LEAN GTD #2 – Defining customer value

8. september, 2007 — 1 Comment

This is part 2 of a series of articles on how to trim your GTD system with LEAN techniques.

First step in any LEAN proces is to define customer value. Only then will you be able to know what is value-adding and what is waste, MUDA.

This might seem trivial, but in fact it isn't. Very few companies manage to make customer value the sole measure on the scoreboard. And a terrifiing number of companies go along without ever getting really close to the need of the people they produce for. This includes a lot of companies that spend heavily on market research. It is a mindset thing.

So what is actually the customer value of a GTD system? I have given that some thought. I am the customer of my own system of course, but what value should the system create? Here is my view on the value that a GTD system should give:

  • Capture of all my creative ideas in a place so I'll get more value from them. This means that I must be able to get every idea into a trusted system, from where I can easily retrieve them, when relevant.
  • A feeling of efficiency by having a clear sense of control and being able to give the right tasks the right amount of attention at any given time.
  • A clear sense of purpose and a connection between higher level goals and daily actions.
  • Uncluttering - handling and getting rid of all unnecessary stuff, freeing up ressources.

That's it basically. When I achieve this, I feel in control. The next step is to map the stream of actions that generate this value. So tomorrow: LEAN GTD 3 - mapping the value stream.

  • Jens Poder

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A LEAN GTD System

7. september, 2007 — 1 Comment

lean-gtd

I have been on the Getting Things Done wagon for well over a year now, and I'm a happy GTD'er. It's a great productivity framework for knowledge workers, because it let's you get stuff off your mind, so you can focus on the job at hand.

But I find myself thinking, that my personal version of the system is overly complicated, especially in stressfull periods. When the going gets tough, my GTD habits gets skipped. Piles start accumulating and the only routinely thing about my weekly review routine, is that it gets cancelled routinely.

This results in frequently having  a "Mind like boiling Water" instead of the wanted state of "Mind like Water".

The problem is this: The journey from the perspective of every piece of information through my system simply takes to long. There's a couple of queue and batch areas along the way, and these require me to sit down at the computer and process. When "sitting down in front of the computer time" is scarce, these queue and batch pools in the system gets totally out of hand. And then you have the pain...

So I have decided to fix this. And I'll use LEAN methologies to do it, and make a LEAN GTD system.

The lean principles

Lean thinkers and GTD'ers have a lot in common. Both parties obsess with system management, the difference is, that Lean Thinking is used in production companies, like car manufacturer Toyota, where it was first invented.

The objective of Lean thinking is to eradicate waste in the production process, or MUDA, as Lean Thinkers call it. MUDA is everything in the production proces that doesn't create value. This could be unnecessary storage and inventory. Unnecessary handling and transport.

Lean production systems are typically build very integrated, with no stopping once the process of building a product is started. Products are produced just in time, so no parts are made before there's a request further downstream Lean systems gets the production flowing with a minimum of waste and waiting. This is how I want my GTD system to be.

So I'll start the process of slimming my GTD system with the 5 basic LEAN steps.

  • Define customer value - what is the value created in the eye of the customer.
  • Map the Value Stream - chart the series of action that create the value. Banish activities that is wasteful right away.
  • Introduce flow - make the proces continously flowing by getting rid of queue and batch thinking.
  • Introduce pull - start acting on pull from the value stream instead of making stuff before it's needed.
  • Perfection - make better all the time.

So that's what's in store for me. Tomorrows post: LEAN GTD - defining customer value.

LINKS:

  • Jens Poder

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Knowledge Management 2.0

31. august, 2007 — 6 Comments

I'm often left quite frustrated by the amount of mismanagement going on in supposedly creative workplaces. Everywhere managers are holding on to control and trying to microcontrol their knowledge workers. This is really sad, because this kind management creates an environment where it's actually really difficult to create anything worthwhile.

Here's 3 serious signs, that you're doing something wrong

  • People are holding on to their knowledge - In Stephen Collins' words... knowledge can't be conscripted, only volunteered. If your knowledge workers aren't sharing their knowledge freely, they won't synergize and create outstanding work. This has to be looked into.
  • You have eloborate and detailed processes for how to do Knowledge Work. These involve lot's of paperwork. Such managements are mind-numbing. It's the worst kind "brains in the centre, nuts in the field" management. Stop treating your employees like children, that needs to be guided every step of the way. Creatives need to solve tasks in different ways to stay creative. Instead you have to impose a loose framework focusing on the essential information needed to collaborate.
  • You're not taking any risks! - This is a really bad one. Great Knowledge Workers rely mainly on intrinsic motivation. Doing great and interesting work is a key component on their motivational score-board. But doing great and interesting work mostly involves taking risks.
  • Jens Poder
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Tame the traps of innovation

22. august, 2007 — Leave a comment

Do you often find that concepts turn out less innovative, than what you wished for? Well perhaps it has fallen into one the 7 deadly traps of innovative thinking.

mindoftheinnovator

In this great online presentation, Mind of the Innovator, by Matthew E. May you will learn to recognize these traps! They are:

  • Shortcutting - Jumping to conclusions on intuituion instead of working with the problem
  • Blindspots - Making assumptions based on previous experience
  • Not Invented Here
  • Satisficing - Instead of satisfying, you do the thing that will suffice
  • Downgrading - Rewriting the succes criteria, instead of succeeding
  • Complicating
  • Stifling - Not letting people around you get good ideas

It's really cool. 16 pages. Well worth reading. Makes you reconsider your role in innovation. Found on Guy Kawasaki's blog.

  • Jens Poder

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Creative Tools en masse!

22. august, 2007 — Leave a comment

I am basically more creative, when everything is different and new. This means, that I have given up on finding the one and only process for creativity.

Every proces tends to become less fertile, as it gradually degrades into a boring everyday habit. When the mind is bored, it becomes less creative.

So if you facilitate creative processes the trick is to keep the process fresh, but still focused enough to give the participants a feeling of confidence.

And now the link:

http://creatingminds.org/tools/tools.htm

- Jens Poder

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Using a Briefcase to sync Nokia E61i files with a PC

13. august, 2007 — 1 Comment

I wondered for a long time how to keep files on my PC and Mobile synced. This would let me use a lot of software on my Nokia E61i phone, that I hadn't used before.

I have been using my Nokia E61i for a couple of months, and it's truly a great phone. Great blackberry-capabilities, wonderful webbrowser, a great inbuilt memo-recorder. But that's just the tip of the iceberg of what this machine offers. Unfortunately the rest of the functions on the phone are not exactly plug and play. Most of them are really confusing. I think symbian 60 has a huge cognitive friction hurdle for new users to overcome.

The tools I wanted to start using was:

  • Quickoffice - A lightweight Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I wanted to have documents I was currently working on synced between my PC and my Mobile, so I could edit them everywhere.
  • Music Player - for music and podcasts. I have an Ipod, but I wanted to have a couple of podcasts with me on the phone and only have music on my Ipod.

The Nokia PC Suite program, that handles the connection between your phone and PC only offers an explorer-like filebrowser that lets you drag and drop files from file folders on the phone and the PC. This is tedious work, especially since the interface is really laggy due to slow response from the phone.

I wanted to be able to change a file, and have it altered automatically on the other device. If I deleted a file on the phone, say a podcast I had listened, I wanted it to disappear from my PC as well.

The spark that got me started was reading this blogpost by a Swedish S60 blogger. In the article he explains how to make your phone work as a USB-drive and autocopy files with a simple bat-file. You just have to choose "data transfer" instead of "PC Suite" when you plug your USB-cable into your phone. This makes the memory-card in your phone accessible to your computer, typically as the E: drive.

And then it hit me! If I could read my mobile phone like a normal drive, I could just use the simple "My Briefcase" in windows to keep my files updatet.

mybriefcase

By right-clicking on the desktop on your PC, you can make a new briefcase. Then drag and drop the filefolders from your Nokia memory card (visible in your explorer as E:).

For my Quickoffice I chose the "Documents" folder and dragged it into the briefcase. For the musicplayer I dragged the sounds folder into it (the musicfiles are in a subfolder called digital)briefcase2

So now when the phone is connected in data transfer mode, and I open my briefcase on the desktop, I can sync the two devices. Files start zooming back and forth, and then boom: I have the latest versions of all files on both devices.

I'm really happy with solution. It doesn't require extra software. And it works.

Now I can just dump ebooks, podcasts and todo-lists in the briefcase, and sync the devices.

Hope you'll find this useful. Comments are welcome.

- Jens Poder

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Get Abstract for short versions of Business Books

25. juli, 2007 — Leave a comment

This is a quite nice service. GetAbstract.com offers summaries of over 4000 business books.

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So instead of reading 200+ pages, you get a 5 pages summary as a PDF, and a 20 minute MP3 summary for your Ipod!

The only downside of this service is their business model. You can choose between a gold and a silver subscription. I don't like those.

The gold subscription is the one I really want, but it's pretty steeply priced at 299$ a year. It's the one that'll let me pick and choose any book. And they'll me new summaries every week.

The silver one, is the one I can afford, at 89$ a year. BUT this only gives me a summary every other week, based on a personal interest profile (so I don't get to choose myself), and a bonus 4 books, that I can choose freely.

Check it out. You can download two free examples. One of the is Blue Ocean Strategy, which is a killer book!

  • Jens Poder

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Reward yourself for frequent Weekly Reviews

20. juli, 2007 — 4 Comments

It's a funny thing really. When you lead other people, you tend to use a lot of encouragement and rewards, to inspire the right behaviour. But when you lead yourself, these motivational tricks often gets replaced with tough self-discipline & harsh selfblame, when failing to reach goals set for oneself.Well... half a year ago, I decided to stop selfblaming and start self-rewarding instead. The reward-scheme was invented to get me into a better Weekly Review habit. The Weekly Review part of the Getting Things Done system is notoriously difficult to implement, probably because sitting down for 2-3 hours and reviewing your system, is a very big time-investment, and thus difficult to find the time for. At the time, my weekly review was more of a Montly Review actually, which meant the GTD-system simply wasn't working.So what to do?My idea was to find a very special reward, that I could gradually earn by making weekly reviews. (I have described the concept in detail in danish here)So for every finished weekly review, I would gain a little cash to get the special reward. The amount set was 100 dkr (19 US $).Rancilio_Rocky_Doserless_GrinderThe Extra Special RewardI chose a costly Coffee Grinder as the reward for all my efforts. The Rancilio Rocky was a wonderful piece of machinery, that I had wanted for a long long time. But it was so expensive, that I had never really seriously considered buying it. It just seemed too extravagant to spend 2400 dkr (445 US $) on a thing to grind coffee. 2400 dkr buys a lot of coffee! So as a special reward is was perfect!

  • It was expensive
  • It was something I had an irrational desire to get
  • It wasn't something I would buy otherwise

For a every weekly review completed, I would take a physical 100 kroner-bill, and put it in an envelope. And with this routine in place I started the proces of saving up for the remarkable coffee grinder. This was the 1st of december 2006.33 Weeks went bySlowly the envelope got fatter, as a nice bundle of bills accumulated. It really was a nice experience for someone prone to swiping the credit card and getting instant gratification.Here is a diagram of my progress:rocky_opsparingSo I was able to get 24 weekly reviews needed to buy the Rocky in 33 weeks. This was quite a wonderfull success. I went from 1 montly review on average, to 3 monthly reviews on average. A threefold increase!Trophee Aquired!So now I have it! I bought it yesterday taking my envelope to the gourmet coffee store. It felt great taking out a fat bundle of bills, handing it over and getting the heavy cardbox box with the Rancilio logo on it.So now I have it in my kitchen next to the espresso machine. And every time I look at it, I get this happy sensation inside. It's not the normal feeling of: "I bought something expensive that I thought would change my life, but now I'm a little disappointed." It's a feeling of triumph!I is like looking at a treasured trophee. It is my prize for a great achievement!And now it's time to sit down with a cuppa, and figuring out the next big extra special reward, that my, ever more frequent, weekly reviews, will get me. I'm considering the following:

next_treatWhat to choose? Any Ideas?- Jens Poder

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Husk at stramme møtrikken!

6. juli, 2007 — Leave a comment

Jeg læste et fint citat her af Shigeo Shingo, ekspert i Toyotas effektive produktions systemer, som har været inspirationskilden til hele LEAN-bevægelsen.

Citatet er som følger:

"It's only the last turn of a bolt that tightens it - the rest is just movement."

Citatet minder mig om organisationsforandringer jeg har været deltager i, og også nogle jeg selv har været med til at gennemføre. Når man glemmer at dreje skruen den sidste omgang der strammer den, mister man hele værdien af arbejdet.

  • Jens Poder
In Creativity, Leadership
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Se hvordan forandring sker! – Shift Happens

3. juli, 2007 — Leave a comment

shifthappens

Min kollega Henrik fandt dette slideshow, der gennemg岠hvordan verden fundamentalt forandres.

http://www.slideshare.net/jbrenman/shift-happens-33834

Det er fra sitet slideshare, hvor man kan gemme og publicere powerpoint-shows.

  • Jens Poder

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