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Boot Your Root (Cause)
Matthew E. May
Process improvers the world over rally around root cause analysis as if it were the holy grail of all things organizational. But is it? Understanding the root cause of a problem certainly makes sense in the context of a present day situation carrying the potential for a correct answer or solution…
The Four Principles of Dynamic Work Design
MIT Sloan School of Management
Traditional corporate hierarchies tend to rely on static design. There’s the CEO at the top, followed by directors and managers. Red tape and inefficient processes can bog down decisions.  Dynamic work design is a more effective method of managing workflow, especially intellectual work, says MIT…
Overproduction vs. Fast Improvement Cycles
Mark Rosenthal
A couple of weeks ago I posed the question, “Are you overproducing improvements?” and compared a typical improvement “blitz” with a large monument machine that produces in large batches. I’d like to dive a little deeper into some of the paradoxes and implications of 1:1 flow of anything,…
Reflection
Kevin Meyer
One of my great pleasures is going for a walk on the six-mile-long and generally empty beach a couple blocks from my house. There’s the remnant of a long-dormant (hopefully!) volcano at one end that is strangely humbling. A long walk in such a beautiful spot creates a connection between nature, my…
Next Time You Want to Identify Waste on Your Shop Floor, Visit an Art Museum
Mary Hallock
In lean we talk about “seeing the waste” and using visual tools. Many of us who use these terms  have had a lot of training in engineering, manufacturing, and other highly technical areas. However, the skills needed to “see” problems may lie more firmly in the study of art. I recently read an…
Measuring the Economy With Location Data
Rob Matheson
Carrying your smartphone around everywhere has become a way of life. In doing so, you produce a surprising amount of data about your role in the economy—where you shop, work, travel, and generally hang out. Thasos Group, founded at MIT in 2011, has developed a platform that leverages those data,…
The Three Gaps of Creativity: Effort, Skill, and Quality
Scott Berkun
The great surprise for people with good ideas is the gap between how an idea feels in their minds and how it feels when they try to put the idea to work. When a good idea comes together, it feels fantastic. Good ideas often come with a wave of euphoria, a literal dopamine high, and we’re joyously…
Organizational Culture Polarities Hold the Key to a Healthy Culture
Jesse Lyn Stoner
Too much of a good thing brings out its downside. Ever had too much team time? It makes you long for a solo vacation on a desert island. One of the best portrayals of “too much of a good thing” was in Black Mirror’s Nose Dive (Season 3). In what initially looks like a utopian culture where everyone…
The Six Core Questions
Gwendolyn Galsworth
The six core questions you see below are a window to help us understand why we struggle at work. Why? Because the answers to them are missing! The remedy is to first notice that—to notice the motion caused by those deficits. Then remove the motion by implementing visual answers. Imbed the answers…
HoneyBot Lures in Digital Troublemakers
Georgia Tech News Center
It’s small enough to fit inside a shoebox, yet this robot on four wheels has a big mission: keeping factories and other large facilities safe from hackers. Meet the HoneyBot. Developed by a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the diminutive device is designed to lure in…
If Bridges Could Talk
Taran March @ Quality Digest
The rutted road to Quality Digest’s office is a pretty good example of highway health across the country. Running to the city’s shuttered airport, it’s riddled with potholes and cracks that flourish along a timeline of repair and despair. Some are filled, some are returning to the empty state;…
Parents: Hold Yourselves Accountable for the Skills Gap
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
Employers can’t find people with the skills needed for the today’s workplace, because high schools and universities fail to teach students useful job skills. The skills gap is a decades-old and well-known problem that will remain unsolved unless we flip priorities not only in our school systems…
Should U.S. Taxpayers Support Industry Initiatives?
Jeff Dewar, Mike Richman
Just as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program was defunded by the federal government during the Obama Administration, President Trump and Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), are now contemplating the eventual demise of several long-standing…
Which Revolution Is More Historic: Industrial or Tech?
Edmund Andrews
It’s an article of faith that technological innovation is crucial to prosperity and is currently changing our lives at an unprecedented rate, but how do we know if the pace of pioneering breakthroughs is any faster today than it was during Thomas Edison’s era? In fact, some economists argue that…
Fresh Changes in the Pipeline
ISO
Ageing wastewater systems are under threat from growing populations, urbanization, pollution. and climate change, not to mention human behavior. However, despite these challenges and fears for health and safety, the new ISO 24516 series is playing a key role in turning what many consider a burden…
Transitioning to ISO 45001
Ismael Belmarez
Workplace safety is a vital concern for every organization. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.9 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported by private industry employers in 2016, costing employers tens of billions of dollars. In March of this year, the leading…
Evolution and Quality Improvement
Mike Richman
Many people don’t understand how the theory of evolution works. There is this notion that change somehow just occurs naturally over the course of geological time. What some fail to grasp is that change does not simply happen. It occurs because there is some external pressure that forces adaptation…
Why the Right Change Often Feels Wrong
Scott Berkun
On Tuesdays I write about the top-voted question on “Ask Berkun.” This week’s question came from J.R., who wrote: “What is a favorite theory that you wish more people understood?” A favorite theory that I wish was more well-known is the Satir Change Model. It’s popular in some circles, but often…
Prioritization Is a Symptom
Jim Benson
People are always asking us for help with ways to prioritize. Almost everyone believes prioritization to be an action in and of itself. They ask, “What mechanisms do you use to prioritize?” However, we find most often that prioritization issues, like trust issues, are a symptom of deeper problems…
Would You Love to Change the World?
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
Who hasn’t been subjected to fear, manipulation, hypocrisy, and greed? The majority of the human race is continuously under the thumb of individuals who have succumbed to these unconscious states of existence. If you want change but don’t know what to do, here are points in a hopeful direction. It…
Communication, Not Structure
Kevin Meyer
Changing an organization’s structure seems to be the common knee-jerk response to internal issues. My prior company embarked on a reorganization to eliminate arbitrary site- and function-based structures so that we could align around corporatewide value creation processes. During the…
The Lean Brain Series, Part 2: Visualization Begets Alignment
Tonianne DeMaria
Lean says: Map the value stream. Your brain says: I’ve been doing this so long, it’s become second nature to me. The steps are right here—in my head. What’s at play here: • Illusion of transparency • Curse of knowledge/information imbalance • Status quo thinking • Groupthink/false consensus…
What Accelerates Innovation?
Jeffrey Phillips
Lately I’ve been reading about the efforts to build or create innovation accelerators. Universities, businesses, and even cities and regions are talking about innovation and the need to create accelerators or innovation enablers. I’m glad that everyone is excited about innovation, and that they…
Inside Quality Digest Live for Sept. 8, 2017
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Our Sept. 8, 2017, episode of QDL examined a different way to conduct clinical trials, discussed fixing problems before they occur, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey looked at resources for building a more resilient and sustainable infrastructure. “A Better Way to Design Clinical Trials” A…
Wind and Water, Sink or Save
Laurel Thoennes @ Quality Digest
There’s nothing like a splash of cold water to wake you up. Imagine what a 33-trillion-gallon splash would do. Maybe 24 hours of wind at 185 miles per hour would sweep you onto your feet. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma said, “Wakey wakey,” and we can’t afford to nod off. How do you recover from…

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