Aligning Your Business

In today’s tough economic climate, it is even more important the work we do is aligned with the company’s goals and priorities.

As companies reduce headcount while still driving towards revenue growth, decisions have to be made about what are the top priorities for the company.  If you cannot strongly link your work to one of the company’s priorities then you should really question yourself and/or your manager about the validity of finishing that work.

Everyone in the company should know the priorities and should be asked to understand how their work is linked to achieving success on the priorities.

One good way to do this, is through strategy deployment.  This is process by which the priorities of the company are used to determine the priorities of the division and then those are tied to projects and/or initiatives for the current year.

In a good strategy deployment process, catchball is used to get input from the layer of management below.  This helps drive accountability and alignment throughout the organization.

If you cannot link your work to one of the projects/initiatives that is part of the strategy then you have to ask if it needs to be done.  Sometimes the answer may be ‘yes’.  An example might be updating your servers or you won’t be able to run some of your IT systems.  This may not be one of the priorities but it must be done in order to keep the business running.

It is good to capture the linkages on an A3 document and use that as your guide throughout the year.

It is amazing the power of alignment has on driving a company to achieving its top priorities.  Are you aligned?

P.S. ……. K.I.S.S.

Problem Solving…Keep It Stupid Simple (as in really simple).

Recently, this is the valuable lesson I learned in coaching problem solving using an A3 to show the thinking.

Typically, when I have coached problem solving using the A3 I have had the A3 broken down into big sections (Background/Business Case, Current State, Problem Solving and Root Cause Analysis, Action Plan and Results).  Under each section there were more segments that broke down the process to help try to go through the problem solving step-by-step.

With another group, by necessity, a colleague and I informed them of what an A3 was, gave them a 20 minute high level explanation on the big sections and a single point lesson to help guide them.  A week later the three A3s we saw were probably the best first pass A3s I have ever seen.  There was still some learning and some tweaking to do to tell a good story but overall they were very good.

Upon reflection, people that got the minutia explanation were trying too hard to “fit the form” and not use the A3 to show there thinking.  The coaching became much harder and the people kept focusing on filling the A3 out correctly.  This cause frustration and in a lot of cases people didn’t want to use the A3.

The group that got the high level explanation felt the freedom to explain their thinking any way they saw fit.  The A3s were quite different but they all had the big segments (at least through the areas they have progressed).  The questions and coaching around these A3s were much different.  More around different modes of thought and next steps in the problem solving process.  Not what do I fill in here.

Just like physical processes…keep it simple when teaching and coaching problem solving using the A3 as a tool to make the thinking visual.

What are your experiences?  Is simple better in your eyes?

Learning A3 Downloadable Template

If you look at the page links above you will see a page that has been added labeled Downloads.

This page will have files you can download to keep and use. The initial thought is these will mostly be templates that can be used, but I am not limiting it to just templates.

My intent is not for it to be a template just to fill in but a way for people to learn. I want it to be a tool that can be helpful to understanding lean and facilitate conversations.

Here is the template. There are two worksheets in the template.

• SWI – Intent of Use – This is meant to explain the best way I have learned to use the learning A3. It tries to answer the questions of what is the purpose of the learning A3 and how to use it. It also, gives a standard operating procedure to go about using it.
• Learning A3 – This is the template to start with. It leads you through several discussions on what business need is the learning tied to, what is the purpose of the learning, what behaviors and concepts will be the focus on learning and actions to take to reach your targets in the upcoming year.

Please feel free to download and use it. Any feedback on the ease and clarity of use would be appreciated.

Podcast with Joe Dager of Business901

Earlier this week, Joe Dager of the Business901 blog posted a podcast.  We did a couple of weeks ago.  Joe and I discussed using A3s to plan out learning opportunities.

It was a great opportunity and I appreciate Joe reaching out to allow me to share more of my thoughts on the use of A3s for learning.

You can check out the podcast here.

Learning A3

I am always looking for inspiration to improve myself, my work and my processes.  A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine caused a bright light bulb to go off.  The colleague mentioned developing an A3 to show the progress of learning for the people I am teaching and coaching.

Simple right.

A3s are used for solving problems, developing proposals and everything else.  Why not for laying out a plan to show what people are expected to learn during a project or coaching session.  Layout a standard or plan so expectations and progress becomes visible.

My colleague provided me with a format to go about developing an A3 for the learning to transfer to the person being taught.  Right away it made my thoughts clearer.  It allowed me to communicate easier what I was hoping the person would learn over the next year and how I expected to get them there. We were able to have a good discussion about expectations and a plan to get to the target.  Now we have something to use as a guide when we meet.  The plan also helps me ask better questions when we meet.

I plan on doing more and more learning A3s.  It is something I can also use before a kaizen event.  Layout what I would like the team to learn while improving the business.  There is no better way to learn then teach something and apply it right away on something that is a problem for you and then reflect.  A kaizen event is setup to do that perfectly.

A3s….it’s not just for business problems.

Strategy A3 Downloadable Template

If you look at the page links above you will see that a new page that has been added labeled Downloads.

This page will have files you can download to keep and use.  The initial thought is these will mostly be templates that can be used, but I am not limiting it to just templates.

My intent is not for it to be a template just to fill in but a way for people to learn.  I want it to be a tool that can be helpful to understanding lean and facilitate conversations.

Here is the template.  There are three worksheets in the template.

• SWI – Intent of Use – This is meant to explain the best way I have learned to use the strategy A3.  It tries to answer the questions of what is the purpose of the strategy A3 and how to use it.  It also, gives a standard operating procedure to go about using it.
• Strategy A3 – This is the template to start with.  It leads you through several discussions on what is your mission, metrics, targets, current business conditions and actions to take to reach your targets in the upcoming year.
• Goal 1 Tactics – There are 6 of these sheets.  Only use the ones that you need.  It is based off the number of high level goals you have on our Strategy A3.  These sheets help take the initiatives from the Strategy A3 and go another level deeper to develop a tactical plan to complete the initiative and achieve the goal.

Please feel free to download and use it.  Any feedback on the ease and clarity of use would be appreciated.

Making Work Agreements Visual

Whenever doing work with another group or person, it is very important that everyone has agreement with what needs to be done and how it will be done.  Discussions happen between the parties and everyone seems to agree.  Then people go off and do the work and the next time the two parties meet there are odd looks and comments about that was not what the other person meant.

Recently, I wrote about the benefits of writing an A3 around problem solving.  When agreeing to what work will be done and who will do it, writing it down in an A3 format is very beneficial also.  The A3 can help foster a discussion about what was really meant.  Seeing the thoughts on paper in text or drawings makes it easier to communicate.

Another benefit I have found, is when there are disagreements and the thoughts are written on paper the focus seems to be on the content and not the person.  It doesn’t completely eliminate somebody wanting to attack a person and become defensive, but it does help to reduce the likely hood of this happening.

The more people can communicate verbally using a written format, such as an A3, to enhance the discussion the easier it will be for people to agree on what needs to be done and how it will be done.  And the next time the groups meet, the better chance of their being no misunderstanding as to the work that was done.

A3′s Are Hard!

A3′s are a report format that a lot of lean people talk about using.  The reporting is not what it is about.  The purpose to make the thinking visible and easy to understand in order to have more meaningful discussions about a problem or issue.

As important as they are it is still hard to do.  A3′s take time to put together.  Just putting something down on paper isn’t good enough.  It is taking the time to think about what the message is and conveying it clearly and very concisely because space is limited.  If the message isn’t clear then there can be misunderstandings that cause delays.

People usually don’t take the time to write an A3 as they are going along.  Not because they don’t believe in them but they get so busy working on the problem they don’t pause to do it.  I am guilty of this myself.  I miss opportunities to write the A3 and get my thinking down on paper for others to understand.

When I have taken the time to write the A3 as I went along I found a few things to be true.  Pausing to write the A3 gave me time to really think about the problem I was working on and I saw things from different angles and more clearly.  My business partners and I communicated more clearly when I use an A3 and we focus on the paper when we talk not anything personal about each other.  It never becomes an attack on a who but a discussion on a what.  Finally, I seem to finish my projects quicker because of the better communication which leads to better understanding and a quicker resolution.

A way I have found to help keep me on track with writing my A3 as I go along is to plan it into my work.  Schedule it so it is an appointment you have to keep.  This way I revisit it and keep it fresh as the project continues to move forward.

A3s are a great tool but they are hard.  No question about it.  The benefit is worth the effort though.

Discussions are What Is Value Added

Before anyone understood the thinking behind the tools used by Toyota, people copied the tools.  There are many examples of companies trying to copy the tools and not succeeding.

Today, many more people are starting to understand it is about the thinking and not the tools that makes lean successful.  Yet, because it is human nature we still rely on tools and templates.

Last week, Jamie Flinchbaugh had a great video post about focusing on the discussion and not the template when developing a lean strategy.  I would extend that thought to be the same same when creating value stream or process maps or A3′s.

Too many times I have caught myself as well as colleagues worrying about the format or template use of a map.  I would get questions like, “Why didn’t you follow the normal standards for the map?”  or “That doesn’t look like the A3 I was taught to use.”  These questions are missing the point.  The discussions we have around, “what is the problem and how did we fix it,” or “what is the lean strategy and how do we execute it” are what is important.

Discussions are where we can gain clarity and come to agreement on what is the issue and how to go about resolving it.    When you have an issue at home to you ever talk with your spouse about what template to put the information on?  I bet it is safe to assume no.  It is the discussion you are concentrating on.

Templates are tools to help facilitate and draw out the discussion.  Not hinder it.  Next time you use a template, make sure you use it to enhance the discussion, because the discussion is what adds value.