Episode 154 - 579 Leadership

I'm David Veech and this is Elevate Your Performance. 

Yesterday, I introduced this idea I've had surrounding numbers and balance.  I showed how odd numbers in the scale from 1 to 9, when depicted as dots on a line, have evenly distributed numbers on each side of a center point, reflecting a balanced system. 

As I researched the meaning of certain numbers: 5, 7, and 9 in particular I made some interesting connections. 

Five is positioned in the center of the scale from 1 to 9.  In that position, it reflects the pivotal point of change.  Leaders should be that pivotal point of change for their teams and organizations.  But the number 5 also reflects characteristics and values like freedom, curiosity, and adaptability.  These are all good qualities for leaders as well.   

5 also values experiences and is more willing to go with the flow than others.   

Seven represents a quest for wisdom.  Here, leaders ask questions...lots of questions, and listen carefully to the answers.  They tend to be more analytical than others and try to find meaningfulness in everything they do.  These all sound like excellent qualities to develop in leaders. 

Nine is a little more complex.  Nine represents completeness, or wholeness, but not finality.  It's like completing one cycle and then beginning another, much like we describe in the PDCA cycle of continuous improvement in a lean system.  Nine emphasizes the importance of transitions and transformations and how leaders should be guiding and empowering their people through these transformations.   

Nine is compassionate and kind and seeks the greater good.  Leaders here are wiser, stronger, more aware, tolerant, and supportive than others. 

These characteristics are all quite similar to what I describe as key insights for leaders in my book Leadersights – Love, Learn, and Let go. 

Nine, as the compassionate, guiding, and supportive leader demonstrates love – actively placing the needs of others above their own. 

Seven, seeking wisdom, asking questions, represents Learn – the on-going quest for understanding. 

Five, the free-spirited, experience-oriented (why not give it a try), going with the flow really captures the essence of Letting go.   

I want to keep exploring these leadership values, characteristics, and behaviors so I am doing two specific things to focus my energies.  I'm out of time now, so I'll tell you about them tomorrow.  Join me here at 9 am. 

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Episode 152 - Plans

I’m David Veech and this is Elevate your performance. 

After taking June off from making videos, I figure it’s time to get back at it, especially since it was one year ago today that I made the first of these.  I managed to run a pretty good streak then.  When I broke the streak, I broke that momentum.  As with everything else, if you’re running a streak and something breaks that momentum, it’s very tough to get back to it, so the videos got more and more sporadic. 

Because of that, I’m hesitant to commit to getting back on this horse, but I do need to make some more and spread some more joy and knowledge.  Let me share some plans with you that I’ve been working on and thinking about. 

I did a short workshop on Fearless Teams for the NK Institute for Human Advancement.  It was a blast and got great feedback.  In my consulting engagements, building effective teams is a major focus area.  We all need teams to WORK.  I’m also building a couple of additional workshops we will offer in the future. 

Fearless teams lead to fearless culture.  Any change you’re trying to make in your workplace, whether it’s new software, or something from the Lean Six Sigma toolbox, if you don’t address the culture change needed, that initiative will fall short of your goals.  I help companies bridge that gap.  While your lean consulting group is doing their thing, or your software implementation team is doing theirs, I work in the space between the technical change and the people to bring about a culture change.  That’s the sweet spot for my coaching work. 

3 other big things I’m planning to launch in the next several weeks: 

First, I want to offer a mastermind study group through the NK Institute that will focus on High Speed Problem Solving.  This will be an ongoing membership-based group that will take lots of deep dives into techniques and skills for problem solving.  We’re still working the details, but I want to meet virtually every couple of weeks and face-to-face about once a quarter with one of the participants hosting at their workplace.  While we’re there, we’ll do some specific work on their specific problem. 

Second, I’ve had this nagging idea about a new leadership study group where the focus is on balance.  I’ll be writing some more on this idea in the future, but this group will be developing more effective leadership behaviors to drive change, build wisdom, and work in cycles where we define a challenge, work to meet that challenge, then set a new one in an upward spiral elevating performance for everyone. 

The third is a podcast.  I’ve been wrestling with this one because producing a podcast is a lot of work, and marketing it to get any followers is real heavy lifting.  But I think I can do this and tie it to the leadership study group.  I want to talk to leaders about balance, about learning, and about problem solving.  Be watching for more information about this.  I’ll need at least 10 episode in the can before I can launch, so I guess I need to start on that very soon. 

I guess I’d better get to work, huh?  Thanks for listening.  Subscribe to get updates and let me know if you’re interested in participating in any of those three projects.  And if you need help developing teams and problem solving skills for your employees, reach out.  I’d love to work with you. 

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

86 - Getting started with Visual Management

Good morning!

Are you wondering how to get started with a new or modified visual management system and the team huddles that go along with them?

What do you measure?   What do you display?  How do you get people to care about the boards?   How do you get people to care about the huddles?

It can be a lot of hard work for leaders.  I don't want to sugar coat this. 

The most important aspect of visual management and huddles is understanding why you want to incorporate them into your workplace or work life. 

You need to understand what problem you are trying to solve with this.

To me, the most important reason to do all this is to allow all employees to feel more involved in what's going on at work and give them a system where they can become engaged. 

Why that?  Because we need engaged employees to help us see and solve future problems, to share new ideas, and to develop the skills they will need to be future leaders.

How do you start?  You'll need some specific measures.  Usually there will be a set that includes a metric for People, Safety, Productivity or Delivery, Quality, Service, and Cost.

The general question for all of these metrics is "what do people need to know?"  This isn't about what the leaders need to know, but this will play directly into metrics at higher tiers. 

"What do the people in the huddle at tier 1 need to know?" 

1. They need to know if their team is here or if they can expect more work because they're short handed today.  So we MEASURE Attendance.
 

2. They need to know if special events, training, or future vacations are going to affect them.  So we have a 3-month rolling calendar people can write on.
 

3. They need to know what they are expected to do that day.  What are the targets for production or service delivery - How many widgets am I expected to make or how many customers should I expect to see today? 
 

4. They need to know that the problems they had yesterday (or earlier) are solved or are being solved if they aren't personally involved.
 

5. For other things, ask them!  

a. Many will want to know how they are doing with customer satisfaction, so you will want some quality measure of their work. 

b. Many will want to know how the company is doing financially - especially if there's a gainshare or bonus structure they will benefit from with higher profitability. 

c. Others will want to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, babies, promotions, or recognition team members have received.

I'll start today with People and the simplest thing you can do to begin bringing people in - Measure attendance at the huddles.

Sounds silly to take attendance, but the way it should work is that each team member has to interact with the board to mark that they are here.  We do this to build the habit of coming to the huddle, picking up a marker, and putting a green dot next to your name.

But that alone will just be annoying, so you have to offer a challenge.  You have to offer something like: "If we have 100% attendance for a month, there's a reward for the team."  The reward can be an office pot luck, but that's pretty much a non-starter in COVID world, or it could be that everyone gets a $5 Starbucks or Walmart gift card. 

Give out the reward as soon as it’s earned.  Don’t wait til the end of the year to reward perfect attendance in February.

For longer periods of 100% attendance, you offer larger rewards. 

Don't forget though, that the purpose you are after is to get them to care about the huddle.  So the other things you measure and talk about in the huddle have to matter to them. 

I'll talk about them over the next few days.  If you need any help with this, send me a message or give me a call.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.