Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Over processed




There is such a thing as being over-processed. You may be experiencing this right now: so many checks and balances that your hands are tied and your projects can’t move forward.

Aren’t checks and balances good?

In efforts to be lean and to minimize defects, some companies have worked very hard implementing special reports, long step by step processes, and multiple authorizations to find themselves spending a lot of time** doing work unrelated to design and producing product.


It is tempting to adopt ready made processes or to copy by benchmarking quality and development processes of sister companies. Supposedly these other companies have error proofed and sweated out the details of their process to be efficient, right?


This is akin to borrowing clothes or buying off the rack. To borrow clothes from an older sister or buy off the rack at the mall will result in pants that need hemming, a fit around the waist that isn’t quite right, perhaps a shirt that is too long or the sleeves too short.


Basically, the clothes don’t fit as they should.


It’s the same with processes in your organization. Buying on-line or one-size-fits-all development systems will likely cause you a lot more grief and aggravation in the long run verses carefully creating processes that work for your team and your product.

**time = money. How are you spending yours?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

What do you make?

money, car parts, plastic things, a difference..


What does your company make?

What do you make?


Taylor Mali talks about what teachers make as performed in this live poetry reading:


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

What's wrong


There is a lot of focus on fixing what is wrong in our businesses.


Mistakes

Failures

PPM

Inefficiency

Fat


I do this in my business. In fact, I get a lot of business to come in to ‘fix’ what is wrong.


As a kid I learned fast to make do with what I was given. I learned to make do with what was known. I learned how to fix what was broken. I learned that their is always a positive solution.


I still apply this thinking and these lessons today making something work or developing something new with known quantities and information. Even in development, we know a lot – and are simply leveraging the little bit we know to solve or create something unique.


I dare say in focusing on what is ‘safe’, to focus on what is ‘great’, we thereby focus on what makes us strong as well as the strengths of others.


By focusing on what is good and expanding on what makes you great now, we can move forward to an even better place.

A better place to work.

A better colleague to work with.

A better team to leverage.

A better product.

A bigger bank account.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Happy Easter

I'm taking a little hiatus this week in cele- bration of Easter.

Happy Easter to you!

Many blessings to you.

Thank you for your support and reader- ship as I develop this blog and my business!