Aaron U. Bolin, Ph.D.

I have a lot of fun coaching youth sports (4 seasons of soccer, 2 of basketball so far), but I never really planned to coach. When my oldest daughter first joined a soccer team, I offered to help the coach -- my idea was to be like the team gopher, because I didn't know very much about soccer. I discovered two things very quickly: (1) the coach knew even less about soccer than I did and (2) her temperament made her unfit to coach young children. In fact, she was removed from the league after chasing her own daughter across the practice field with a belt. I very unexpectedly was promoted from gopher to head coach. Every season, I see two very different approaches to coaching young children. On one hand, there is the Cobra Kai method with lots of yelling, punishment for poor performance, and the explicit belief that winning is all that matters. On the other hand, there is the Mr. Miyagi approach of learning the game, trying to have fun, and the explicit belief that we like to win

What happens when you alter a generic process simulation normally used only for training to mirror the steps used in a real-life process you would like to change? In a recent Lean Six Sigma Champion course, I knew that I would be training folks who would later work on improving a kit-making process. Because I had access to a current-state process map of the kit-making process, I changed all of the labels on my training simulation to match those from the current-state map. Then, I altered the flow of materials in the training simulation to mirror the flow of materials in the real-life kit-making process. I was a bit surprised with the result. The students would not stay "in" the simulation. Every conversation would begin in how we could improve the simulated process, but it always ended in how we could improve the actual process. The simulated process gave them permission to make previously impossible changes to the kit-making process, pilot test them, and refine them.

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