Sustaining New Year's Resolutions - Any different than sustaining Lean?

Happy 2016!!  Last year seems like a blur, we worked with some of our regular clients and gained several more across various industry.   It was a great year for LEArNing for all folks we were involved with.  We enjoy turning on light bulbs and will continue to do the same in 2016.   #movetheneedle day by day.

So for my first blog post of 2016 let's talk about New Year's Resolution's.   How many of you have one?  There are always various motivating factors involved with selecting one or several perhaps.

Here are some of the common ones out there I have heard:

1. Join a fitness center and work out 3-4 times a week
2. Begin walking/jogging/bicycling
3. Weight loss program
4. Stop smoking
5. Spend more time with family
6. Be more efficient
7. Don't procrastinate
8. New hobby
9. Clean eating
10. Save more money

Let's take the gym as an example.  I think fitness centers and gyms everywhere really look forward to the increase in January membership sales they attain through people wanting personal change.  I saw this meme on social media and had to grin.  Although a bit exaggerated there is some truth in it.  I even witnessed a marketing tactic by Planet Fitness at the Time Square event in New York City this past new year's eve event.   Great strategy to plant a seed in millions of minds!

So when we develop a plan or strategy for ourselves at the beginning of the year, how do we sustain it?  What mechanisms will we put in place to keep us accountable for our actions?  What if our work-load increases, or some other "un-planned" distraction takes us away?   Some statistics have shown that 62% of people tend to revert back to their comfort zones or previous ways after just 4 weeks of setting their goal. 

 I've often wondered what creates the "hook" for the folks that can create a habit (or new lifestyle) and get over the hump of the "push versus pull".  What I mean by that is often when we are creating a new habit it's a push.  You may have to remind yourself to go to the gym or go even force yourself when you really don't want to.   A "pull" is when you go because you want to, and you feel bad if you don't, not just mentally but physically.  Really, it has become part of your lifestyle and not necessarily labeled anymore.

  

So what is the magic behind the "push-pull" transformation?  I think each persons reasons or decisions are different in motivation.   For some it could be a health related issue the doctor has encouraged you to improve.   It could be setting an example for your children-- there are many that motivate us.  Most people have to see a "what's in it for me" to create the hook to sustain the activity to allow it to become part of a "lifestyle" not an "add-on".

As we translate this to lean and our work life there are some parallels.   So one of the first questions we ask is "why are you doing lean?"  "What problem are you trying to solve?-- because lean is a countermeasure."  We see organization's start out with great hopes perhaps after a conference, class or a new promotion.  We want to make a change, or impact for ourselves and others, but we often forget the "what's in it for me/them" hook.   Just as the gym example we have to know why and how this will begin to happen. 

If I'm a leader and I say - "Let's do lean, it's going to be great--here is what I need you to do", then I'm more or less "selling or telling", so would even say convincing.   If I don't engage in why it is important and involve the team and getting their buy-in then the stake doesn't go very far in the ground.  It's not deeply rooted and normally the "add-on" or "flavor of the month" will fade until the next "resolution" comes by and we give it a whirl but to no real outcome.  We find ourselves continuing to "push" because we never created the "pull" mechanism. 

I've often heard and even said that everything has a process.  Some processes are more complex than others but there is always a tangible to visualize I believe even in material and information flow.   If I look at process versus results then perhaps the process I used at the gym (cardio, weights, yoga, or cize) allows me to start seeing the results --which are the scales and the mirror.   Most people focus too much on the scales and mirror and not enough on the process that makes that transformation.   Similar to lean, the processes you use to engage people each day collectively create the results as an organization that translate to your mirror and scales from a business perspective.   

So for me lean thinking translates to so many things we all do in our personal lives.  We just have to find "why" we want to do or change something in our lives and find the hook that keeps us there.  I think if we ask the right questions of ourselves we can find what is necessary to go from push to pull.   So those of you that created a resolution--where will you be 4 weeks from now?  Create your own path through understanding why you need to be on it.  

Until next time

Ernie and Tracey Richardson

@tracey_san

Want a eye opener? Yamazumi yourself!

Happy Holidays to everyone!  This is my last blog post for 2015, it's been a great and exciting year for us.  Teaching Lean Inc is looking forward to a very busy 2016 -- #lifeonplanes takes us to many places this coming year!  Follow us on our journey to #movetheneedle!

So I thought for a bit trying to come up with a end of year blog post and I brainstormed various subjects, some of which have been covered to some extent and some not as deeply.   I settled on one we discuss during our sessions that was taught to us very early on our learning path by our Japanese trainers.

So what is a Yamazumi chart?  Basically its a "stacked" bar chart that can illustrate various aspects of a process such as:

•  Wait time
•  Walk time
•  Process time
•  Machine time
•  Set up time
•  Rework/Repair
•  Delay work
•  Wait Kanban time

These are several of the elements to describe what can begin to create a yamazumi chart.    Other important factors to take into consideration are:

• Process capacity
• Machine capacity
• Manpower capacity/level loading
• Takt time (what does the customer need and it repeatable and attainable)
•  Mix capabilities / level loading

What we find is that many organization (not just manufacturing) have a hard time answering these questions.   These were never asked in the beginning with a customer and assumptions, estimations, and opinions are made as to how to best produce our product, output or service.   Most are able to "wing it" and somehow at the end of the day, week or month we make it work.  But this process is often not repeatable/sustainable or the most value added way to do business in regard to company key performance indicators.  

Here is a picture of a Yamazumi chart being managed based on current state and what the standard should be.  

 As you can see there are many work elements (stacked magnets) that create the entire work process (some of which are the items above).   The red line going across is the standard takt expectation so we are clearly able to see the gaps at a glance.  This allows the trainer to re-balance or kaizen in order to meet the internal and external customer expectation.    It's a great visual tool to see abnormality very quickly as well as the team being involved with where they are in regard to the standard. 

Another valuable way I was taught the Yamazumi tool was to do this for my own personal work each day.   Basically it was a very intriguing way to learn what we actually "do" in a 40-50-60 hour work work and putting that work into categories like value add, non-value add, ancillary work, rework etc. 

Our trainers gave us this task to one understand how to track and measure, and two to gain an understanding of wasteful actions that we tend to accept as the norm.   So we tracked items like:

• Training and development time (on the process/in classroom)
• Gemba time (at the process)
• One-on-one meetings
• Staff meetings
• Team leader meetings
• Phone calls (differentiated by subject matter)
• Andon call answer (or problem awareness discussions)
• Kaizen time
• Problem solving at the process
• Scrap/Rework
• Reoccurring problems
• Human Resources 
• Corrective action conferences (attendance issues etc)
• KPI board management
• Set-up work (before and after shift)
• Shift to Shift meetings
• Quality Circles
• Safety task force
• Productivity management

These are a few to get you started but by all means aren't meant to be an all inclusive list.  There are many items that come up daily we "react" to.  We have to determine whether or not its value add or non-value add to the customer/organization. 

When I document all the items I did for a full week I then began to put them into the categories that I mentioned above.   Some of them may go into a misc. category similar to a pareto chart.   Most you can categorize.   

What I found was amazing after doing the exercise.   A personal note- the more honest you are with your documentation and categorization the more you will learn.    After looking at all the categories and visualizing my week in a pie chart I made an important realization - that 30-35% of my work was actually non-value add to our organization and customer.   Now this doesn't mean I sat at my desk twiddling my thumbs, (some could be-lol) it means that there is no value in some action items you documented.  For example rework, or "do-overs" - having to deal with the same problems day after day.   Some would say only solving the symptom not the root cause.   There were many examples of that among other findings I was accepting as the norm.   Until I could actually visualize it some of the items were never considered as a gap to standard.  After that valuable lesson I never looked at what I did each day the same, it made me think at a different level and analyze actions and decisions I made and to teach that thinking to others. 

I also did this exercise with my own team leaders as a way to develop their thinking as well.  What we found as a team was enlightening.   We were actually able to re-balance a team leader to another area that was going through a minor model change.  We didn't have to hire another person, we utilized our current resources and maximized the value.   This was such a valuable lesson for me/us along our learning path (which never ends).   I encourage you to give it a try sometime.  Shoot for a 70-75% value added week.  It gives you a standard so you will be able to determine current state and see your gaps! As Nike says"  Just Do It! --- I say -- "Yamazumi Yourself!!" :) #yamazumiyourself !!  

Until next year

Tracey and Ernie Richardson

@tracey_san

Imagine a world without Standardization

We spend a lot of time with different industries across the U.S, and Canada working vertically with CEO’s to primary process owners and horizontally across the functional silo areas that create the order to customer value stream.  The majority of them understand the concept of standardization or standard work and feel strongly they are implementing the right things – some are very close.   Once we hone in on specificity of the steps we often uncover they are a bit vague, which can allow wiggle room for interpretation or preference by the individual.   One of our favorite responses when we discuss the importance of standardized work processes is – “but my job is creative and you can’t standardize my creativity!”  Our favorite response is – “we would never try to!”  We just want you to “create” in the most value-added way for the customer internally and externally taking in consideration of the greater product or service value stream.

Standardization is there for a couple of key reasons:

1. 1.      To control the process not to constrict it (over-processing).
2. 2.      To have a baseline/benchmark for improvement (kaizen).
3. 3.      To have a documented process for training (JIT/TWI).
4. 4.      To quickly see abnormality at a glance (problem solving).
5. 5.      Elimination of unnecessary variation (quality/cost control).

So can everyone take a brief moment and imagine yourself about to have a surgical procedure and someone mentioned there wasn’t total accountability for the protocols taken to complete the surgery but they said we are “pretty sure” everything would be fine.  Are you good with the words “pretty sure?”  There are numerous standardized steps that must be followed in those situations to ensure patient health and safety.  I think we all are thrilled of the creative skills the doctor has gathered over their tenure, but our goal is to wake up with the issues resolved,  zero incidents, and not worry if everything step was taken or not.

Have you ever thought about our roadway systems without stop light signals?   We all know or should know the default “standard”, if the power goes out, that the intersection immediately implements a “4-way” stop process.   How many have seen the sustainability of the default process for over 5 minutes?    Most often we see chaos after a while and the potential for near misses and/or accidents to take place.    This situation is a great example of the quote I use – A good culture is what people do when you are not looking.   I know we all get frustrated when we get stopped by a yellow light, but I would rather have the standards in place than not mostly because I understand the purpose.

Lastly, if you have ever flown into a larger airport you know there is zero tolerance for not following the control tower standards.   What if several pilots decided that they wanted to get there faster and disregarded the instructions for what altitude, which runway, or time of landing.  Would you ever fly again if there was variation in that standard based on how creative the pilot wanted to be to bring us in based on their past training or experiences?

 

Point is, standards are all around us every single day, at stores, online shopping, banks, and countless other examples.  It’s amazing to actually stop and think about it in our personal lives- give it a try.   Our cultures drive us to put as much standardization that is needed at that given time knowing standards can change based on a situation/event or changing needs.  Since we were young we inherently know many of these standards through routine conditioning and have evolved as the world of technology and other thing have.   Think about the last time the high majority of you have gone inside to pay for gas at the pump.  We like this convenience and change, but we can’t seem to embed the same type of thinking in our work lives as easy.   Many are resistant to change even though it’s “suppose” to be better.   We have failed to explain purpose if this is where you find yourself as a leader. 

Taiichi Ohno said – “there can be no kaizen without a standard”, so if we don’t set a benchmark for improvement, training and variation then an organization/industry can leave themselves open for damaging situations not just with a customer, but their own branding.   There are a plethora of examples of companies not having enough standardization for quality and cost control and some weren’t able to change rapidly enough and lost customer trust. 

Just remember when we set a standard there must be a purpose for the steps involved (explain why it needs to be this way) if you are unable to clearly explain then you should reevaluate the decision process at each step.  Also create as much value as possible leaving the smallest wasteful steps out (reaching, walking, waiting and mental burden.)  Most importantly through this process involve your people, engage and discuss at the process - they know!

Until next time,

Tracey and Ernie Richardson

@tracey_san

Recognizing waste is a "Golden" Opportunity at Kinross Round Mountain Gold Corporation

Ernie and I have been blessed to be a part of the learning journey with our friends at Kinross Gold Mine, in Round Mountain, Nevada.  We had the distinct pleasure of meeting several of their continuous improvement team back in 2012, and it is been a true learning "excursion" for us all.   We often admit they are one of our unique clients in location and their gemba is just indescribable (see pic above). The term "going to the gemba" has been redefined for us at Kinross to say the least.  There was absolutely nothing that could prepare us for the trek outward to Round Mountain (4 hours from Las Vegas).

  The sheer natural beauty that surrounds the mine, residing at approximately 6065 ft. elevation; as well as the internal anxiety I had my first trip out.  So imagine if you can for a moment going "home" (within eyeshot of your work every day), and all your neighbors are your co-workers.  Imagine going to the local grocery store and you know everyone's face that surrounds you.  Think of a place where there is no traffic, no stop lights, no Walmart or shopping opportunities, no fast food or restaurant chains,  just people living simply between spectacular mountain ranges where a vast amount of wild animals roam freely. 
Each worker, regardless of their level in the organization, goes to their process each day as if they were an owner which invests them all towards their future.  Without the efforts put into succeeding, failure would most likely result in uprooting their families, one that now have children who work there.  The town of Round Mountain combined with the mine and the workforce have created an all-inclusive community for their people which includes a K-12 school, library, recreation center, fitness center, golf course, post office, gas station, grocery store, daycare and churches. 

Our Kinross family enjoyed watching us "acclimate"  at our very first session in 2013 to life between the mountain ranges, but what we all didn't realize that it was the start of a great opportunity to visualize together how to do business a bit differently.  We excitingly admit that after a "Kinross training session" we can feel the enthusiasm for change in the air and the urgent motivation from everyone to get back to their roles and make an impact.  The energy there is contagious, and the discipline and accountability for actions are inching towards the norm.  After almost two years of training (customized for Kinross by Teaching Lean Inc.) and demonstrating learned knowledge at the gemba their recent improvement efforts at the mine have shown early success.  This has created an environment where the majority of the workforce are empowered and have become invigorated by the opportunity to extend the mine life and improve the way they do business.  They are evolving towards an environment where employees feel like they can share their ideas and make change happen.  Much of their workforce has taken ownership in the overall improvement effort and the need to change for the better.

As many of you know the price of gold is controlled by the market so flexibility and adaptability is crucial to when prices are on the lower side.  As history has shown us when the price of gold drops; so can employment in the form of layoffs, and cutbacks and mines may have to close the doors to their operations.  As Ernie and I make that trek from Las Vegas to Round Mountain, we are often reminded along the way of the once booming towns that are now just an eerie remnant of what the market can do if an organization does not apply forward thinking.  Round Mountain Gold is working diligently through developing their people and improving processes to avoid another deserted town in the canyons of Nevada.  They are very aware that the price of gold and ore reserves will determine the mine life unless they are all willing (entire value stream) to do business differently. 

Everyone is vested and realizes their job security depends on their ability to think their way into mining more effectively and efficiently.   RMGC is comprised of 900 employees – approximately 1,000 (including contractors at the mine).  Their vertical roles start with their General Manager “equivalent President level", Department Managers, Superintendents, General Foremen, Supervisors, Leads, and workforce.  All the functional areas (silos) of the mine have to work together to optimize production & efficiency of mining/processing.

Some have been intrigued and asked - "What is the value stream of a mine?"  So at a high level I can describe that it starts with: 

Geological determination (where does the gold reside) >> Mine planning>>Mining>>Hauling>>Processing>>Milling>>Leaching>> Refining>> Gold Bar

Let me share just one example of how waste was discovered at RMGC through the development of people.  So looking a bit closer at the "hauling" value stream:

Some of the work is done with excavators and front end loaders, so the areas of focus that can impact company KPI's are-- (productivity,hang, load and operational delay time)

Once loaded, hauling is an integral part to getting the ore to the next step of the value stream which is processing.  RMGC utilizes a fleet of 785 (150 ton), 789 (200 ton), 793 (260 ton) type hauling trucks.  (I will have to admit the tires on some of these are almost as tall as my house).   The granular value stream steps they are keying on are:   Motion waste, truck exchange time, load time, travel w/load time, dump time, travel empty back to loading equipment.  This is all considered cycle time.

So, in short- optimum utilization of haul trucks (improve productive time) & loading equipment is crucial to their business:

        Reducing operation delays

o   equipment inspection

o   fueling

o   blasting

o   scheduled break times

o   shift & shift change

There are various value streams but looking at one focus area>> a 793 Haul Truck with a capacity of 260 tons, a grossly generalized number would be about 1 oz of gold per load (~$1,150/oz.) With 800 loads per day, and the improvement of overall utilization of equipment; an extra five loads per day can be achieved. This practice demonstrates the application of the "One Second Rule" we often use in our sessions and have written about in previous blogs.  So if waste can be reduced in the value stream, then five extra loads of ore moved per day equates to approximately 2,000 more ounces each year.  You can do the math.  Amazing when you look at each specific value stream how it can contribute to the overall in grand ways. We call this cost translation.  This is one of many examples of waste elimination that results in adding more value and positively affecting productivity and costs.   

  

So rather than accepting closure of the mine as the fate of many before them, the employees of Round Mountain Gold are proactively working together to raise the "gold" bar and continue to learn and build on the successes they are achieving each day.  They have to lead, empower, engage and challenge each other believing that future "mine life" is totally possible and attained through continuous improvement and people development.

Kinross Round Mountain Gold mine with the support of Teaching Lean Inc. will be telling their "story" of how they are changing the way they are doing business differently to extend the life of their mine and uniquely created community at the Lean Transformation Summit in March of 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.   If you are interested in learning more about them and being a part of the Summit, go to lean.org.  

Ernie and I would like to personally thank:

Frank Wagener, Vicente Ramirez, and Deanna Hall for all their hard work and willingness to share some insight to their business practices and helping us share this very unique blog.  They are part of the continuous improvement team at Kinross Round Mountain, they are truly visionaries and change agents for Kinross, and we are thankful to call them friends.  We look forward to seeing your future evolve through people development.

Until next time, 

@tracey_san

Tracey and Ernie Richardson 

Lean Leadership "Unplugged" Webcast Recording

HI Everyone,
If you missed the live webcast today facilitated by Chris Burnham - Featuring myself, Ernie Richardson, Sam MacPherson, and Jamie Flinchbaugh.  We were discussing many aspects of #Lean #Leadership as a prelude to the Summit on Lean Leadership next month in partnership with Lean Frontiers next month in Atlantic Beach, FL.

Please check out this link to watch -
 https://blab.im/chris-burnham-lean-leadership-unplugged-with-four-incredible-lean-thinkers

Come join us in sunny Florida next month!!!
Until Next time
Tracey Richardson
@tracey_san

PDCA, Fitness Apps, and Using Social Media to Improve Our Health

Happy August Everyone,
#crossblogging from The Lean Post
http://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=456

I often find it difficult to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle with my travel schedule these days. When my husband and I are home, it’s much easier to follow the standardization techniques we’ve created for ourselves with regard to meal choices and exercise. Similar to lean thinking and practice, it’s a choice we’ve made to create a “business” lifestyle. We’ve decided how it is that we want to think about our health, just as how at work, a team will decide how they want to think as an organization about their business.

I remind myself that I become healthier by following the same attention to process with personal health as I do when applying Lean, which is mostly about understanding mindset and how to measure success. Am I focusing on process or results? If I want to lose weight, for example, when I step on the scale, what I’m looking at is simply a “lagging indicator”. It’s what I do next in terms of process that determines the result of what the scale will tell me the next time I jump on.

As I try to be proactive about my health, I find social media, technology, and apps to be helpful in this regard. Whether you have them or not, you’re probably aware of the Fitbits, Jawbone 24s, and countless other models out there that help us track data about ourselves and the choices we make on an hourly basis. Many of these apps have the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) process embedded within them if you look deeply.

When I look over my personal current state (grasp the situation), and see how am I doing against the standards I have set, it takes me back to my production days at Toyota when I had to track hour by hour where my team and I were against the standards we set as well. It’s fascinating to me how in depth you can get with your own behaviors if you are willing to track them. Some people are reluctant to do this because it may tell them something they aren’t ready to hear.

Take Fitbit, for example. (I’ve used three different apps to find the right one for me, comparing the different measurements offered to customers). If you are willing to play along, it will ask you to set standards for yourself so in a sense it’s allowing you to set you own takt time with the hopes that kaizen will be applied when those standards are met, raising your own bar. You can track and set goals for:

• Steps in a day (miles walked/ran)
• Sleep (awake, light deep)
• Water intake
• Calorie intake
• Calories burned
• Food categories
• Floors climbed (stairs- elevation)
• Heart Rate (resting and during a workout)
• Active Time
• Weight (Current and target)

Think about it… within an organization we are always looking for process indicators to be more predictive to our outputs. Most organizations track lagging, results-oriented indicators. This means we are reacting to results that happened months ago. But are we able to make changes to that process that took place 3 months ago? What we really want to do is search to find the leading indicators to make change in the present before it ends up on the lagging report. 

The parallel I see with lean thinking and personal health decisions is about how we look at what we do. We have the ability to make change each day/hour in order to meet our goals. For example, if it’s 12pm and I only have 1,500 of my 8,000 steps allotted for my day, then I know I must change my process in order to meet the standard. The same goes for calorie intake. If my goal is 1,500 calories a day and I went to Cracker Barrel and had “Uncle Hershel’s breakfast”… then I may be way off my calorie ratio for the day! So what does this tell me? If I want to try to meet my standards, I must exercise or reduce my calorie intake for the rest of the day.

Health isn't about always being perfect. Just like in our organizations, we all have imperfect days. It’s how we change our process to meet expectations that is important. We all want to be able to have a nice dessert or treat from time to time… we deserve it, right? We just have to understand moderation. Just like in an organization, we don’t try to implement every improvement we want to make or new activity or behavior at once. It’s a process of changing our daily habits, changing how we think, and working toward the milestones we set in order to create new ones.

The other thing I like about Fitbits or Nike Run apps is the friendly competition they create among “friend” networks! If I see my friends are walking more steps than me, it’s an internal motivator to keep up or even do better. We all have some level of that competitive gene! For me, I’ll do whatever it takes to find fun in healthy practices and share them with others. In our business life, our “friends” are our competitors and we should always try to stay one step ahead of them to keep them in the rear view mirror. Just as apps show our competitive side, in business healthy competition can lead us to improve our processes for better profits and long-term sustainability. I personally love seeing the way lean thinking and practice translates in everyday life The more we can see it in our own lives, the easier it is to get buy in in our workplace. This is the same thinking we want in our work lives, whether we lead or are the ones doing the work.  

So challenge yourself to see the PDCA that is all around you in this new, technologically advanced world. I try not only to build muscle for the purpose of my own personal health, but to flex my problem solving muscles as well. It’s all about finding ways to translate personal behaviors into different choices – at work and at home. Always, focus on making sure you #movetheneedle! #lean #fitness #PDCA #Problemsolving #workout #measure

Until next time,

@tracey_san

Tracey Richardson

Why do we like change in our personal life, but not at work?

#crossblogging

Here is a post I made on Linkedin.com that I am sharing here with my followers.

Why do we like change in our personal life, but not at work?

It's enlightening to me when Ernie and I ask during a session, "how many people have the latest smart phone version of their phone", we get an 85% hand raise from the participants.   We deepen the conversation with the participants by asking:

Tracey/Ernie: - "was the current version not working?"

The participants: the majority answer, "yes it was working".  

Tracey/Ernie:  "if was working properly why would you change?" 

The participants: "we wanted the latest technology"

Tracey/Ernie:  "so you are expressing to us that you like change?"

The participants: "Absolutely!"

So we grin and continue on with one more question for the participants, we ask - "How many of you have the same TV you had 20 years ago?", again the majority of hands show there has been a change.   Similar to smart phone and other electronic gadgets these days we tend to gravitate towards the latest and greatest.  So we have come to the realization that most people within this facet of life, love change.  Why is this?  

So we ask, "if you are so willing to change in your personal life, why is change in your work life so difficult?"   When new concepts of thinking are introduced to a business why are they looked at with such judgement? For example, we can use 5S - how many people remember their first experience with it?  Do you remember thinking of it as an "add-on?"   Usually the first response we get is, "we have always done it this way and it's worked well--I don't have time for this!".  Our response is "oh really, didn't we just establish change is good?"   We are so open to it when we are in control of it, but yet we aren't in other facets such as work.  It's fascinating to me what dynamics in our minds change.   We have shown we like it, now how do we tap into that source for work.   It's like re-framing our viewpoint in a sense.  We need a hook!

We continue to fuel the flame and ask, "do you do business the same way you did 20 years ago?"   We refer to our personal pasts and share "if we made the same model of Camry we made when we started (1988) would it still sell today?"  Probably not as well, right?   We try to make the point that change is a part of who we are as individuals (from the moment we are born) and what should naturally take place within an organization to meet the need of the ever-changing market.   The problem is it doesn't, we migrate to a comfort zone and for some reason we like to stay there, as in ~ "we make plenty of profit now, why rattle the tree?"  As we know from experience it takes a little shaking to get the fruit sometimes.  

We feel that if an organization takes the time to explain why change is important, then people may find the buy-in process a little more acceptable.  For instance if you are an Apple person, we may often watch the infamous Fall "announcements" about the latest and greatest Iphone.   We as the consumer then make the decision as to whether we upgrade or not--did they present a good hook?.   From what I see as a smart phone owner this tactic must influence the market well enough to encourage change, otherwise you wouldn't see a new one out each September.    

So the question is how do we tap into area of our brains that is so accepting of change and create that feeling within our work lives.   It's intriguing to us, we will continue to look for ways, how about you? 

Ernie and Tracey Richardson - @tracey_san