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Leadership, Personal Development

Leadership Development Includes Learning to ‘See’

Glenn Sommerville

While on a hike recently, I saw this rock amazingly balanced on its endpoint. It wasn’t as obvious and easy to see as the pictures indicate either! There we lots of people on the trail, many stopping at this lookout, and looking right past this rock without noticing. Their loss!

It reminded me that our leadership development needs to include learning to ‘See’. I believe this is an essential skill for leaders. Seeing beyond what most people see or at least seeing a different perspective of the same image. Teaching your eyes to see is a learned skill that, once mastered, opens your eyes to many new things.

Teaching your eyes to see – Learning to see

An example of teaching your eyes to see that I experienced while on an in-depth TPS training program in Japan several years ago involved learning to see 1/10th of a second kaizens. 1/10th of a second is very difficult to see and equates to the slightest of hand motions, movements, or on equipment, tiny adjustments. We had the task of reducing the cycle time within a production line by 30 seconds but doing so through 1/10th of a second kaizens. Being experienced operations guys and after observing the line for several cycles, it was apparent to us what was needed. With some changes to the layout, moving equipment closer together, adjusting the material flow, and other equipment modifications, the 30 seconds was a done deal. As part of the training, we had to prepare a scaled drawing detailing our kaizen ideas. Our Sensei would review the drawings, and if approved, the improvements would get implemented. We spent several hours drafting our kaizen ideas on day one and provided the completed drawings for review and approval. The Sensei looked at the proposals and very clearly expressed his disapproval! We received a similar response several times over the following couple of days. We were ready to throw in the towel, but then suddenly, like a light switch, we could see these subtle movements of waste and 1/10th of a second kaizens.

Although I don’t necessarily advocate this teaching method, it emphasizes that leadership development needs to include learning to see what is or what is not happening. It is important to see those subtle forms of waste, abnormalities, opportunities, and, I suggest, clues that then beg questions. Good questions!

For example, one time, while on a Gemba, we came across a box of rubber gloves attached to a column of the building. Above the box was a handwritten sign that said

Gloves are for hazardous material spills only

This situation was crazy on so many levels! We didn’t just see a poorly made sign and a duct-taped glove box. We ‘saw’ many questions and concerns, such as:

  • How often are hazardous material spills happening?
  • Are spills so frequent that we think we need gloves conveniently placed?
  • Are these spills actually “hazardous materials”?!?!?!
  • With the gloves free for the taking, are hazardous material spills happening and not being reported?
  • Does the leadership even know when the spills are happening and investigating?
  • How are the gloves and wastes from the spills being disposed of?
  • Assuming for a minute that it was a good practice to have the gloves available, how do they get replenished?
  • Are the people cleaning up these spills properly, and are they adequately trained to do so?
  • Why are spills happening in the first place?

STOP!!!  TIME OUT!

This example is pretty astounding and scary and may seem hard to believe, but yet it is true. It is even more disturbing that many leaders walked right past this sign during the Gemba and didn’t even notice it. Even more frightful, the building leadership had walked past it many times and didn’t really “see” it!

So how do you learn to see? Practice.

Go to the floor with a specific purpose to learn to see. For example, go with a focus on seeing one specific thing. Such as arm overreaching, bending, twisting, outdated signs or posters, trip hazards, pinch points, sign effectiveness and meaning, opportunities to cause product damage, unnecessary motion, a specific type of waste stream, sources of floor debris, etc., etc. The point is to dedicate an appropriate amount of time to see a particular focus. Look for that focus and only that focus. Ask yourself as many questions as possible on that specific item when you see it. See beyond the obvious. Look for deeper meaning, symptoms, evidence, and abnormalities. Repeat often with a new or different focus. With practice, you will soon see these things naturally and without effort. Once you learn to see, you won’t be able to turn it off.

Nope, it’s not rocket science. Seems too easy, right? Try it. You’ll like it!

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

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

Leadership, Personal Development

Little Leadership Gestures

Glenn Sommerville

My daughter recently graduated from university and started her first career position. So this morning, I pulled out a book to give her that I found very beneficial to me over the years when I started at a new company or in a new position. That’s when I came across the note on the inside cover, shown below, from a leader (my former boss), mentor, and friend, Vito Ciciretto.

I was reminded how as leaders, we can have such a positive and long-lasting impact on people with the simplest gestures. It doesn’t matter if they report to you or if you even work with them. We all need a little encouragement and to know someone believes in us!

When I received this book with the inscribed note in the mail, it meant so much to me and still does today. The book’s content also helped me succeed in several new positions. Over the years, I followed Vito’s lead and adopted this approach, having sent several books and notes to colleagues in my network. I hope it helped them as much as Vito’s note helped me.

This morning, I turned the book’s page and wrote a note to my daughter as I gave her a couple of books I hope will help her as she starts her new career.

Don’t underestimate the positive impact you can have with little leadership gestures.

Leave a comment below with what you do to help and support your network or what others have done to support you.

Leadership, Lean and Continuous Improvement, Personal Development

Prioritized Leader Actions are for, well, EVERYONE!

Glenn Sommerville
Prioritized Leader Actions or Leader Standardized Work

This post is a revision from a previously popular post.

I’ve never understood why so few leaders use Leader Standardized Work (LSW). Talking with many leaders over the years, the explanation I hear most is that they don’t have standard repeatable work or tasks. Baloney! All leaders have regular actions that they must or want to take on an ongoing basis. Examples include budget reviews, team member 1:1s, Gemba (go to the workplace), submitting your monthly business expenses, and many others. So if the “standardized work” wording is a barrier to using LSW, in HPL’s new fall ‘Lunch and Lead’ program called “4-steps to Time Shifting – making time for the things that really matter“, I’ve rephrased it to “Prioritized Leader Actions” or PLA. Ultimately, I think it more accurately reflects the intent relating to leadership responsibilities. Leaders are too often ‘fighting fires,’ and I believe a significant cause of this is that they are not proactive enough! Yes, it’s only a name change, but unfortunately, I think the name LSW casts a negative perception on many to the point that they don’t even consider it. So, let’s talk about Prioritized Leader Actions (PLA)!

I’ve found PLA to be a great tool to help me be a more consistent and effective leader. I’ve used PLA for years. For me, it’s my little voice reminding me of the most important things I need to do or that I want to do to be successful when leading. These are my priorities. Regardless of your responsibility, there is an inevitable component of it that is repeatable; therefore, Prioritized Leader Actions are for, well, everyone! It’s not just a manufacturing thing!!!

Here are some key points I found helpful when it comes to PLA:

1. Set up PLA with a designated section for daily, weekly, monthly and Mid-long term (quarterly, semi-annual) based on the frequency of completion of the task or action.

2. Place tasks in the PLA that are important to YOU that you must get done and those that you want to complete, check, or confirm because they are essential to you or your business.

3. Set your PLA up on a monthly basis, refreshing it at the beginning of each month.

4. Have a method within the PLA to indicate which days you are on vacation and identify when you are out of the office on business. Doing so will help you plan more effectively when you complete tasks, or it will provide you with the opportunity to delegate if necessary.

5. PLA should be dynamic, not static. It’s OK to add and remove items from your PLA. However, as priorities change, new systems develop, metrics improve or degrade, you may find that you need to adjust what you’re doing or what you’re checking and confirming.

6. PLA is for you, not anyone else. It’s OK to show people your PLA, but I don’t advocate posting it. It’s more effective if you carry it with you at all times to help you execute it versus showing others. As a leader, you should also check your team’s PLA periodically.

7. If you’re not getting to something on your PLA, don’t beat yourself up; instead, find the root cause for not getting it done and determine what you need to do differently to achieve it. After all, the items on your PLA were put there by you because you either need to get them done as a core responsibility of your job or they are most important to you. Then, use it to improve your self-discipline, motivate you, or remind you to just do it!

8. PLA must be integral to your planning system and routine. It must integrate with your schedule, follow-up system, and to-do lists.

9. Print out your PLA for the month, update it daily as you complete tasks daily, and “pencil” in additional PLA tasks as you’re thinking of them throughout the month.

10. When you get busy, that’s when you need your PLA the most. Please don’t abandon it, then. Instead, use it to help you get the most important things done. Then, when you can’t do everything, use it to make an informed decision as to what will and will not get done.

I use an Excel spreadsheet for my PLA. To make things easier, I’ve added some conditional formatting for the visibility of weekends, business travel, or when out on vacation. I prepare the PLA for the month, print it out, and then use it daily by marking tasks using a pen. PLA is integral to my daily, weekly, and monthly planning system.

Check out our ‘Tools‘ page to download a template of my PLA to use for yourself. Then, modify it as necessary to make it work for you.

I hope you found this helpful. Are there any key points I’ve missed or, in your experience, you feel are most important?

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

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

Lean and Continuous Improvement, Uncategorized

Proof-of-concept Line Trail Guidelines

Glenn Sommerville

We (HPL) have been working with a few different clients recently where there has been a need for proof-of-concept line trials. To me, line trials are a lot of fun! Well, they can and should be. Think of them as a sandbox that we can build out our creative and innovative ideas and concepts to see if they will work in the real world. However, to be effective and result in meaningful outcomes, line trials need to follow a robust Plan, Do, Check, Act/Adjust (PDCA) process. A common mistake when undertaking line trials is an inadequate plan! A good rule of thumb is to spend approximately 70% of your PDCA time and effort (not including the actual trial build duration) in planning for the trial.

Given the importance of proof-of-concept line trials, HPL has created two documents to help plan and execute effective line trials, as follows:

Both documents are available for free download from our HPL website’s tools page using this link.

While recently reading “Leadership Moments from NASA, Achieving the impossible“, by Dr. Dave Williams, one of the statements in the end of a chapters ‘Leadership Insights’ stated:

Simulation creates an environment where failure is a safe opportunity for learning.

Although the quote was referring to space flight training and simulation, the same is very applicable to proof-of-concept line trials. Really, the only failure of a line trial is not to follow a proper PDCA process because something may negatively or falsely impact the trial. Even when the trial doesn’t produce the desired result, it should not be deemed a failure when line trials are made to be a safe time and place for those involved to experiment and learn. So even if a line trial results in a less than expected or disappointing outcome, as long as we’ve learned from it, it’s a great successful failure!

I hope you’ll find these two new tools helpful. Let us know what you think or if we’ve missed anything.

Tx’s Glenn!

Gemba, Lean and Continuous Improvement, Personal Development, Problem Solving

The conflicts of line trials

Glenn Sommerville

One of the things I’ve always loved is the simple kaizens (continuous improvement). I was reminded of this recently working with RAB Design Lighting when the team there was conducting some line trials. Having coached the team on the importance of detailed trial planning and real-as-possible process set-up, but also the need to be balanced with simplicity, low cost, and high flexibility, I was thrilled to see their creativity and ingenuity that met these two potentially conflicting criteria. See examples in the pictures below.


The two criteria mentioned above is important because you want a trial to simulate the real line conditions as much as possible, however, things will definitely change as you learn more. So you don’t want to invest time and money building/buying a lot of things that may not actually be used in the permanent line or that may require several iterations of changes to get just right.

When conducting line trails careful planning is necessary. Planning such as: Clearly defining the purpose of the trial is critical. Determining what are you trying to prove, disprove or discover. Setting up the line to simulate as close as possible what the actual real line will look and feel like. Protecting the trial from “noise” or other things that can negatively impact or distract from the purpose of the trial. Although some of these things maybe real, you should try and isolate them from initial trials if they are not directly related to the purpose. There is a time and place to allow real time disruptions and abnormalities but not in early trials. Identifying and defining the number of trial observers, their roles, responsibilities and tracking needs. Deciding on what metrics to track and measure throughout the trial and who is going to do that. Scheduling, taking into account breaks, lunches and shift end, is also important.

Trials are to experiment and learn. They can also be a great deal of fun along the way! 

Congratulations to Denis Arsenault, P.Eng. and the RAB Design Lighting team for the successful trial this week! I’m looking forward to the next one!

Contact me:

For additional information on High Performance Leaders Inc., click here.  Or follow on LinkedIn.

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