Hal Macomber - Author’s Post

Learn to Develop People Who Continuously Improve This is a review of the just published book "Engaging the Team at Zingerman’s Mail Order: A Toyota Kata Comic 1st Edition" by Eduardo Lander, Jeffrey K. Liker, and Tom Root On the very first page, authors Lander, Liker, and Root capture the essence of the book. “(T)he heart and soul of Lean Management (is) developing people to continuously improve. Most of the lean tools are designed to surface problems so you know what to work on to achieve your goals. Engaged, scientific-thinking team members solve (the problems) one by one.” After numerous false starts by enthusiastic leaders, Zimmerman’s Mail Order (ZMO) lands on an approach that teaches scientific thinking, addresses culture, and engages the people to make on-going (continuous) improvement. How? ZMO used Toyota Kata (TK) to learn TK. (It’s a meta thing that works!) The story is told in a comic book format. It’s easy to read and comprehensive. Readers will see a good example of how to start, what issues they might encounter, how to maintain progress, and how KT is extended in an organization. Along the way, you’ll recognize how TK works on the culture while developing the skill of scientific thinking. This results in engaging everyone in addressing the problems and challenges of the business. The book includes an Addendum with the artifacts referenced in the story. Very useful. I encourage any organization desiring a path for coupling developing people with continuous improvement to get a copy of “Engaging the Team at ZMO” now!

Attended the Lean Construction Institute Congress last week in Detroit. Great event. I'll post more later. Mack and Ria Story did the closing Keynote. In short, they said we need a "different kind of respect for people." Mack said it takes an impactful leader to bring that about. We all got his book, "Blue-Collar Kaizen - Leading Lean & Lean Teams." I read it on my return flight home. I was so impressed that I called him yesterday. He spoke to me for an hour! Here's my Amazon Review https://lnkd.in/edJZsQDd. #NoNSTribe, #leanconstruction, #respectforhumannature, #succeedwithlean, #lcicongress23 Buy the book.

Brad, we need legions of people like you. Growing leaders at all levels including among trade partners is the best shot we have for engaging all members of the industry and attracting new people. We need them to address the safety of construction, affordability of housing, tackle the resiliency of our infrastructure, and address sustainability. Remember we produce #ripplesofimpact that we'll never see and countless lives will be better for it. #respectforpeople

The EBFC Show live-streamed Katie Anderson and Jake Harrell - The Funniest Lean Guy in a debate on #SAPD vs #PDCA, respectively. https://lnkd.in/dd_aRFms Felipe Engineer-Manriquez was at his best refereeing. This viewer won't spoil the outcome. I laughed throughout the hour and learned from both debaters. You will too. I've been a Katie fanboy for a while. Now I'm a groupie. And Jake is hilarious. My big takeaway: SAPD is a kata for #gettingbetter at #gettingbetter. Thank you Katie! #lean #leanconstruction

Go watch, not just listen, to the new Lean Builder - Hoots on the Ground podcast on #leanconstruction. I recommend starting with session 4 https://lnkd.in/dbJ_zHuN where Adam Hoots interviews Jason Schroeder. I know them both well and watching the two of them, I now know them better. Jason's take on #nobullshido lean construction is worth the whole listen. #construction #respectforpeople #ownyourimpact #onwego

The Lean Construction Blog has just launched Lean Construction 101. There is great content to start and much more coming! Doanh Do asked me to write about #leanleadership. I made the first of five posts. Look for one each week for the next four weeks. Congratulations to Doanh and the fine group of people contributing to Lean Construction 101! #construction #taktconstruction #leanconstruction #lastplannersystem #leandesign #choosingbyadvantages

Robert, thanks for including #twogreatwastes in your curation of waste in construction. I hadn't read our paper through in over 10 years. It strikes me that the pervasive disrespect we observe in the industry is both a source and a consequence of not listening and not speaking. It's a classical #systemsthinking A causes B causes A ... circular causality. It's a reinforcing loop. The more we respect then the more we listen and speak which results in more respect. It's a virtuous cycle. The opposite is a vicious cycle. In too many places we're stuck in the latter. Working on #twogreatwastes should lead to improved #respectforpeople. #leanconstruction #leandesign #taktconstruction #lastplannersystem

In response to Jason Schroeder's question, to take (#construction) to the next level requires that we work on ourselves as leaders. Let me explain. As many said, the "people side of lean" needs attention. Many quickly think that means the craft workers. Sure. And the laborers. And the operators. But it also means everyone involved from the conception of the project through architecture, engineering, preconstruction, procurement, and project start-up. For the most part, people doing "the work" are not consistently engaged in improving their work at a level that makes a difference. This is one of the reasons the #AECindustry productivity continues to decline while almost all other industries improve. There's a lot to do. It starts with us. We know that flow matters and I don't know one AEC firm that uses flow as a (the?) key improvement measure. We know that production systems must conform to the four laws: the law of bottlenecks, the law of variation, Little's Law, and Kingman's formula; and most production planning and control don't conform to two or more laws. We know the people who know the most about the work are the people who do it and we don't show them enough respect to include and engage them in improving themselves as the do it. The system is broken. We must #changeourthinking. #taktconstruction #architecture #engineering #leanconstruction #targetvaluedesign #systemsthinking

Just finished the course “Daniel Pink on Motivation” by Daniel Pink! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/ddgDCDHU #teammotivation.

Kevin Strickland was wronged by the state of Missouri - an innocent man held 43 years in prison, 42 of which followed evidence of his innocence. Missouri won't provide any compensation for taking 43 years of his life. Let's do our part to make this right. https://lnkd.in/dhagQ7hu