In my current organization we’re on a campaign. When it comes to the process of acquiring things…that is the process of defining requirements, evaluating alternatives, picking solutions, and bringing them aboard…instability in each of these areas is the enemy. I think that can be said of any organization. In fact, as I read about organizations like Toyota and “The Toyota Way” one of the key tenets is a focus on process and driving out waste, inefficiency, and arriving at a transparent, stable platform.
One of the symptoms when stability doesn’t exist is the phenomenon known as “firefighting”. Firefighting is when you and your organization seem to constantly lurch from one crisis to another. There are lots of surprises…and most of them are unpleasant. One of the great training programs I participated in years ago had to do with the art and science of aircraft mishap investigations. Aircraft mishaps are the ultimate firefight…something has gone terribly wrong. It is imperative that we fully understand not only ‘what’ happened, but even more importantly, ‘why’. And we also learned that it was important to go beyond the first level of ‘why’, but rather to go deep enough to determine if there was the potential of a systemic, common-cause that if addressed, could help prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.
In a similar way, training I received from the Goldratt Institute, learning how to apply the Theory of Constraints thinking processes to problem solving stressed the same skill sets and processes. Namely, how do you get to the core problem, understand why it exists, resolve conflicts that have kept the core problem in place, check solutions to ensure there are no unanticipated negative effects, determine obstacles to implementation and how to overcome them, and what are the specific steps, by whom, when, to move forward.
Which brings me back to today’s challenges. We’re embarked on journey to stop fighting fires and getting to the “Fifth Level of Why?”. It is only through that seemingly simple, yet powerful set of questions, that we can focus time and energy where it will make the biggest impact, now and in the future.
Here’s a link to an excerpt from the best selling book, “Toyota Talent” that you should find interesting.
Toyota Talent – Excerpt from Chapter 1
Could this work in your organization?
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