99 - Review and Reflection

I’ll try not to whine too much, but this has been a pretty tough week.  It’s been hard for me to be consistent with my programming this week primarily because of how I’m managing the time I’m spending taking post-surgery care of my lovely bride.

She had knee replacement surgery on Monday.  She is allergic to codeine-based pain killers, so we’re managing her pain with alternative methods - In other words, she’s in a lot of pain most of the time.  That’s been affecting our sleep and so it makes it more difficult for me to write and record.  She is doing better every day, though, so I expect to get everything back on track this coming week.

From a contents perspective, though, the week was relatively rich.

This week, I turned the focus squarely onto problem solving with episodes explaining why along with examples of yesterday’s problems - particularly focusing on wildfires; on today’s problems - focusing on employee engagement; and on tomorrow’s problems - which we can’t specifically forecast, but which we know will be coming.

I also spent a lot of time this week working through a system called Quantum Profit Science.  I mentioned it once before a couple of weeks ago.  I think it offers real promise to organizations who are struggling with profitability.  This system builds schedules that ensure each order tracks to a profit specification and provides and incentive structure to employees to find ways to improve the work. 

I also spent a lot of time this week thinking through a new program that my friend Norman Bodek is launching.  He’s calling it his Library Study group and he’s asked me to help with a group or two as they form.  We’ll pull a book or article out of his lean library, read through it, pull it apart for key lessons, and then reassemble it using current problems and examples.  It will be a true mastermind program for lean practitioners, particularly those who have been doing this work as leaders, consultants and coaches.  This will be a way they can share their perspectives and gain new perspective that they will be able to take back into their companies or their client work.

I hope you had a great week.  Coming up this week, I’m going to be digging in to the scientific method, problem-solving methodologies that based on the scientific method, and particularly on my C4 process.  I’ll be sharing the key phases of C4 and its 11-step process that will guarantee better thinking and better solutions.

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.l