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Continuous Improvement & Theory Blindness: Watch Out!
Just as continuous improvement teams face hidden perils associated with conventional wisdom (see related post), there is another frequently unrecognized pitfall that plagues many-a-project, and that merits our constant attention.
"Theory blindness" is a remarkably common condition in which our theory about the way the world works blinds us to the way the world really works. When afflicted, we readily accept evidence (however meager or flawed) that supports our assumption or theory, and we explain away or simply fail to notice or correctly interpret evidence that contradicts it.
And beware! Theory blindness manifests itself within businesses of every type, and can extract a huge economic toll!
Sometimes it leads companies to invest in expensive solutions that completely miss the real cause of process waste and problems. In other instances organizations will tolerate or become accustomed to costly problems for years because of a shared but erroneous theory about the cause of the problems.
Read on for examples and suggestions...
Do You Know a Good Poka-yoke?
Coined by Shigeo Shingo, the Japanese term poka-yoke means "inadvertent error." The term has evolved, however, to reflect the act of "mistake proofing."
A poka-yoke can be electrical, mechanical, procedural, visual, human or any other form that prevents incorrect execution of a process step. For example, to make sure an assembler uses three screws in the assembly process, one might package the screws in groups of three. The package is a poka-yoke.
Many poka-yokes are obvious once they have been invented, like the tether on a car’s gas cap. But "obvious" is often under-appreciated.
The best poka-yokes are not just warnings (e.g., a chime when you leave your keys in the ignition), but are ones which make it physically impossible to make a mistake, such as plugs that only be inserted the correct way; a computer screen that does not let you proceed until you have filled in the necessary fields; automatic rejection of overweight or underweight products on a conveyor line prior to labeling and packaging, or automobile headlights that automatically turn on and off.
Constantly looking for creative ways to minimize mistakes pushes people to rethink processes and invites innovation (see related post).
Do you know a good poka-yoke you’d like to share?
Continuous Improvement & Team Sponsors
Continuing with our discussion of high-performance teams, the root causes of poor team performance are often a direct result of actions taken, or not taken, by the sponsor.
Sponsors are senior leaders who have the interest and authority to provide the means, resources and guidance necessary for a team or project to succeed. Effective sponsorship throughout a project helps to ensure that the project achieves the organization’s goals.
Five of the top responsibilities or roles of a team sponsor are:
- Linking the team's work to strategic objectives
- Guiding the team through the process improvement methodology, including behaviors, tools and methods
- Empowering the team and helping them leverage organizational power to enhance success
- Identifying causes of poor team performance and developing appropriate interventions and corrective actions
- Celebrating and rewarding success
Strong Team Leaders
Continuing on the subject of high-performance teams, one of the steps you can take to maximize the impact of a team improvement initiative is to appoint a strong leader.
An effective project team leader moves the team forward and inspires team members to do their best work. They also manage many of the organizational systems needed to keep a project on track.
In addition, the best team leaders truly understand and fulfill their multi-faceted role throughout a project, thus ensuring the project achieves the organization’s goals.
Here are several key components of an effective team leader's role:
- Manage the team toward accomplishing tasks and maintaining focus
- Take a vested interest in solving the problem
- Build commitment to the team charter and objective
- Develop, with the members, the project plan
- Interaction between meetings, offering help with action items
Here's a more complete list of team leader's roles, which are part of our Team Leader's Workshop.
Skills for Developing High Performance Teams
Several of our recent posts have referenced the importance and value of high-performance teams, as they tend to work on the things that are most important to an organization and tend to bring about the greatest gains.
We've also noted some of the challenges associated with building high-performance teams, and shared fundamentals that can help to overcome or avoid these obstacles.
Continuing along that thread, additional skills and behaviors that will help you develop high performing teams include:
- Developing alignment around a common purpose
- Task and project management
- Communication and meeting management
- Setting measurable performance targets
- Identifying the right process/game plan to achieve results
- Holding people mutually accountable for results
- Developing innovative teams
Building High-Performance Improvement Teams
In our March 12 post, we shared information on driving improvement through team development, noting that virtually every organization we have encountered struggles with developing teams.
But high-performing teams, by their nature, work on the right things 
those that matter to the organization and those that help organizations compete in rapidly-changing, competitive marketplaces. Consequently, chartering and deploying effective project teams is one of the most important achievements for any organization.
those that matter to the organization and those that help organizations compete in rapidly-changing, competitive marketplaces. Consequently, chartering and deploying effective project teams is one of the most important achievements for any organization. Three key fundamentals for successfully building high performance teams are:
- Understanding tasks and
interpersonal skills, developing team mission and plan, clarifying roles and
responsibilities and determining team charter
- Using prioritization tools to identify and select the right things
to work on and determine the proper scope
- Working with sponsors
Of course there are many more components involved for sustaining a team's effort, such as doing a valid cost/benefit analysis, determining measures, and measuring team performance.
Revisiting Common Wisdom's Impact on Improvement
Our December 12, 2011 post referenced common misconceptions associated with Continuous Improvement, using a quote from Mark Twain to illustrate the point that conventional wisdom is often fraught with peril!
For example, it is frequently considered "common wisdom" that if everyone in an organization would
just do what he or she is supposed to do, everything would be fine.
But in reality,
individuals can be performing their jobs precisely as specified, but if the
process has built-in problems, errors will naturally occur. In fact, more than
90% of the time, problems are caused by waste in a process or system
and not by individuals.
and not by individuals. This one fundamental misconception can lead to many poor decisions relative to which problems to attack or identifying the best opportunities for sustainable improvement.
The Quality Secret: A Culture of Continuous Improvement
In an earlier post, we shared an overview of Bill Conway's award-winning book, The Quality Secret, which outlines steps for achieving high quality and low cost through a continual, pervasive effort to identify, quantify and eliminate waste in all work and work processes. The ultimate goal of this approach is to satisfy customers in a fashion that brings about not only their loyalty, but also higher levels of profitability
The book also presents thought-provoking insight into the importance of building a culture of continuous improvement within a business. "Projects alone are not enough," Bill explains. "A culture change is necessary..."
You can listen to Bill Conway explain more about the importance of developing the right culture in this short YouTube video clip.
Winning the War on Waste: Changing the Way We Work
In an earlier post we presented an introduction and excerpt from Bill Conway's award-winning bo
ok, "The Quality Secret: The Right Way To Manage."
Read more...
ok, "The Quality Secret: The Right Way To Manage."
If you found that book of interest, you're sure to enjoy the sequel, "Winning The War On Waste: Changing The Way We Work."
The Right Way To Manage© emphasizes the need to identify and quantify waste and then identify the processes to change in order to eliminate the waste. "Winning The War On Waste: Changing The Way We Work" explains how to:
- Search for waste
- Move people into action
- Use simple and sophisticated tools to eliminate the waste
Because everything can't be worked on effectively at once, the improvement projects that will make the most difference must be selected. This book shows how to pick those projects: the big opportunities to cut costs, improve quality, reduce time, and increase revenues and profits.
Organizational Assessments to Drive Improvement
Our previous few posts have identified several perspectives on how to drive improvement within an organization, such as team development, coaching and developing strong leaders.
Of course, there are many additional options... so which approach is best for you?
Opportunity Matrix: Thinking Outside of the Box
In many cases, the first step toward answering this question and toward maximizing your improvement effort is to conduct an organizational assessment. You might begin by creating an opportunity matrix to identify the best opportunities for improvement.
This typically requires several days of analysis, which might involve:
- Interviewing people at all levels of the organization to identify challenges and gather relevant input on their work processes
- Gathering and studying all related facts and data
- Observing the work flow to identify the bottlenecks and eddies
- Searching expansively for opportunities and focusing analytically on metrics and methods
- Creating a comprehensive report that summarizes findings
- Prioritizing the findings to determine the best opportunities
Beware, however, as conducting this type of assessment and creating an effective matrix will require a high degree of objectivity and the ability to think "outside of the box" when setting goals and identifying the best opportunities for improvement.
