Sunday, July 17, 2005
WORKING LEAN
The MasterList is a tool for working lean. We have previously written about The MasterList and triage, The MasterList and the "pull" system in the Toyota Way, and The MasterList and prioritization.
Most lean tools are applied to streamline system-wide, enterprise-wide processes to improve labor productivity. However, there is one service process that continues to elude systemization. That is the individual "work space" or cubicle from which we conceptualize and implement to deploy personally crafted strategies to foster larger organizational goals. In this more personalized, less enterprise-driven workspace, we do the following unique work which cannot easily be subject to system-wide standardization, but which nevertheless is capable of "personal systemization":
1. Search for and organize unique information related to unique tasks which require special action.
2. Jump across multiple projects with similar special action requirements.
3. Encounter resistance and unpredictable obstacles that require special decision-making skills and authority.
4. Do not have the luxury of large time blocks to complete special action projects, but must deal with countless interruptions and switches to other projects, as priorities are constantly shifting.
5. In the midst of managing and handling all this complexity, must keep up with all required reports, meet all deadlines, and continue to respond to other more routine work in a timely and complete manner.
6. Must break the work into segments involving planned sequences that must be conceptualized, organized, and wait for other components and information to be acquired or collected before implementing the complete sequence.
7. Requires some form of notation or listing system to keep track of due to the overall complexity and volume of the details.
8. Must balance all the critical projects, without getting hung up on any one to the detriment of the overall mix.
In other words, Lean methods and tools ought to apply to your personal managerial and organizational workspace and work methods, not just to the larger enterprise processes you are responsible for managing and organizing at a more global level.
The MasterList allows you to manage personal work space and personal work methodology by providing the following:
A. An organizational platform that organizes details in context as projects which can be visually and easily separated from one another at a glance.
B. A project framework that allows you to note and link all acquired information of any kind on any project at the project screen at a single glance.
C. A system framework that allows you to triage work by pushing relatively lower priority work out of your "center stage" work area while setting up higher priority work at the "center stage" where you can pull it down to work on based on various methods of prioritization, built into the system.
D. Simple screen dynamics that allow fast prioritization of multiple tasks with single clicks, fast comparison of tasks in multiple projects at single screens by date, by project type, by task type, by user etc.
E. Gives you total overview of thousands of tasks, while allowing you to jump instantly to highly prioritized subsets of tasks which are most likely to yield you the most advantage in implementation.
In short, The MasterList helps you work Lean within the penumbra of your working self, as you define that self and the systems you associate with that self, as distinct from your definition of the enterprise for which you are employed.
We call The MasterList a "windshield". It is a tool that recognizes the separation between you and your enterprise and validates your methods and systems for handling your end of the job from your perspective, with your thoughts and initiatives. To the extent that is necessary to do your job, The MasterList helps you apply Lean techniques to get that done. By getting your self together on this side of the "windshield", The MasterList helps you organize and manage what's out there beyond the framework of your personal set of skills, namely, work on making the details happen necessary to achieve the global mission of your organization.
The MasterList is a tool for working lean. We have previously written about The MasterList and triage, The MasterList and the "pull" system in the Toyota Way, and The MasterList and prioritization.
Most lean tools are applied to streamline system-wide, enterprise-wide processes to improve labor productivity. However, there is one service process that continues to elude systemization. That is the individual "work space" or cubicle from which we conceptualize and implement to deploy personally crafted strategies to foster larger organizational goals. In this more personalized, less enterprise-driven workspace, we do the following unique work which cannot easily be subject to system-wide standardization, but which nevertheless is capable of "personal systemization":
1. Search for and organize unique information related to unique tasks which require special action.
2. Jump across multiple projects with similar special action requirements.
3. Encounter resistance and unpredictable obstacles that require special decision-making skills and authority.
4. Do not have the luxury of large time blocks to complete special action projects, but must deal with countless interruptions and switches to other projects, as priorities are constantly shifting.
5. In the midst of managing and handling all this complexity, must keep up with all required reports, meet all deadlines, and continue to respond to other more routine work in a timely and complete manner.
6. Must break the work into segments involving planned sequences that must be conceptualized, organized, and wait for other components and information to be acquired or collected before implementing the complete sequence.
7. Requires some form of notation or listing system to keep track of due to the overall complexity and volume of the details.
8. Must balance all the critical projects, without getting hung up on any one to the detriment of the overall mix.
In other words, Lean methods and tools ought to apply to your personal managerial and organizational workspace and work methods, not just to the larger enterprise processes you are responsible for managing and organizing at a more global level.
The MasterList allows you to manage personal work space and personal work methodology by providing the following:
A. An organizational platform that organizes details in context as projects which can be visually and easily separated from one another at a glance.
B. A project framework that allows you to note and link all acquired information of any kind on any project at the project screen at a single glance.
C. A system framework that allows you to triage work by pushing relatively lower priority work out of your "center stage" work area while setting up higher priority work at the "center stage" where you can pull it down to work on based on various methods of prioritization, built into the system.
D. Simple screen dynamics that allow fast prioritization of multiple tasks with single clicks, fast comparison of tasks in multiple projects at single screens by date, by project type, by task type, by user etc.
E. Gives you total overview of thousands of tasks, while allowing you to jump instantly to highly prioritized subsets of tasks which are most likely to yield you the most advantage in implementation.
In short, The MasterList helps you work Lean within the penumbra of your working self, as you define that self and the systems you associate with that self, as distinct from your definition of the enterprise for which you are employed.
We call The MasterList a "windshield". It is a tool that recognizes the separation between you and your enterprise and validates your methods and systems for handling your end of the job from your perspective, with your thoughts and initiatives. To the extent that is necessary to do your job, The MasterList helps you apply Lean techniques to get that done. By getting your self together on this side of the "windshield", The MasterList helps you organize and manage what's out there beyond the framework of your personal set of skills, namely, work on making the details happen necessary to achieve the global mission of your organization.
Monday, July 04, 2005
BOXING THE PROJECT
We all know about thinking outside the "box". What does it mean to think inside the box?
Indeed, what is the "box"?
When Des Cartes wrote "I think, therefore I am", he was defining the Mind vs. the world vs. his physical and instinctive behavior as the "box".
An action to arise to the level of a potential project must not only engage your physical and behavioral self and require a set of operations interactively in the world, but it must seize the attention of your Mind. In other words, brushing your teeth while fumbling to turn on the coffee maker in the morning is not a project.
When the Mind takes over, it is time to consider "boxing" the project.
What does it mean to "box" a project? Consider this: the boxed lunch. It has the sandwich and cookies you want it in, and the right drink pack. You can drop your wristwatch while you work in it or a birthday card you bought for your spouse. It stores things related uniquely to you. You can choose the size, shape, color, and design you like and label it with your name. It's not fungible. If it gets mixed up with a 1000 other lunch boxes of 1000 other workers, all 1000 of you can enter the scrum and walk away with your unique box.
The lunch box in any setting where there are multiple lunch boxes is your lunch "project" in a kind of relational database of potentially infinite lunchboxes, each separately identified and uniquely packed.
The same is true of briefcases, file folders, sock drawers, kitchen cabinets, book shelves. By boxing things, we provide connection, relation, organization, and coordination to even our most Mindless actions. Isn't the coffee usually closer to the coffee maker than the milk is? And aren't all the spoilable foods in the refrigerator, whereas all the cereals are batched together with like kinds?
So, boxing a project is like boxing a lunch. First, you need a project box. We call that The MasterList system, which provides you with a structural grid for storing and organizing whatever you call a "project".
What do we call a "project?". A project is any action or set of actions or planned actions that has risen above the level of instinctive repetition to the level of "on your mind", "brimming with ideas", "feeling the pressure", or "needs planning" and requires some level of notation to remember the details and to arrange the sequence of potential actions.
When you "box" a project with The MasterList you get the following benefits:
- A screen with a grid outline that you can uniquely identify as a particular project.
- Free form, organizable note pads to write out any idea related to the project.
- A blank to-do list that you can fill in with project-specific ideas and prospective completion dates that line up sequentially and are easily re-sequenced with the touch of a button.
- A space where you can organize your favorite project-specific internet links, and even link to project-specific documents and folders on your PC or anywhere on the network.
- A space to link specific project-related Outlook folders to the project "box"
When you open your lunch box, you can see it all. There's your sandwich which you can examine, your beverage which you can taste, and the note from your spouse that you can read.
Do you have a project box that you can open when you find yourself gnawing on an idea, concerned about a future outcome, or overloaded with too many multiples in the present instant?
The MasterList is a relational database composed of infinite potential project boxes that you define to your need and to your taste. Best of all, you can categorize these boxes to organize them into specially related sets; you can label them uniquely by name, number, special keywords; you can provide special "task codes" for relational database searching to identify all or any of a certain kind of task across all projects; you can color prioritize to-dos; sync the events and to-dos with your Outlook; and, you can peruse all your potential future actions in "slices of time" at screens called My Day, My Week, or specially tailored at an Action Tracker button.
When you use The MasterList to "box" your projects, they take on momentum. The MasterList is lunchboxes for the Mind. Remember everything, see everything, relate to everything. Whatever you can see outside the box, you can note or link into the box. Separate unique boxes for each separate unique project! All easily identifiable, sortable, and inter-coordinated. For any project, find your box, open your box. It's all there. As easy as packing a lunch.
We all know about thinking outside the "box". What does it mean to think inside the box?
Indeed, what is the "box"?
When Des Cartes wrote "I think, therefore I am", he was defining the Mind vs. the world vs. his physical and instinctive behavior as the "box".
An action to arise to the level of a potential project must not only engage your physical and behavioral self and require a set of operations interactively in the world, but it must seize the attention of your Mind. In other words, brushing your teeth while fumbling to turn on the coffee maker in the morning is not a project.
When the Mind takes over, it is time to consider "boxing" the project.
What does it mean to "box" a project? Consider this: the boxed lunch. It has the sandwich and cookies you want it in, and the right drink pack. You can drop your wristwatch while you work in it or a birthday card you bought for your spouse. It stores things related uniquely to you. You can choose the size, shape, color, and design you like and label it with your name. It's not fungible. If it gets mixed up with a 1000 other lunch boxes of 1000 other workers, all 1000 of you can enter the scrum and walk away with your unique box.
The lunch box in any setting where there are multiple lunch boxes is your lunch "project" in a kind of relational database of potentially infinite lunchboxes, each separately identified and uniquely packed.
The same is true of briefcases, file folders, sock drawers, kitchen cabinets, book shelves. By boxing things, we provide connection, relation, organization, and coordination to even our most Mindless actions. Isn't the coffee usually closer to the coffee maker than the milk is? And aren't all the spoilable foods in the refrigerator, whereas all the cereals are batched together with like kinds?
So, boxing a project is like boxing a lunch. First, you need a project box. We call that The MasterList system, which provides you with a structural grid for storing and organizing whatever you call a "project".
What do we call a "project?". A project is any action or set of actions or planned actions that has risen above the level of instinctive repetition to the level of "on your mind", "brimming with ideas", "feeling the pressure", or "needs planning" and requires some level of notation to remember the details and to arrange the sequence of potential actions.
When you "box" a project with The MasterList you get the following benefits:
- A screen with a grid outline that you can uniquely identify as a particular project.
- Free form, organizable note pads to write out any idea related to the project.
- A blank to-do list that you can fill in with project-specific ideas and prospective completion dates that line up sequentially and are easily re-sequenced with the touch of a button.
- A space where you can organize your favorite project-specific internet links, and even link to project-specific documents and folders on your PC or anywhere on the network.
- A space to link specific project-related Outlook folders to the project "box"
When you open your lunch box, you can see it all. There's your sandwich which you can examine, your beverage which you can taste, and the note from your spouse that you can read.
Do you have a project box that you can open when you find yourself gnawing on an idea, concerned about a future outcome, or overloaded with too many multiples in the present instant?
The MasterList is a relational database composed of infinite potential project boxes that you define to your need and to your taste. Best of all, you can categorize these boxes to organize them into specially related sets; you can label them uniquely by name, number, special keywords; you can provide special "task codes" for relational database searching to identify all or any of a certain kind of task across all projects; you can color prioritize to-dos; sync the events and to-dos with your Outlook; and, you can peruse all your potential future actions in "slices of time" at screens called My Day, My Week, or specially tailored at an Action Tracker button.
When you use The MasterList to "box" your projects, they take on momentum. The MasterList is lunchboxes for the Mind. Remember everything, see everything, relate to everything. Whatever you can see outside the box, you can note or link into the box. Separate unique boxes for each separate unique project! All easily identifiable, sortable, and inter-coordinated. For any project, find your box, open your box. It's all there. As easy as packing a lunch.
