My foot in the door at Hewlett-Packard Company was a step down from an engineering position to a technician role. As I was moving from the field of radiation safety to software development, with no real software development experience, it was a reasonable approach. The real value of this was that it afforded a Genchi Genbutsu approach to performance improvement.
5S is one of the key practices of the Toyota Production System. The 5 “S’s” derive from five Japanese words which when romanized, begin with the letter ‘S’: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke.
The Japanese word Seiso translates to cleanliness. There is no doubt that cleanliness of a workspace can contribute to efficiency, safety and a positive work environment (see the broken window theory). But substituting “shine” for Seiso because it is an English word which begins with the letter ‘S’, risks a literal interpretation which results in none of those outcomes. A good example of taking “shine” too literally comes from my Navy experience and in particular, the use of Epoxy-Polyamide paint.
Software as a collaborative game. An intriguing and radical concept. Cockburn built these ideas from debriefing highly successful software development teams, and finding that they didn’t follow the established “best practice.”
This was my introduction to complex adaptive systems, and the book that hooked me on the subject.
I came upon this book just after reading Fritof Capra’s book, “The web of life,” which focuses on complex adaptive systems.
This work fits right into Capra’s complex adaptive theory base. Highsmith’s metaphor of mountain climbing is an apt metaphor for product development, software or otherwise. When learning about Six Sigma or the Toyota Way, I see the theory bases described by Highsmith. This has become a primary resource of mine on project management, and the primary impetus for my focus on Adaptive Project Management.
I’ve read many books on agile, and while they are typically strong on process, they don’t do much to explain the underlying theory. Highsmith has clearly done his research in this regard.
This is one of the several photos of onions created for me by a former colleague of mine, Sharon Hoffman in 2004. I was preparing for a graduate school project, and knowing she was an amateur photographer, asked her for advise on how to take photos of an onion. The following Monday she had several photos on my desk that went well beyond anything in my creative sphere. “It was a fun exercise,” she said. I offer her my eternal thanks.
Some people find onions to be smelly and offensive. I find them to be beautiful, and living in the land of the Walla Walla Sweet Onion, almost as good to eat raw as apples. They are also a wonderful metaphor for the many layers of behavioral dynamics in us as individuals, and our organizations.
From, George Eckes, Six Sigma for Everyone, John Whiley and Sons, 2003.
Eckes writes a short introduction into Six Sigma, running 121 pages of big type. He describes the objective of Six Sigma as the simultaneous optimization of both effectiveness, the ability to deliver customer appreciated value, and efficiency, the ability to deliver that value with the least waste.
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The book that introduced the world to systems thinking and system dynamics. A must read for any aspiring organizational change agent.
5S is one of the key practices of the Toyota Production System. The 5 “S’s” derive from five Japanese words which when romanized, begin with the letter ‘S’: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke.
The English word Straighten is frequently used as the translation of the Japanese word (romanized as) Seiton. Often the literal interpretation of this principle is taken as a mandate for the use of shadow boards. While that may be appropriate in some contexts, it may just as likely miss the point.
Artwork by Lichen Dai.
This is a calligraphy version of the traditional Chinese symbol wèn, meaning learning, knowledge, or scholarship. It is used here to represent inquiry. Two ears surrounding a mouth; to listen twice as much as one speaks.
It is used as the site icon to capture the questioning intent of the site.
