Month: April 2019

Leadership, Personal Development

Are You Accomplishing Your Goals?

Glenn Sommerville

Did you set goals this year?  If so, when was the last time you checked-in on them to see how things are progressing?  When?  Oh boy, it’s likely time you did a check!

In January there were a series of posts that stepped through the process of setting personal and professional goals and objectives.  If you missed this series, they are summarized with the links at the bottom of this post for your reference.  Now that you are a few months in since setting your goals and objectives, please use this post as a reminder and catalyst to do a check-in and reflection on them.

Some key considerations for your review:

Relevance of the goals & objectives – Things change quickly in this age!  Review your goals and objectives to ensure they are all still relevant.  If not, scratch them off and move on.  Add critical new ones as necessary and be sure to develop tactics and action plans for them.

Target check – Check to see how you are progressing towards your target.  If on target, great, but confirm that it is your actions that are driving this and not just good luck!  If not on track to hit the target, it’s important to dig deep to understand why not and then adjust your tactics and actions accordingly.

IMG_20190427_1843462Action plan effectiveness – Review your action plans and record your status within your plan.  Indicate which ones are completed, in progress or not started.  Confirm if you are on track schedule wise; on, behind, or ahead of schedule.  Consider if there are any barriers that you hadn’t previously considered that may impact your plans and develop mitigation for each of them.  Identify any ground that needs to be made up.  In other words, do you need to double down on some to get them back on track?  Rate your actions for their effectiveness based on whether they are delivering the expected results or not.  Cancel the ineffective ones if you think course correction isn’t in the cards and develop new ones to overcome and get back on track.

Don’t despair – Particularly if you are reviewing your personal goals and objectives, don’t despair if this is the first time your have looked at them since setting them up.  That’s why we have this post!  The good news is, you have now looked at them, right?  So don’t get frustrated and know you are not alone, but do set yourself on a refreshed path to get on track and achieve what you set out to achieve.  Don’t give up!  Do it!

No! Try not!  Do or Do not, there is no try!

– Yoda

Execution – To ensure execution of your actions, you needed to have “operationalized” them.  Take this opportunity to honestly reflect on your execution and be self-critical.  You might be the biggest problem stopping you from achieving your objectives!  Are you following through on the methods you had determined to operationalize your action plans?  If not, why not?  What and why are they not working?  What do you need to do differently?  Do it!  Adjust your plan and go!

Plan, Do, Check, Act/Adjust – Setting goals and objectives follows the continuous PDCA1improvement cycles of Plan, Do, Check, Act/Adjust or PDCA beautifully.  What we’re doing now is obviously the check phase.  Once you’re done this part adjust your plans and start doing again!  Going forward, ensure your operational steps include the full PDCA cycle, very frequently!

 

If you missed this original goals and objectives series or just need a refresh, the posts are summarized with the links below for your reference.

Reflections Vs Resolutions – It’s That Time Of Year!

Although written with the Holiday Season in mind, this is still a timely post to refresh yourself on the importance to reflect on your goals and objectives.  Key points to think about that are relevant at any time of year are covered in this post.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Mission Statements

Whether you are doing so as an individual, family, or for an organization, establishing a mission is a critical first step.  A mission acts as your compass which will establish your direction and keep you on track.  This post discusses mission statements and the values that support them.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Goals & Objectives

After the mission is created, the next step is to develop the areas of focus to be deployed to achieve the mission.  This post describes how to set meaningful goals.

Setting Personal and Professional Goals and Objectives – Tactics or Action Plans

The tactics or action plans are what brings goals and objectives to life and makes things happen!  This post discusses how to convert goals to objectives and specific actions, including some tips on how to “operationalize” your plans.

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

 

Together We Can - Values in Action!

#35 Together We Can, Values In Action

Glenn Sommerville

Whether you’re searching for a good friend, a key employee or a lifetime partner, the secret to finding the right person is like looking for your own glasses, only to find them perched on your head.  Most of us search and search for the right person, when all the while the key is being the right person.  Value attracts value.

Lean and Continuous Improvement

What We Can Learn From Disney

Glenn Sommerville

I’m a huge Disney fan!  Not only from a family entertainment perspective, but also from a business operations, philosophy, and culture point of view.  I had an opportunity to benchmark Disney World.  Wow, what an experience!  Too many lessons learned for one post, but the one thing for this post that we can learn from Disney is the power of visual controls!

The first time we took our family to Disney World, the kids were small.  Traveling with three young children is a handful and stressful!  We went the full Disney Immersion, meaning we got ourselves to the airport in Toronto, and they took care of the rest!  Disney got our luggage from Toronto to the resort, transported our family via Disney Express from Orlando to the resort,  we were fed through the meal plan, and the Disney Transportation System got us to and from all of the parks.

The power of visual controls can be exemplified by our first experience upon arriving in Orlando International Airport.  We followed the very prominent signs to the Disney Magical Express area.  We went to the counter where they registered us, checked us in, and looked after some other typical vacation registration stuff.  Then the Disney “Cast Member” pointed to his right and said “Go to the red carpet”.  I immediately followed the direction of his finger and way down the corridor, I could see a large red carpet in the middle of the floor.  By this time the kids were going squirrelly with exhaustion, excitement, and anticipation.  All of which can be the demise of the best of parents!  This was easy!  There wasn’t a string of commands provided such as “turn to your left, go down the terminal about 500 feet to the Disney Magical Express.  You want line 7, which will take you to Port Orleans Resort.  Make sure you get line 7 as you don’t want to end up at the wrong resort or it will be a long way back!  If line 7 is full, go to line 8, it’s going to Port Orleans as well but leaves 15 minutes later.  Have a great vacation.”  No, all we had to remember and do was go to the red carpet!  When we arrived at the red carpet, there were greeters there that asked us what resort we were going to.  When we said Port Orleans, they said “that’s lane 8.  The bus will be departing in about 20 minutes.  Have a Magical Day!”

Go to the red carpet!

Disney Magical Express queues

This was only the beginning of the effective use of visual controls that Disney had in place.  They are masters of moving massive amounts of people to/from and within their parks and to do so as well as they do, they have mastered visual controls.

Other businesses can learn from Disney on how to use visual controls to improve their overall area organization, flow of materials, product, and people, and improve efficiencies.  Effective visual controls assist with improving and controlling your main metrics of safety, quality, productivity, and cost.  Like many principles of lean or continuous improvement, visual controls apply to all aspects of business or operations beyond only manufacturing.

Unfortunately, too many businesses use visual controls primarily only to indicate 5S home locations and basic information signs.  Visual controls extend much deeper than this.

Characteristics of effective Visual Controls include as many of these as possible:

  • Quick and easy to understand
  • Indicate normal or abnormal conditions
  • Utilize simple signs, pictures or symbols
  • Use very few words
  • Are colourful and/or utilize colour codes
  • Form of “pokeyoke” or mistake proofing

Here’s a few examples:

binders abnormal

This example makes use of colours to differentiate between categories of binders and provides a simple pokeyoke or visual indicator that is simple to understand if the binders are in the correct sequence or not.  Also very easy to put the binders back in the correct order after use or to re-sequence if out of place.

susan-yin-63089-unsplash
Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

This next example is simple, colourful, and certainly has a pokeyoke.  There is no way a car can “mistakenly” park in this designated bike parking area.  The visual control also provides a safety barrier to protect the bikes and the riders from traffic.

floor lines

In areas where a large number of people need to move around or through a complex area, or in large office or factory spaces, way finding can be a problem causing frustration and lost productivity.  Visual controls can be an awesome tool to assist with effectively moving people around with ease.  You can see these types of visual controls in airports, hospitals, amusement parks etc.  I’ve seen them in some office towers and factories, but not as often as there is a need for them!

hit the bridgeIn addition to being somewhat funny, this is actually not a bad sign.  Too wordy in my opinion, but it is visual and is a pokeyoke!  Pretty hard to ignore and saves the bridge from those that “think I can make it”!  These type of visual controls are also great for as a visual control to restrict forklifts or similar equipment from entering prohibited areas and are lot more effective than signs alone!

Take a hard look at your work place and see where you have effective visual controls and where you can use some new ones!  A very simple yet effective tool but still far too under utilized!

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com

Cover Photo by Travis Gergen on Unsplash
Together We Can - Values in Action!

#34 Together We Can, Values In Action

Glenn Sommerville

To create good, strong, caring relationships in your company, community, or country, go home and practice on your family.  If you want world peace, start by creating peace within a mini-society – your family.  A family almost always mirrors the qulity of our own values back at us quite clearly.

Chop Wood, Carry Water

Gemba

The Different Types Of Gemba

Glenn Sommerville

Are there different types of Gemba?  Yes!  The fundamental reasons of Gemba remain the same, but there are at least 5 different types of Gembas each serving a different purpose.  Do you know what they are?

A leader needs to stay connected and engaged with what is going on, or not, as the case maybe, in their areas of responsibility.  In a previous post Toyota’s Worst Best Kept Secret & The Top Five Reasons For It, the top 5 reasons for Gemba were discussed, and even though these reasons more or less stay the same there are at least 5 different types of Gembas.   Gemba is NOT just for manufacturing processes!  Gemba is also a very powerful leadership tool regardless of the type of work, industry, or level of leadership you are in.  Office, logistics, laboratory, health care, customer service, construction, etc, gemba works the same and is just as beneficial as in a manufacturing or factory environment.

Gemba or “Go & See”

Personal Gemba –  A personal gemba is where the leader goes to one or more of their areas of responsibility by themselves.  They may go with a specific topic, concern, waste stream, check, audit, confirmation in mind, or just go and see.  Of course they should engage with their team along the way, but the point is these are unplanned and impromptu conversations and engagements with them.  These gembas are a great way for a leader to observe things without preparations by the team and in areas they otherwise may not be taken.  When visiting a building, I typically conduct a personal gemba first thing by walking the parking lots, lunch rooms, rest rooms, and other nooks and crannies before reviewing the main operations as it gives a leader an overview state of the business, how things are being managed, and the culture within the facility.  Another purpose of a personal gemba is to go and see by yourself before setting a new target or challenge to your team.  By observing for yourself, you will be better able to determine where the team needs to focus, what are challenging but achievable targets, observe abnormalities, or periodic work, or to confirm for yourself, without bias, what the current condition really is.

Leadership Gemba – A leadership gemba is when several members of a senior leadership team conduct a go & see together.  This is powerful because they observe together seeing and hearing the same things.  This is an opportunity for senior leaders to engage with operators through to middle management to provide coaching, mentoring, redirection, provide resources and assistance, and to recognize the teams.  A leadership gemba can be a confirmation walk of the actual conditions, observe problematic processes, see the results of a recent kaizen or continuous improvement project, provide recognition, or to engage with the teams on a specific topic.  Leadership gembas are usually scheduled and the general agenda agreed upon by the levels of leadership.

Daily Gemba – A leader’s core responsibility is to remove barriers and help our teams achieve the organizational goals.  The best way to do that is to demonstrate our actions being louder than words and daily gemba is an excellent tool for this purpose.  Daily gemba is done at the same time each day with all department leaders following a predetermined standard path.  The path may very day by day, but the point is to visit the key areas on a regular frequency.  During the gemba, the teams would provide an update on key metrics and performance from the previous day, recent trends, and identify any current challenges, concern, or barriers which is impeding their performance or attainment of a target.  The leaders can then assist with removing these barriers.  Daily gemba also ensures that everyone knows, understands, and is aligned to the top priorities for that day.  Daily gemba should be short and very focused, targeting 30 minutes and no more than 45.  The challenge is usually to avoid problem solving during gemba.  Daily gemba should also be a key part of Leader Standardized Work.

Impromptu Gemba – An impromptu gemba is used when discussing a specific situation or topic in an area physically removed from the point of discussion, and a spontaneous decision is made to go and see at the actual location or process under discussion.  This is done to assist in and align understanding, to problem solve and determine root cause, discuss counter measures, ask questions of the operators or those involved, or discuss next steps.  Often in meetings it takes a great deal of time for everyone to understand an issue and even after explaining, some may not actually get it.  They think they do, but they really don’t.  By going and seeing, problems can more rapidly be understood, necessary resources and actions agreed upon, and the issue resolved.

Scheduled Gemba -Some disagree with this type of gemba, but I do believe it serves a couple of important purposes.  This type of gemba, is simply scheduled in a calendar like any other meeting.  It can be a reoccurring scheduled event, or a one time occurrence on specific topic scheduled gemba.  In some environments or with some leaders, going and seeing seems to becomes the lowest priority and as a result, doesn’t happen.  Unless that is, they schedule it like any other meeting.  This reduces the likelihood that other meetings will be scheduled over top, or getting caught up in other things and not making it out to gemba.  The one time occurrence gemba is used when there is a need to have several leaders attend.  In these situations, it is important that everyone sees and hears the same thing so scheduling the gemba is usually necessary in most environments to ensure attendance.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Gemba must be priceless!

There are several types or slightly different gembas, beyond the above, but the most essential point is that leaders need to invest quality time at the gemba, or going and seeing.  If a picture is worth a thousands words, Gemba must be priceless, because it allows everyone to see the same thing first hand; the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Contact me:

You can email me with any questions at glennsommerville@hotmail.com, find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/glennsommervilleL2R/, or on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/gsommervilleL2R.

If you are enjoying my posts and find the information useful, please “Follow” me by entering your email in the follow box on the right-hand menu of my website www.glennsommerville.com