Number 83 – Caution: Practice Makes Permanent

Apply one or more lean tools on project-based improvement efforts.

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

Framework of Focus

One can fall prey to tunnel vision if the solution under development seems to have significant reach.  For example, “We got it all with this idea!”  This statement is a trap.  We must change our practices to improve our performance.  Caution: practice makes permanent, and so one practice that I have utilized to help alleviate this risk is a simple four-part request. 

1. Identify five different safety opportunities in the focus process.
2. Define five different quality opportunities in the focus process.
3. Seek out five different lead-time opportunities in the focus process.
4. Identify five different productivity opportunities in the focus process.

The target performance areas should look familiar to you.  If not, we will dive a little deeper when we get to number 163.  Each of these performance categories offers us an important perspective regarding the relationship between the specific process and the strategic objectives.  The strategy deployment process creates clarity for team members to evaluate their own work.

Standard Work Is Everywhere

With the standardization of this framework, we begin to see things more quickly and more clearly.  Caution: practice makes permanent.  What we practice does not make perfect use. If we practice the use of tools improperly, we build permanent poor practices.  

No single tool will help us to evaluate every single performance category.  Analyzing the processes with multiple methods is often the only way these twenty different opportunities can be identified.  As a result, the framework challenges us to find ways to dig deeper, and that is ultimately the objective we are after.

Questions For Your Consideration

How do you challenge the team to get outside their comfort zone?

What limits exist that keep you from going deeper today?

How do you challenge the team to get outside their common patterns of thinking and seeing?

What practices need to be formalized in your processes?

How might your previous projects have been better served by including the challenges listed above?