The Deming Cycle
October 21, 2009 at 10:25 pm | In Business, Change, Improvement, Lean Process, Performance, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Improvement, Performance
Following the Second World War, Japan was struggling to regenerate its manufacturing base and a key feature in this struggle was the need to generate a culture of quality.
Their economic saviour in many ways was Dr W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who was so influential in creating a culture of quality that Japan still has an annual quality award that bears his name. He is a venerable hero of the Quality movement.
A tool that Deming employed frequently for quality and process improvement was the Plan, Do, Check, Act process.
This later became known as the Deming Cycle.
The key principle of this cycle is iteration and feedback.
The key stages are:
PLAN - Design or change a business process with the aim of improving results
DO - Implement the change and measure the change in results
CHECK - Compare the measurements with the original performance to assess improvements
ACT - Decide on the changes that are needed to improve the process
Repeated time and again the PDCA drives any process towards a peak of improved performance. In many ways, this approach now underpins many of the process improvement approaches used in business today.
The Kaizen approach of the Lean process is an iterative improvement process
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) of the Six Sigma school is also an iterative approach.
Rummler and Brache (1991) also suggested an approach that repeated a pattern of Identify, Analyse and Improve.
And there are many more.
There are 2 key things to remember about any such iterative approaches:
1. What you measure is critical. You must get your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) correct. Measure the wrong parameter and you improve the wrong thing.
2. If you your process isn’t the correct one in the first instance then you can improve but you are only moving towards a ‘suboptimal’ peak of performance.
The graph below shows what can happen if you focus on only improving the current process.
If you start on the left hand peak, you will optimise, but you will optimse the wrong process.
You should take away from this the need to not only consider improvement as an approach but ensure you are improving the correct process. Suboptimal is exactly that!
Dare to Aspire
Six Thinking Hats
October 20, 2009 at 10:11 pm | In Business, Improvement, Models, Performance, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Thinking
When faced with a problem, it can be beneficial to consider a number of different perspectives on that problem.
Different perspectives can often reveal different factors and features and can potentially reveal a variety of innovative solutions.
Using a structured approach to selecting these different perspectives is a sign of disciplined and logical thinking and an approach typified in Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.
The approach is extremely simple but can be very effective in problem solving.
Each thinker metaphorically adopts a ‘thinking hat’ and then constrains their thinking to just that perspective. Swapping hats allows you to focus on alternative viewpoints until options are exhausted.
Edward De Bono recommends these 6 different ‘hats’ to guide you into thinking from these 6 different perspectives.
Blue Hat: Wear this hat to define the problem and scope of the issue.
White Hat: Wear this hat and focus on the facts of the situation. Look at the features, factors, functions, gaps in process and knowledge. Look for trends, patterns and developments.
Red Hat: Wear this hat to explore the emotions surrounding the problem. Note what you feel instinctively, what your gut tells you.
Yellow Hat: Wear this hat to explore the positive aspects of the issue. What about this is constructive and what can you benefit or learn from? Look for value and benefit.
Green Hat: Wear this hat to develop creative and innovation options. Imaginative solutions that break the mental mould are developed with this hat.
Black Hat: Look for things that are broken or won’t work. What is weak about the issue or solution?
Although this approach can be used by an individual, it has equal if not more effect when it is used by a group. The blue hat would direct the group, and different members of the team would wear ‘hats’ that explored the various perspectives.
The results from this approach should be interesting and useful and may even be quite dramatic. At the very least you and your team will begin to break out of your normal thinking habits.
Dare to Aspire
10 Tips for Successful of Entrepreneurship
October 11, 2009 at 1:38 pm | In Business, Improvement, Leadership, Performance | 2 CommentsTags: Braincram, Entrepreneurship, Success
Starting your own business can be an exciting and exhilarating challenge. It can also be an overwhelming and somewhat daunting experience for anyone. Here are 10 tips that will help you think about the more strategic level things you need to think about. Don’t forget that you will also need to look after the more detailed part of the business too, delivery, marketing, accounting, cashflow management etc.
Have Goals
If you don’t know what you are going, how will you know if you are moving the right direction and how will you know when you get there? Goals need to be clear and compelling; a vision so appealing that it pulls you out of bed in the morning and keeps you driving on into the small hours of the morning.
Work Hard
Building a business is hard work…Busy, busy, busy, hard work, hard work, hard work. You will need your compelling vision to keep you motivated and ensuring that you persist even when you are struggling to find the energy to keep going. Persistence is critical. Make just one more call, write one more email, do just 10 more minutes work and you will be that much closer to your goal.
Know your Market
Whatever you are doing, you need to make sure that someone is interested in paying you for it. You need to know what you target market wants and how they want it. You will also need to know how to approach them and how to sell the benefits of your service or product to that market.
Be Innovative and Differentiate
If you don’t differentiate, then you are only doing the same as many others and you can only compete on price. All you are offering your customers is another choice in a market of businesses saying ‘Me too!’
If you are doing something different, then you have another way to compete and can offer your customers something that stands out from the crowd. Mercedes Benz cars don’t cry ‘me too!’ to their customers. So should you?
Believe in What you are Doing
People only buy what they know will meet their needs. They will also only buy when they have a level of confidence that a product of service will meet that need. So the sales process is a way to ensure that your customer develops confidence in what you are offering and then commits to buying it.
How will you persuade them that what you are offering will meet their need if you don’t have at least the same level of confidence in what you are offering? The sales process then becomes a conversation aimed at building and sharing your confidence level with your customer so that they are convinced and buy.
Stay Focused
You will achieve more if you are focused on doing one thing at a time. One task, one goal, one business idea. I recommend reading Jurgen Wolff’s book ‘Focus’ to give you some ideas and techniques to help you focus more effectively.
Develop Relationships
All businesses are people businesses. People take the actions, people make the sales, people buy the product, and people promote you business with endorsements and recommendations. The more time you spend developing relationships, the more effectively you will be able to manage and build your business.
Surround Yourself with Great People
As an entrepreneur, you will very soon recognise that won’t be able to do everything yourself. Indeed the very characteristics of being an entrepreneur means that you are better at building a business than achieving the individual delivery tasks within that business.
So ensure you hire or work with great people, especially people who are better at doing key tasks than you are.
If you hire people that are not as good as you, then you will build a company where you are continually checking on people and being disappointed with their output.
Hire great people and then set them free to achieve.
Lead Your Team
Part of being an entrepreneur is giving your team the guidance they need to fulfil the vision. Sharing your vision is not enough. You also need to ensure that the team is continually supported in the delivering that vision and are rewarded when they make significant progress towards achieving it. There are many models of leadership and leading, but the simplest form is to’ know the way, to show the way and to go the way!’
Cheesy perhaps, but it captures the sentiment of leadership in very simple terms.
Never Stop Selling
Never forget that you are running a business and that you need revenue to survive. Let your mantra be ‘Customer and Cash’.
You must, at a bare minimum, satisfy your customers. I would suggest that your best approach is to make them raving fans. But you must always be thinking of how to make the sale. Sometimes you can sell at the first opportunity. Other times you will need to make a continual investment in the relationship in order to establish credibility and have your prospect believe enough to become a customer. Always be building the relationship and the selling will take care of itself.
These are just 10 of many tips that you will read about and learn from myriad sources. Although not exhaustive, they are useful to have in mind when you are building your business.
Dare to Aspire
Tips for critical thinking
March 25, 2009 at 9:23 pm | In Improvement, Performance, Thinking | Leave a CommentTags: Thinking
In this sound bite filled world, we are rarely given very much time to think critically about the information that we are presented with.
The media presents the message they want to in a 30 second snap shots and move on to the next story before you question the message. Written articles are little more than hidden agendas presented in small visual fields primed for mental grazing rather than serious contemplation.
Critical thinking is important to ensure you are not left thinking the same as everyone else and in the way that the media want you to.
If we all think the same, then no-one is actually thinking, just following everyone else. Here are a few tips to help you think critically:
- Be informed – Read as much as you can on key subjects and read what different people think about those subjects. Having a variety of opinions to consider allows you to make a more informed decision about what YOU think.
- Avoid making an early decisions – Allow yourself the time to consider and don’t pre-judge any situation or idea. Think ‘vu ja de’ not ‘de ja vu’. Look at everything as though you have never seen it before.
- Be open to new ideas – Having a curious mind will allow you to ask questions more readily and be critical of those ideas read and hear.
- Be honest with yourself – People have prejudices and biases, we all do. They allow us to make rapid decisions without the effort of thinking too much. Being aware of these prejudices and biases can help you be more open to alternative views.
- Look for the truth value – Spin is endemic in the media. Look for the truth in the message and search for the reason a message is crafted in a particular way.
- Find the facts hidden in the opinion – Facts are facts no matter which way you look at them, opinions are different views of those facts. Find the facts and develop your own opinion.
Although not a rigorous set of rules for critical thinking, applying these ideas can help you sort the information from the agenda. Even in this posting!
Dare to Aspire
Common Mistakes in Proposal Writing
September 6, 2008 at 12:17 pm | In Business, Improvement, Performance, career | Leave a Comment
Proposal writing is key to the survival of most service providers and consultants, particularly those that operate in the Public or Government domain. To support businesses that are writing proposals for government work, there are often standards that can be followed, including the guidance provided by Herman Holtz and also the Shipley approach.
The writing of proposals is a skill in itself and requires that the writer have knowledge of Marketing and sales, Business analysis, expertise on the subject itself and a good grounding in writing, particularly persuasive writing. Even with this knowledge, skill and experience of other proposals, there are still some things to avoid:
The common mistakes that proposal writers make:
Aggressive / Defensive Proposals – don’t make bold claims with caveats or have escape clauses if you fail to complete the task successfully.
Loud Claims Proposal – Avoid a sales pitch rather than a substantive address of the problem particularly if you do not offer a viable solution.
Me too Proposal – There is no point in arguing that ‘we can do it too!’ if you don’t offer another compelling reason to choose you.
Unsure of the Requirement Proposal – it is a poor consultancy that suggests ‘we can do some really good work, perhaps it fits your needs’ when a key role of consultants is to help identify the needs.
Whatever it is we can do it Proposal –an approach that offers a ‘whatever you want, we can do it and provide a great performance’ solution is rarely credible.
Canned solution Proposal – One size rarely fits all, so make sure you tailor you proposal and your solution to the problem you have identified.
The client will have both ‘Needs’ and ‘Wants’ that have to be addressed (although not necessarily delivered), so focus on meeting those. Whatever the proposal relates to however, the writing needs to be accurate, brief, clear and relevant and be about how the solution meets the clients ‘Wants’ and ‘Needs’.
The proposal you offer is only better than the others if the customer decides it is better, therefore it is also a matter of selling your solution to the client rather than just meeting the ‘Wants’ and Needs’.
In reality, you only really learn about writing proposals from writing them and getting feedback, so whenever you get the opportunity, gain the feedback and learn from the experience by looking at what the customer really thought.
Dare to Aspire
Are you being lied to? Focus on the truth of what you see and hear!
August 15, 2008 at 9:55 am | In Business, Improvement, Leadership, Performance | Leave a Comment
When a magnifying glass focuses light into a single beam, the point of focus for that light can become hot. The energy is focused onto a single point and extremes of heat can be generated. Your mind can also be directed onto a single task and it is most capable of maximum achievement when you concentrate entirely on that task.
Modern society, however, values the act of concentration very little. Advertisements bombard us with information in 30 second blocks. Our news casts are reduced to just a few moments of information, before moving quickly on and even our politicians reduce their ideas into short and pithy sound bites.
The pace at which information is presented to us means that by the time we have grasped one idea, the next is upon us, like train carriages passing through a station at high speed. This often pays into the hands of those presenting information to us. By not allowing us to think about an idea or concept, we naturally accept it as truth and move on. Our values and beliefs are the result of experience and evidence that we see repeatedly and so, politicians and the media, in repeating their message and not allowing people to analyse and assess that information, ingrain in us their beliefs and values unimpeded. This reduction in our skill and ability to question what we see has been a slow and relentless process. The result is that as a society and a species we have significantly reduced our overall mental horsepower. We need to regain that skill.
By simply slowing down the rate at which information is presented to you and be spending time to assess that information you can more readily identify the value of that information. It is important to have an independent view on the information and events in the world around us. Accurately assessing this information will allow us to
- Identify when information is being misrepresented
- Make more considered decisions
- Take advantage of the opportunities available, that others do not see
If we are more aware of the true impact and value of information than the majority of people, then we have a significant advantage.
What allows us to gain these insights is the ability to focus on a particular issue and concentrate on its value, meaning and impact.
- Value – the truth value of information. For example, consider the phrases ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Climate change’. Both are phrases that reflect the impact that modern society is having on the environment. ‘Climate change’ is a neutral phrase that gives the impression that the climate is only changing. ‘Global warming’ however has darker overtones that reflect the increased likelihood of drought and famine. Which phrase more readily reflects the truth!
- Meaning – the significance of the information. Knowing the value of information will allow you to understand its relevance in the bigger picture. If an organisation wants to distract attention from an uncomfortable issue, then they may re-frame that issue into a positive light or present it as the lesser of 2 evils.
- Impact – the true effect that this has on the people and world around us. For example, taxing the very rich may seem like a good way for Governments to gain income for the treasury but only if the very rich stay in the country. If those rich people leave the country then the overall income for the country drops and the true impact of the policy is to reduce treasury wealth rather than increase it.
Don’t take the information that you are presented with for granted. Ask questions that will allow you to gain a true understanding of any information you are given. Only by questioning this information will be able to make a true assessment of the value and impact of that information and allow us to benefit from that advantage.
Dare to Aspire
NLP and Frames
July 27, 2008 at 2:15 pm | In Improvement, NLP, Performance | Leave a CommentTags: NLP
Frames are used in NLP to change the way that a person is filtering the information they are processing. It allows a person to perceive their thoughts and feelings through a different lens of understanding, a better lens that makes those thoughts and feelings more useful to that person.
The most common frames used in NLP are:
Outcome Frame
The outcome frame allows us to focus on the ‘outcome’ of a situation. This change in focus drives the brain to find options for achieving that outcome. If we are problem solving, or negotiating, setting the using the outcome frame will set the goal that we are all trying to achieve and then allow us to look back to how we could have possible achieved it. Consider a business / union dispute over pay.
The outcome frame may help you by looking at the purpose of the request. Consider a Worker’s / Management negotiation:
Union say ‘We want more pay’
Management (in outcome frame) say ‘For what purpose?’
Union say ‘To let our families enjoy life more’
Management say ’Then we can give the staff 3 more days off per year’.
This may be a contrived example, but it demonstrates the outcome frame is a way of satisfying an objective in a more balanced way.
Subsets of the Outcome Frame are:
· Agreement frame – the focus of the outcome is agreement
· Evidence Frame – which helps identify the sensory evidence that identifies success
As If Frame
This Frame was adapted from Milton’s Ericson’s work. By allowing the person to see the world ‘As If’ they had a skill, behaviour or resource, that person can act ‘As If’ they are a new person and break through a limiting belief. It is typified by the phrase ‘Fake it until you make it’ and is best demonstrated by the reality TV show ‘Faking it’ and its international equivalents.
Cause and Effect Frame
This frame allows a person to understand the relationship between what they are doing and the result they are getting. If we adopt the mental filter of looking at how something we do causes an effect, we are getting near real time feedback about how we are influencing the world. I use the cause and effect frame during my public speaking to see if the pitch, tempo and material is having the effect I want. If not I change my approach (cause) until I get the results (effect) I want.
Possibility / Necessity Frame
The possibility / necessity frame is a ‘sense making filter’ that looks at each part of a problem and see if it is something that creates a possibility or if it is a necessity. For example if we take the race to the moon that the US led in the 1960s, there was a possibility of getting a man to the moon much earlier than 1969, but the necessity was the need to return that man to Earth and so extra engineering effort and vehicle contingency was needed that extended the project to the end of that decade.
Ecology Frame
A fundamental precept in NLP is to always leave someone in a better ‘place’ then before you started. It aligns to the medical precept of ‘First do no harm’. The ecology frame gives you the perspective of looking at the wider implications of any change that NLP generates. It makes you answer the questions of:
· Is this change going to improve this person’s life?
· What is the impact on this person’s family and business life?
· What will this new behaviour replace?
· What was being satisfied by the old behaviour and is it still being satisfied?
· Is the new state a well formed outcome for this person?
Use frames as microscopes to look on a situation in a different way and so develop a better and potentially empowering alternative understanding of the situation.
Dare to Aspire
NLP and the Swish Pattern
July 27, 2008 at 2:14 pm | In Improvement, NLP, Performance | Leave a CommentTags: NLP
The swish pattern is a technique that helps people change unwanted habits or behaviours. It modifies behaviour patterns so that the trigger for the old, unwanted behaviour now triggers a new and resourceful behaviour.
The swish pattern can be used in any representational system, Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Olfactory and Gustatory. I have had the best results using the Visual and Auditory systems.
Here is a description of the Swish Pattern in the Visual Representation System.
1. Identify the problem behaviour or habit you would like to change – I choose nail biting.
2. Identify the trigger for this activity – I choose the image of my fingers moving to my mouth.
3. Identify the main submodalities – I choose the movement of my hand to my mouth.
4. Break the state by clearing the mental screen or thinking of something unrelated.
5. Now identify the desire action – I choose running my fingers through the hair at my temples.
6. Now create the unwanted image in your mind in an associated state, that is, as though you are looking at the behaviour through your own eyes. - I see my hand in front of my face.
7. Now have that image disappear into the distance as though it is printed on a rubber sheet and someone behind the sheet is pulling it away rapidly.
8. Now imagine the person behind the rubber sheet has let go and the new image of the behaviour you want is on that sheet as it snaps back into you view. Imagine a noise like a swish or a snap as the image comes back into focus and have that image be dissociated, that is, looking at you as though you were on a movie screen demonstrating the new behaviour.
9. Break your state by ‘clearing the screen’.
10. Repeat this rapidly several times and then again every day for a week until the old behaviour is replaced by the new.
This is only mild technique in NLP but can be extremely effective on minor behaviour changes or in modifying an unwanted habit.
Have a go at this and see if you can change some of those unwanted habits.
Dare to Aspire
Developing Sensory Acuity
July 12, 2008 at 1:24 pm | In Improvement, NLP, Performance | 2 CommentsTags: NLP
One of the key tenets of NLP is that of gaining feedback and recognising the impact of what you are doing. This is sensory acuity and it is a skill that you need to develop to get the best out of your NLP skills. By knowing and calibrating someone’s state, you can more readily understand what is going on in their mind.
Here are some exercises to help you develop your sensory acuity:
Visual Acuity:
1. Postural observation:
· Have a friend stand or sit in front of you.
· Observe and hold an image of that person.
· Close your eyes.
· Have your friend move; an arm, a leg, tilt the head, etc.
· Open your eyes and identify how your friend has moved.
· Repeat the exercise with less and less dramatic moves until you can recognise subtle changes like an eyebrow raised or minor head tilt.
2. Like / Dislike:
· Have your friend think of something that they like.
· Let them build a strong impression of it in their mind.
· Notice the visual cues for ‘like’ – this is called ‘calibration’.
· Now have them build a strong impression of something they dislike.
· ‘Calibrate’ for dislike.
· Now have your friend choose either a ‘like’ or a ‘dislike’
· Identify which your friend is thinking of by identifying their ‘state’
3. Yes/No:
· Ask your friend some closed questions that will make them respond with a ‘Yes’.
o ‘Are you alive?
o Are you awake?
o Is it daylight?
· ‘Calibrate’ their responses for ‘Yes’
· Ask your friend some closed questions that will make them respond with a ‘No’.
o Can pigs fly?
o Are you dead?
o Can you hold your breath for an hour?
· ‘Calibrate’ their responses for ‘No’
· Now ask closed questions without you friend responding.
· Identify your friends response without them telling you.
Auditory Acuity:
1. Friend/Foe:
· Stand back to back with your friend in a quiet room.
· Have your friend think of someone that they like.
· Let them build a strong impression of that person in their mind.
· Now ask them to count aloud from 1 to 10.
· Calibrate the ‘sound’ for friend
· Now have them build a strong impression of someone they dislike.
· Now ask them to count aloud from 1 to 10.
· Calibrate the ‘sound’ for foe
· Now have your friend choose the person they ‘like’ or ‘dislike’
· Now ask them to count aloud from 1 to 10.
· Identify which your friend is thinking of from the sounds you hear.
2. Coin Tone
· Get several coins and a plate.
· Have you friend drop a coin on the plate and name it.
· Repeat this for each coin several times until you have calibrated the sound.
· Have your friend drop a coin at random.
· Identify the coin from the sound.
These exercises will increase your sensory acuity ‘muscles’ and make you more aware and receptive to the changes in the people around you.
Dare to Aspire
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