The Regenerate Web

While American Auto go hat-in-hand to Washington, I thought it might be instructive to take a look at what those firms have missed while Toyota has steadily out-invested, out-innovated and racked up more profits than all three combined. Who's got the answer? How about three professors from a Japanese business school.

In their book Extreme Toyota, Osono, Shimizu and Takeuchi claim that Toyota managers embrace contradictions, opposites and paradoxes. Rather than find the best on either side of the argument, Toyota pursues the approach they call "this yet that".

(...)
Continue reading Extreme Toyota's Lesson for American Auto (321 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 2 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged theory, books, lean.

My son Garrison is reading the book Lean Solutions, by James Womack and Dan Jones for his class in operations management. We were just speaking about examples of company practices that are unfriendly-to-consumers when the Industry Week newsletter arrived with a story about Amazon.

Many products that could be easy-to-shoplift are packaged in oversized hard plastic cases…blister packs. These packs are very hard to open requiring the use of a knife or scissors. Amazon doesn't have to worry about shoplifting…no need for unfriendly packaging. They are working with suppliers to provide frustration-free packaging. It's a lean and green solution right out of the book. Have a read: Amazon Just Reformatted Your Packaging

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged books, lean.

Two years ago Jim Womack wrote an open letter to the executives, employees, suppliers and investors of GM and Ford. I was so moved by the letter I reprinted it in whole. The US Federal Government is considering a bailout of these two auto makers. Some people are in fierce disagreement with that action preferring to see market forces determine winners and losers. Others are concerned for the millions of people who depend on their livelihood from the auto makers and their supply chains. The impact to the economy may be so dire that there may be no alternative to a bailout. I'll stay out of that argument.

Let's make the investment payoff.

If a bailout occurs, then it must come with conditions. The better business system has been winning in the marketplace. It's time to shift business systems…to adopt a lean way of managing the firms, not just lean production techniques. Womack says GM and Ford must make these changes:

• Rewrite the social contract.
• Introduce all of the elements of lean enterprise.
1. a product development process,
2. a supplier management process,
3. a customer management process,
4. an overarching enterprise management process, and
5. a production process from order to fulfillment.
• Simplify market offerings.

Womack describes the sources of GM and Ford's woes along with his prescription for dealing with them. Let's make the investment payoff. Have a read: A Tale of Two Business Systems

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 2 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged commentary, lean.

One of the highlights of the PMI Global Congress 2008 for me was my meeting with Greg Balestrero, CEO of PMI. On the last day of the congress Greg met with the PMI New Media Council for lunch. We had an hour-long chat. We heard what was on his mind and we shared some topics with him. Along the way we got into a conversation about standard practice and best practice. Eventually, Greg let out the "T" word. Let me back up…

The reductionist deterministic approach to planning had outlived its usefulness.

The PMI member community routinely misunderstands PMBoK® as PM methodology. It's not methodology. It is a guide to the generally accepted practices. And it is an ANSI standard. All that is meant by standard is that most people most of the time would do the actions described. It is not best practice. As the New Media Council members and Greg were discussing the usual confusion about PMBoK, one of the council members asked about featuring more best practice at the coming PMI Global Congress. Someone went on to say that we needed research into Project 2.0. It was in that conversation that Greg uttered the word "theory".

(...)
Continue reading Out with Deterministic Project Planning (176 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 4 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged project planning, project scheduling, PMBoK, PMI.

Claude Emonde writes the weblog Surviving the Project Age at Project Times. He recently finished a four-part series on the Rules of Lean Project Management. Overall, he did a good job. Those of us who developed and teach the lean project approach don't refer to these ideas as rules. For us, we tend to think about principles. But, Claude has done a good job.

Make your choices and commitments at the last responsible moment.

Let's take a look at Claude's four rules.

(...)
Continue reading Rules of Lean Project Management (278 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 11 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged lean, project planning, project scheduling, project control, Last Planner.

Project managers take note. There's more evidence that multitasking is doing you (and your project) harm. The latest is from Dave Crenshaw, The Myth of Multitasking: How doing it all gets nothing done. The book is a fast read. And, it comes with Seth Godin's blessing.

Dave has a novel take on multitasking. He doesn't fault all our multitasking behaviors. For instance, background tasking is one where we perform two or more tasks simultaneously however only one of those tasks requires our full attention. I can't think of a set of project management tasks that fits that situation. Can you? Dave goes on to say that the deadliest practice is switchtasking.

(...)
Continue reading Myth of Multitasking (176 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 2 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged PM practice, books.

Josh Nankviel thinks so writing, "In the PMBoK® guide, opportunities on a project are dealt with as positive risks within the risk management knowledge area. I believe this is the wrong approach," and maybe the PMI® CEO thinks so too.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged asides.

Just a few highlights from the Project Management Congress for you. I attended a 6-hour working session on the Project Management Institute, PMI®, 4-year study on the value of investing in the discipline, practices, and training in project management. We followed that with a 75-minute private conversation with the two principal researchers, Mark Mullaly and Janice Thomas. In short, while only one of the 65 firms studied attempted to calculate an ROI, nearly every firm was able to identify real value. I'll share some of the details in a following post.

PMI Special Interest Groups are dead; long live Special Interest Groups.

Colin Powell was the keynote speaker on Sunday afternoon for a crowd of 3,000. That followed his Obama endorsement on Meet the Press Sunday morning. The general was there to speak about leadership. He challenged project managers to bring leadership to every project team. He kept our attention with one story after another and his great humor. I counted 4 standing ovations. I've ordered his book My American Journey.

(...)
Continue reading PMI Global Congress 2008 Highlights (164 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | One comment

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged commentary, PMI.

I've been invited by PMI to join their newly organized New Media Council. I'll be attending the PMI Congress for the first time. I hope to see many of you there. Please contact me if you want to connect.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged PMI.

How do we engage our team mates? Use QnEK. Make project work safer, easier and more interesting.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged asides.

Looking for something more to squeeze into your life? Head over to pmStudent. Josh Nankivel has invited authors and bloggers to share their views and advice on learning PM. I made my first post on Friday: HBR Shares How to Move Your Stalled Projects Forward.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged asides.

Over at NWLean there's been quite a riff on the 8th waste. Eventually, the contributors concluded that recreating knowledge is the one true 8th waste. While it's hard to argue with any of the writers' arguments, getting at the roots of that waste is where we can begin to take effective action.

Waste in production, services, healthcare and construction are pervasive and seemingly intractable. Ohno and others noticed that. We've also noticed that the opportunity for waste reduction is right in front of us. All we have to do is tap the ingenuity of the workforce. The key question for me is, "What gets in the way of doing so?" It was that question that led Greg Howell and I to observe participants in the construction process.

(...)
Continue reading Lastest Discussion of 8th Waste (137 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | 5 comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged theory, lean, collaboration, kaizen.

Houston Neal offers a high-level feature comparison checklist for beginning a software evaluation.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | One comment

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged asides.

Beware of headlines. ENR reports: Fatalities Fell in 2007, Labor Dept. Reports. The story leads by telling us construction deaths were down 5% in 2007. Shall we celebrate? I think not. Have a look:

Fatalities Construction* Other Industry 2007 1,178 (p) 3,778 (p) 2006 1,239 4,081 2005 1,192 4,022 2004 1,234 3,995 2003 1,131 3,912 p: Preliminary

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics,
* as reported by ENR

You don't have to be a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt to see that the latest results are consistent with the expected results. The mean for the five years is 1,195 deaths and the standard deviation is 44. The latest year is within 1 standard deviation of the mean. A more accurate headline might read
No Change in Construction Fatalities. But the situation is worse than the headline suggests.

(...)
Continue reading Construction Safety - Good News or Bad (103 more words)

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | One comment

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged safety, construction.

"Smart organizations make difficult things simple," from Bob Sutton's Work Matters.

© 2008 Hal, Reforming Project Management. | Permalink | No comments

Add to del.icio.us. | Search blogs linking this post with Technorati

Want more on these topics? Browse other posts tagged asides.