Aaron U. Bolin, Ph.D.

A deliveryman carrying a bouquet of flowers walks up and knocks on the door of a small home. When the lady of the house answers he says, "Are you the Widow Jones?" The lady says, "Well, my name's Jones, but I'm no widow." The deliveryman says, "Oh Yeah, just wait till you read the card!" Ba dum dum crash! As a business consultant, sometimes I feel like the guy delivering the flowers. I know the bad news (and the good) well before the intended recipient. And like the deliveryman, sometimes I have to repeat the bad news several times with ever decreasing levels of subtlety. I used to think the need for repetition was a communication issue -- perhaps I was unclear in my description of the root causes of the organization's problems. My views are evolving though. I'm starting to think that the inability to process information that threatens the status quo is a root cause of root causes. Chris Argyris (1985) covered the topic of defe

I've been working on adapting our yellow belt curriculum for presentation via the web. The long-pole in the tent for this curriculum conversion is the process simulation. When I teach the class in-person, we always do a hands-on production simulation that the students "fix" over the course of several rounds. To replace the hands-on production simulation, I need to come up with about six hours worth of meaningful activities to simulate aspects of a process improvement project. The catch is that I have to be able to facilitate the activities with a large group of remote students. One idea I'm kicking around is to develop a standard work instruction for writing English sonnets. On the surface, writing a sonnet might seem difficult. However, most people can produce a sonnet in about 25 minutes when you break down the process into a series of steps. Notice that I didn't say most people could produce a good sonnet -- only that they could produce a sonnet that mee

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

By some strange mistake in judgment, the MAES chapter from Colorado University-Boulder ended up with me as their mentor for the college decathlon event held during the annual symposium. I'm enjoying the experience, but I wonder how useful I've really been to my team (this is my first college decathlon, so they have to spend a little extra time teaching me how to mentor them). For the "Blog Post" event, my students have posted a short article to the MAES Facebook page. The measure of success in this event is the number of "Likes" they get on Facebook by this afternoon. If you have a few seconds, please like and share at the link below. Go Buffaloes! top-10-things-to-remember-for-the-next-maes-symposium

As the toner supply in her home office started to run low, wise Ms. Owl placed an order. She needed to stock up for a long winter, so she doubled her normal order and submitted all of the proper forms to Jonny Badger, the supply clerk. When the requested toner did not arrive on the scheduled delivery date, Ms. Owl called Jonny Badger to determine the cause of the delay. "Banker Frog cancelled your order," explained Jonny. "Several other people in the village will also need toner, so banker Frog decided to bundle the orders to reduce the overall cost to the village." "When will I get my toner?" asked Ms. Owl. "Banker Frog is consolidating the orders now. We'll submit the larger order today. It should arrive by next Friday." "What should I do in the meantime?" asked Ms. Owl. "I waited to order the toner until I needed it - just as Banker Frog directed. Now, I've run completely out. Without toner, I w

The other day, I was invited to attend a meeting with 11 top executives, the Big Wigs. The Big Wigs meet every Friday to discuss strategy. As a little wig, I was attending to fill the role of note taker. The topic of the day was about refreshing IT resources in the field. There was no meeting agenda. The meeting started 7 minutes late. One Big Wig had already laid out papers to work on during the meeting. Four of the Big Wigs sent their deputies to “cover” the meeting. The 2nd highest ranked Wig in the room began checking messages on his phone (or playing video games, I’m not sure which) after only 3 minutes. At the end of 60 minutes, I had not recorded a single meaningful discussion or action item. Not one. To hold this particular meeting cost the organization roughly $800 in salaries and benefits. We spent $800 to teach 11 Big Wigs that field reps are getting new laptops – even though all 11 knew that new laptops were on the way before the meeting started. I'm relaying

Today and Tomorrow: Commemorative Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic by Henry Ford My rating: 4 of 5 stars Brilliant, though somewhat utopian in outlook. I was somewhat surprised to see that Henry Ford outlined a complete and modern continuous process improvement program back in 1926 -- long before quality circles, total quality management, and lean six sigma. The basic message of the book is that good business management can save the world. Ford cites multiple examples from Ford Motors where better management improved the bottom line and also improved the lives of his workers. The book reads somewhat like an Ayn Rand novel - the producers of the world carry the load for the moochers. Ford does offer ample advice and has a very quotable writing style. The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars was the constant droning about how Ford Motors is the best thing since sliced bread. Otherwise, this is a very good book, maybe a must read, for those interested in continuou