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Showing posts from June, 2012

The Paradox of the Low Hanging Fruit

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In business projects, the metaphorical language of picking the low-hanging fruit almost always comes up. Just to be clear, the low-hanging fruit refers to the idea that the easiest or lowest cost work should get done first. Examples of low-hanging fruit include things like eliminating obvious waste, cutting overtime, reducing excessive stockpiles, and removing self-inflicted policy constraints. Good things generally happen when you pick the low-hanging fruit. First, the project team can satisfy an immediate need to be successful, if only on a small scale. Because the low-hanging fruit is so easy to get, harvesting it early in a project can generate momentum for a more sustained effort. Second, everyone on the team can agree. Because the low-hanging fruit is obvious, disagreements on the obvious course of action are normally quite easy to resolve. Third, the project team can de-clutter the solution space. Getting the little things out of the way can help the team stay focused on the

Lubricating the Social Machinery: Tips for Using Humor in Public Speaking - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Lubricating the Social Machinery: Tips for Using Humor in Public Speaking - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com : 'via Blog this'

Garden Synchronicity: Defective Cucumbers and Resistance to Change

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I started a garden for the first time last year (2011). I wasn't very good at it, but I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. I learned that planting flowers with the vegetables helps attract beneficial insects. I learned that too much water can be just as bad as not enough. I also learned that plants grow better when organic material (a.k.a. compost) is tilled into the soil. So at the end of last year, I put all of the garden and yard waste in a compost bin. Rotten tomatoes, corn stalks, grass clippings, fallen leaves, and dried sunflower plants all went into the bin. When spring came, I dumped out the compost bin and used a roto-tiller to mix it all into the garden patch. As a process improvement over last year's garden, I actually had a plan for Garden 2012. I knew that I didn't want any more sunflowers, because they blocked out the sun for other plants. I knew that I wanted cucumbers, so I bought premium seeds and planted them in the northeast corner o

Intangible Value in Small Projects

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How big does a continuous process improvement project need to be? I get variations of this question every time I provide training on the topic. My best answer goes something like this: "The tools and techniques of CPI are scalable to accommodate both large and small projects. Black belt projects are normally larger and more complex than green belt and yellow belt projects. In a typical cross-functional process map with four departments and 30 steps, a yellow belt might do a project on one step, a green belt might do a project on one department, and a black belt might do a project on the entire process." Two hidden issues underlie this question. Issue number one is that people believe that every project must provide substantial and tangible benefits to be worthwhile; they believe that doing small projects is a waste of time. The truth is that there is value in doing a CPI project, however small, for the sake of doing the project. Colleagues might argue that projects consu

Coolest New Vanity Search for Academics: Microsoft Academic Search

Although far from perfect, this has got to be the coolest new vanity search tool for academic authors. I love the  visual co-author and academic genealogy graphs. Check it out:  Microsoft Academic Search :

Ten Things I Learned from Bill Porter

Ten Things I Learned from Bill Porter by Shelly Brady (List Price: $12.95; 2002 New World Library) I stumbled across a recommendation for this book somewhere along the way and made a mental note to read it someday. I am glad I did; it is really an inspirational story. Shelly Brady reviews her years as a personal assistant to Bill Porter, a door-to-door salesman who overcame the challenges of Cerebral Palsy. She condenses her experience into a series of illustrations about timeless principles of perseverance, dignity, and will power. In all fairness to readers who may buy the book, it isn't particularly well-written. Brady does a nice job of capturing Bill Porter, but her narration wanders off topic frequently. That is, she doesn't seem to be able to resist making the story about her 30% of the time. It is a quick read in an easy conversational tone; I read it in one sitting. For me, the power of the story (and the value of the book) was the challenge that it placed on m