Tag Archive for ‘Total Quality Management’ at Sims Learning Connections

The February Big Question at Learning Circuits is “What Questions Should We Be Asking?” My reply is the following, in part drawing from my earlier post regarding reflection.

During Project Definition:

Are we in the training business, or are we in the performance business?

The answer had better be “performance.” Substitute HR, Knowledge Management, Organizational Development, Talent Management, etc. for the word ‘training’ as appropriate for wherever you reside in the organization. If all you have is a hammer everything starts to look like a nail.

What are our underlying unspoken assumptions about the problem, learner, client, resources, and success? Note to self: cover more here in future posts.

Periodically During, and Immediately Following, any Project:

Another 5S model…

Strengthen – Where is existing strength? Build on this.
Start – What is missing? Fill this gap.
Stop – What needs interrupting because it isn’t adding value? Drop this.
Solve – What needs fixing? Fix this.
Share – What have we learned that others would benefit from knowing? Share this.

Daily:

Am I using my 24 hours in a way that is aligned with my commitments and priorities?
Am I adding the right amount of value? Neither too little or too much?

Notes and Credits

The 5S framework description is original work of the author and unrelated to the 5S framework from Kaizen continuous improvement. The 1st through 4th ‘S’ however were adapted from the work of Sharon Sinclair.
With this 5S, I like to begin with ‘strengthen’ and ‘start’ as too often we live in a mental model of fixing problems versus looking for opportunities to build on a positive that does exist, or to add something that is simply missing. Similarly, we can get into polishing something that we would be better off dropping entirely. Then, with the answers to these questions exhausted, look for what remains that needs fixing.
Regarding alignment between stated committments and actual time, I was greatly influenced by the May 2006 Manager-Tools podcast on Time Management.
I borrow the “adding too much value” idea from Elliott Masie’s interview of Marshall Goldsmith.

Tonight I’m thinking about know why.

The trigger was reading Jim Heskett‘s recent article in Harvard Business School Working Knowledge: Is There Too Little “Know Why” In Business?. Heskett draws from the book Purpose, by Nikos Mourkogiannis and closes with the following:

Purpose is powerful when it comes to attracting and inspiring employees, centering a company’s activities, or guiding strategic change. Executives talk about and seek these things for their companies all the time. But how much purpose do we find even at the top of a typical organization?

My very first thought when I read the article’s title was “Are we spending the appropriate amount of instruction time on ‘know why’, contrast to ‘know how’?” Here I’m not just thinking about management and leadership development, as would be the more direct tie-in to the article, but also ‘Why’ in sales product knowledge and technical skills training where I’ve been spending more of my time. My intuition tells me that ‘why’ is being under-served here as well, but I’m coming up against a wall in my own understanding to even adequately identify the appropriate ‘why’ questions in this domain.

So…I’m posting this as a public stub to potentially come back to. Or, if you get here first and this grabs you, I’d welcome the help taking this where it wants to go.

Closing note: I’m also reminded how little I have been asking why lately. Ironic as my soon to be four-year-old son is naturally very much about ‘why’ at the moment. How we loose that curiosity as we grow older and forever more focused on execution and achievement.

Closing note redux: Branch to the five whys of Total Quality Management.

Photo credit: Alistair Williamson

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