represent the feeling and what it was like to work at NUMMI. The show opens describing the 5 year reunion from NUMMI employees. Sara Rogers, She was the tour coordinator at the factory, and worked there for 11 years. In the chapter she described the way she used to conduct the tour, and interact with workers as they assembled cars. At the beginning of the explanation she remembers explaining visitors the key values practiced at the factory: Kaizen, Kanban, Jidoka, Muda, Genchi gembutsu, etc. As she used to drive around the plant she named the people working at the worked stations. She remembers, the tour being about the factory and the people working within the factory, as she explains:

“ Here´s a tire, and here is Bob, working with a tire. Here´s an engine, and here´s Jason working with an engine”.

She used to tell stories about the people, she also says:

“ Those where the folks I worked for, you know I worked for those folks”.

The podcast also explains that during the various slumps car demand had through out the years, NUMMI never lay anyone off. When demand was week, one shift took classes about, safety, sexual harassment, history of Toyota and so on. Rogers remembers teaching about that last topic. And at this point, if you are listening, you can still hear the excitement in her voice, remembering all these concepts, stories and the fact that NUMMI never layoff anyone. Until the plant closed, and 

“And the Dream ended”.

April 1st, 2010 a red Corolla was the last car that came out of the plant. She explains that she wanted to be there until 90. She had no plans to retire, and she wanted to be there forever. 

I feel that there have been very few times where I´ve felt this same way. But I don´t remember feeling like that all the time. Typically in my case, there are times where you feel super motivated at job and there are some others, where you feel more like, you gotta do what you gotta do, is your job, and the motivation is pretty low. What place was NUMMI that a worker felt like working there was worth it doing it forever?

Ok, probably you´re thinking at this point; right her job was conducting tours. Is not the same as being assembling parts together every minute, attached to a work station, in a repetitive job. That´s true, but also, being a tour guide, doesn´t really help to change the world right? So, my thought is related about how good, happy environment it was and how was possible that those people would stay motivated to actually love their jobs. Is not that i don´t like my own job, but as I have explained before, at some point motivation isn´t at its peak. 

So, to me the fact that someone like Rogers still remembers her work with such pride, tells me one simple thing, and is the fact that she felt joy at her work. She had a purpose, which as a consequence, Intrinsic Motivation. It is supposed to exist two kinds of motivations, according to the book Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates Us, written by Daniel H. Pink.

Intrinsic motivation and Extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation are all variables such as wage, benefits, the things we buy and would like to posses that come as a consequence of having a job.  They are powerful, but they only do the trick in the short run. Cause as we know, the brain has a feature to adapt quickly to changes in our lives, so If you have a raise, it´s exciting, motivates you super high, but it only lasts for a short period of time. As the brain gets used to having more money on your wallet and accepts that as the norm. Intrinsic motivation is the kind of motivation that busts us in the long run. It requires autonomy, mastery and purpose to keep that kind of motivation driving our behaviour. Rogers describes how she conducted tours, and looks like she had the three  (motivators) at her job. But, speaking from experience, this is not something you can easily have, or achieve or even look for. Must son us, work because we need to cover basic needs: food, home, health, etc. and if along comes some of the intrinsic factors just discussed before, is a bonus. 

If you hear the podcast as the last Red Corolla was coming out of the line, you could hear people cheering  and clapping with joy. I don´t think that was coincidence, and all those guys, weren't also tour guides. So to get to point, I believe is because the management style and system created that allow people not only cover the basic needs “extrinsic motivation”, but also, the deeper needs “intrinsic motivation” that help a worker stay focus, motivated and with joy in the long run, as he works. 

Dr. Edwards Deming

This makes me remember Dr. Deming who put a great amount of responsibility on managers/management.  Pointing that creating good systems is management´s job, allowing people to take pride and joy at work. I´m convinced a true Lean System can do that. I´m convinced that that´s what TPS did at NUMMI, despite what Labor Notes claims, I know Lean works and can be great for everybody. 

Looks like for all the people who worked at NUMMI, things will never be the same. As Mario Mendes explains later in the podcast:

“It´s ok, It´s not the same. You get greasy and dirty. And is not like NUMMI”.

What also caught my eye, is the fact that Tesla Motors, bought the old building, after NUMMI was  closed,  for a really cheap price. Many of the workers from NUMMI, couldn´t make it to the new company. Which is really sad, as they had the skills, the culture, and the habits to help Tesla be more efficient, and perhaps, save some money on the training. Mendes explains it was really hard to get hired at Tesla as they weren't hiring people over 50. Same thing happen when I worked at Ford. When the Cuautitlan plant reopen, and I was hired back in 2009, most of workers where under 30. I believe it was because of budget, culture, and thinking that younger people would fit better than older people. I will go there on a future post, about the similarities Ford tried with Cuautitlan plant and NUMMI.

What do you think? Do you feel motivated with your the job/system you work in? What changes can we make to keep motivated ourselves in our current jobs? 

Would love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment below. 

Tolerating behaviours and creating a Bad culture.

With the recent Scandal under which, the biggest bank in US, Wells Fargo has been for the last days, much has been going on and the bank as well as the CEO have been on the spotlight. More than than 5,300 people have been fired, using the old saying of bad apples.

This makes me think about practices most companies and leaders tolerate, that may not necessary be productive neither wanted. But, before you continue reading this, If you still don´t know what I´m talking about, clic here to get a quick brief summary on the scandal and go back here. 

Wells Fargo CEO, John Stumpf

The story says that employees illegally, and without customers consent, opened millions of accounts in order to achieve the goals and targets set by managers.

The bank, of course, blames the employees who archly did this, without managers and supervisors knowing. Of course this shows the poor leadership practiced in the bank, starting from the CEO: John Stumpf who said:

On average 1 percent [of employees] have not done the right thing and we terminated them. I don’t want them here if they don’t represent the culture of the company

As you can see in the rest of the article from Washington Post, he blames employees, and explains little about the company, the management practices that need to change or completely stopped. The culture of the company might be one, pushing for metrics, forcing employees to do whatever needs to be done to get the quota and then tolerating when those same employees took wrong, illegal decisions.

My first thinking is about the supervisors or managers who saw the emails linked to the ghosts accounts. Email addresses with names of 1234@ or noname@ i believe aren´t hard to notice, so my question is, did managers or executives knew about what was going on and did nothing? Did they encourage this behaviour' or decided to tolerate it?

Wells Fargo CEO said he seeks for perfection and I truly believe that in order to achieve perfection we need to stop tolerating the small things that drive a company´s culture. Why is it ok to tolerate that workers do things just to comply with a "requirement"? Why is it ok to tolerate the thinking that quality is quality´s department responsibility? Why is it ok to tolerate results/metrics manipulation in order to show everything is ok? Why is it ok to tolerate indifference to improvement? Why encourage the thinking of not invented here? Why is it ok to allow meetings to start late? Why is it ok to have meeting that lead to nowhere?

Those small activities in my opinion aren´t small at all. They reveal the true culture of a company, beyond the slogans or quality policies hanging on walls.

One might think that there is no comparison between allowing a meeting to start late and allowing workers to open fake accounts. But maybe, one thing let to another. First you allow a meeting to start late, allow that meeting go nowhere, then you start allowing people to deliver wrong information, late, then you start allowing people to tweak a little the metrics, and so on.

I believe that leaders and managers, need to be aware and correct these behaviours in order to maintain the right culture in the company. To achieve perfection details count. Details are important because reveal the company´s culture, and the kind of leadership that is held across managers and top executives. If executives and managers allow "these small details", we shouldn´t blame workers, but the system the company created that allowed wrong behaviours every day.

Wells Fargo might have forgotten one of the most controversial points from Dr. Deming:

Eliminate numerical quotas for the work force.

In this case, this point from Deming is perfect for Wells Fargo situation. They created this crazy numerical quotas that forced people to do extraordinary things to achieve them, because of the fear to be fired. Workers shouldn´t fear something at work. They should enjoy and find purpose in order to give their best. As Dr. Deming demonstrated long ago.

What are your thoughts regarding this unacceptable Wells Fargo behaviour? Do you think am I being too tough when comparing meetings and opening bank accounts?

Workers who work hard are the best ones. Is that so?

Dr. Edwards Deming was an exceptional person. I first heard about him in late 90´s when I was in University. I found and I still find his thoughts and teachings, way forward his time. A Lean thinker and an Innovator. Unfortunately most companies, and professionals, event College professors, acknowledge his famous 14 points, along with his PDSA cycle (PDCA) cycle. What is often missed, is his extraordinary philosophy that lead to a country out of the ashes. I think his Red Bead Experiment his a great proof on what he taught about managers, systems and the way work was done back on his days (and probably today).

His controversial thoughts on Individual Performance Review aren´t as well known or understood as other aspects of his legacy and they might be the most important lessons from all his work.  They are as relevant today as they were 20 or 30 years ago.

The quote:

We need to work smarter not harder.

Sadly, today in 2016, there are a few managers that still think that, a worker who sweat, runs, and finishes exhausted at the end of her/his shift, are the best ones. Those who try to work, run, move, sweat less, but still meet her/his targets are the bad apples that will contaminate others, into seeking working less. I don´t blame those managers, cause I used to think the same way. Years back, around 2005 I used to think that way. 

I remember that at one production meeting, I said:

We need to tell them  (the workers) what to do, they just need to do it.

How wrong I was. I see clearly now, but at that time this was a common thought for me. And even for others. I remember that when saying that infamous phrase others nodded with their heads, approving my statement.

But fast forward to 2016, this kind of thought is still really common everywhere. As another proof, I saw a LinkedIn job post that caught my attention. It was from a trendy company. At the end of the job´s details there where enlisted all benefits this position was offering. One caught my eye, saying.  Unlimited vacation days: Work hard and take time when you need it. Even though the benefit sounded great, immediately saw the wrong word on that phrase. Work smart and take time when you need it would have been a better statement.

There is no mystery that we all want to be comfortable at work. There are so many articles and studies with scientific evidence that tells you that, when a worker has the right conditions, his performance will increase automatically. You can read some here, here and here. I remember that during my days at Ford, we had the manufacturing standards. Those standards meant to ensure that the technician would have the right resources available and the right conditions in place, to ensure that will comply with cycle time, meeting safety, quality, and cost expectations. Those standards included, number of walks from the workstation to the rack of materials, light in the workstation, workload (work content) in the station. I remember that in one chat with my manager of that time, He told me that he was involved on the meetings to discussed flow of materials, layout, etc. And one key consideration was that there shouldn´t be a point on the floor where the bathroom was more than 65 ft away. During these meetings, the committee involved in the discussion, found that often the 2 elements the worker hated the most were:

• Having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the cycle time.
• Sweating because of heat.   

The way to control the first one, was to place bathrooms closer to the workstations to avoid stress on the worker because he wanted to go there but the line couldn´t be stopped. This way a worker could go, and the team leader could support during his absence for brief periods of time. 

The second condition, the committee thought about air conditioned, but unfortunately, as the plant was old, couldn´t support the installation of an AC system, plus the cost was way over the budget. Again, damn cost – benefit analysis. Will write on a different post about that.

The thing is that they tried to provide the best conditions they could, for their workers. They were sure and they knew their efforts would payoff later. 

However, even though ergonomics and work conditions have been recognized in the recent years, we still have managers who look at you when you leave the office early. Some others classify people as lazy when they just try to do things easier. Now, we have to recognize that too often the path from our current conditions and practices to an easier work environment, process or practices isn’t easy at all. Cultural and mindset changes may be involved, and this isn´t easy to achieve. Many of our current managers, bosses, directors haven´t been exposed to different ways of thinking. Many of them recall and practice the original management style they learned at the beginning of their careers. I cannot blame them. After all, they have reach managerial positions with this style and it is very difficult to change their ways. However, we must think that if we do not recognize the undisputable facts that conditions, have on the productivity, on processes (industrial, administrative, services, etc.) other companies will, and in fact have, taking a competitive advantage over us.

Deming used to think that the majority of problems were due to poor managerial practices. Most of times it is true. It is management responsibility to provide the best conditions for workers to perform. That includes not only physical conditions, but create openness, team work and creative environments where workers can help with ideas, suggestions and experimentation. Recently read a phrase attributed to Taichi Ohno, that stated:

In Toyota we hire people to think.

In order to do so, management must create and environment where workers are allowed to think,

proposed and experiment. But at the same time, managers must be willing to listen, coach, provide , challenge and respect people´s opinions and ideas. That is the second pillar on the TPS system.

And that´s why is often missed from many companies who think or try to implement Lean practices.

Thanks for reading, hope to see your thoughts at the bottom.