When Does Choosing A Better Computer Become Wasteful?

Posted on June 16, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

No, I’m not referring to green computing devices. Though, apparently computers account for 2% of the world’s carbon emissions.

I’m swapping my nearly four year-old PC notebook for a new 15″ MacBook Pro. Can you say upgrade? Like many buyers, I’m tempted to get the fastest possible machine with the most memory, given my budget.

But I keep thinking about over-processing. It’s wasteful to get a tool that’s more powerful than what’s needed for the job. Here’s some of my thinking.

  • How fast? I do minimal multimedia work. Mostly, I access databases and documents on a local network and remotely, create text-based documents, and work on the web. But time is money (my time ends up being my clients’ money, to be precise). So, I decided to get the fastest available processor along with a solid state drive. I can always upgrade RAM, but predict 4 GB will be plenty for 95% of my work.
  • How much memory? With a 500 GB hard drive I can save data for years to come without worrying about usable disk space. But I’ve only got 65 GB of data now. So I decided to get the 128 GB drive. I can always upgrade when I near capacity. And who knows what cloud storage options will look like then.

The hardest decision was whether to get a solid state drive. Ultimately, I chose one because they’re more reliable (no moving parts) and run cooler (no motor). The result is a more efficient machine, with the related benefit of a longer battery life. I decided to go with the Apple OEM drive rather than with a third party upgrade. There may be better after-market drives out there, but I’d rather avoid any potential problems with warranties and service. If there’s a problem, it’s Apple’s to fix. Period.

Now, it wasn’t that hard to identify the right machine for today’s work. The over-processing analysis would have been easy from that standpoint. But predicting the appropriate tool for two to four years from now? Given the extraordinary rate of change in consumer electronics and the web — who knows what we’ll all be doing then. That’s what made this a challenge.

Has anyone else experienced this challenge when buying a computer? From an enterprise IT perspective, our firm certainly has, and larger organizations must have it even worse.

D. Mark Jackson

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Toddler Mode For The iPhone

Posted on June 15, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

If you’ve got young ones around, you really need this to share your device without risking your data and identity:

You know how iPhone and iPad have “airplane mode”, which turns off all connectivity? Right under that, I want “Toddler Mode”. When switched on, you’ll get a dialog letting you know you are entering Toddler Mode, and an explanation of how to get out. Unlike Airplane Mode, you can’t get out of Toddler Mode through settings, because there’s no way Toddler Mode should allow access to the settings panel. I haven’t figured out the best way out of Toddler Mode, but I’m thinking a quick triple-click on the home button, followed by a swipe, should work.

I confess: our household once fell victim to such an “early adopter.”

This really should be a standard feature for mobile devices. And you’d think the emergency services folks would have lobbied for this by now.

(via Kottke)

D. Mark Jackson

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Guest Post At Lean Blog

Posted on June 15, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

I’m honored to have a guest post up today at at Mark Graban’s Lean Blog.   My post is on seven ways lawyers can use Lean in their practices.  Please stop on by!

D. Mark Jackson

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5 (Other) Reasons To Go To The Gemba

Posted on June 15, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

The gemba is the place where the work is done. Lean managers “go to the gemba” to see it for themselves (genchi genbustu). This might be done during a continuous improvement (kaizen) project.

Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of spending many hours in the gemba with our support staff. We are going firm-wide with a new document workflow, which we’ve been testing with a pilot group for the last six months. During our sessions, we’ve identified a lot of waste and generated great ideas for improving our processes.

I’ve also discovered — or maybe rediscovered — five other reasons for going to the gemba.

  1. Reaffirm respect for people. As a manager, it’s easy to get preoccupied with your own work demands and forget about the day-to-day contributions others make to the organization. Seeing your people in action reminds you of their talent and dedication.
  2. Communicate. Organizations usually use email, intranet posts, and large meetings to communicate their goals and plans. But one-on-one meetings and small groups allow for more frank and focused discussions. And some people aren’t comfortable talking at formal meetings. The gemba might be just the right context for a critical interaction. It also gives people the chance to ask questions, in person and in real-time. Sometimes the gemba is the first chance you get to really explain why you are doing a particular project.
  3. Remind people that you care. This might sound overly sentimental, but spending time with your people reminds them that you genuinely value their work and talent. It also reinforces the message that you appreciate their ideas and contributions to designing work processes.
  4. See other important issues. You might observe a problem that demands an immediate response. Perhaps it’s a major form of waste with a quick or even an on-the-spot solution. Sometimes a person’s worklife can be radically improved just by realizing they need a new $6.00 tool. And though hopefully there aren’t any safety problems, but if there are, this is a chance to correct them before someone gets hurt.
  5. Learn something new. By watching and discussing the work with your people, it’s guaranteed you’ll learn something unexpected about your organization, your industry, and the work.

It’s hard to take time away from your work to go to the gemba. But these reasons make it well worth it.

D. Mark Jackson

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Over-processing: Too Much Of A Good Thing

Posted on June 14, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson
Bruce MacEwen at Adam Smith, Esq. has an interesting post on how the views on quality held by corporate in-house legal counsel diverge from outside counsel. Referencing McKinsey, he divides quality into three segments and explains how he thinks corporate America views them:

  • Good enough: Sufficient for almost all purposes almost all the time.
  • Excellent: Occasionally needed when germane to reputation, marketplace perception, or positioning.
  • Superb: Very rarely required, perhaps only when genuine organizational threats are in play.

He contrasts this with the perspective of outside legal counsel:

  • Superb: Why you come to our firm, what we do, and who I am. (Don’t for a second underestimate that third element; it’s why you get up in the morning and how you hold your head high.)
  • Excellent: When we try to execute a representation with some degree of sensitivity to costs, based on a longstanding relationship.
  • Good enough: Who do you think we are? You’ve come to the wrong place.

Assuming outside counsel does the work at a “Good enough” level, Bruce poses the question: “who’s to blame-your firm or the client-for the fact that merely sufficient legal advice has come back to bite?”

Good question. And one I’m not prepared to answer.

But let me add a comment from a Lean perspective. The problem with outside legal counsel’s view is the willingness to engage in over-processing, one of the seven traditional forms of waste (muda). Over-processing is doing more work, or higher quality work, than is desired by the customer, or using tools that are more expensive or precise than needed.

Outside counsel sees the high quality work as an unqualified good thing (who would want lesser quality?) In-house counsel sees the work as “wasting” their finite budget for legal services. The company wanted a Corolla. Its attorney just built a fully loaded Lexis LS600hl.

The key here is open communication between the client and outside counsel.The client should be clear about what it needs. Counsel should be clear about what it will deliver and at what price. Also, counsel needs to explain the risks of opting for work of lesser quality. And to the extent possible, the client needs to sign off on any such risk.

We also should be careful to distinguish between the quality of work product and the quality of representation. Work product almost always should be high quality. It’s the amount or type of work product that should vary depending on the client’s needs. For example, a legal brief should be very well written — no matter what. But whether the brief should be filed should be considered at the outset.

Given the current economic climate, there’s sure to be a lot more discussion about the appropriate level of quality, for legal services and virtually everything else we have to pay for.

D. Mark Jackson

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New Apps Lawyers Should Try

Posted on May 29, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

Nicholas Gaffney recommends 21 apps to make you more effective.

My favorite on his list — though not so new anymore —  is Google Voice, which gives me excellent control over my incoming calls, with visual voicemail, transcription, and text and email notification.  For free.

On my list of apps to try is Slideshare.  Slideshare lets you share your presentations over the web, assuming you want that, much like YouTube does for video.  Here’s one of my favorite such presentations, courtesy of Netflix.

What’s on your list of apps to try?

D. Mark Jackson

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Are You A GTD Black Belt?

Posted on May 28, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

If so, hear what David Allen expects to find when he meets you in this 2 minute podcast.

Or read the answer under the fold (it’s not the answer you’re expecting). Continue reading →

D. Mark Jackson

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Could An Andon System Have Prevented The Gulf Oil Spill?

Posted on May 28, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

Image: AP and Salon. Photograph released by BP this morning.

Salon has a disturbing article describing what may have happened on the Deepwater Horizon before the Gulf oil spill.  It’s an interesting account of possible failures that led to the disaster and full of lessons for any team that needs to react quickly and effectively to emergencies.

One item particularly caught my eye.  According to this account, the accident might have been prevented if workers hadn’t delayed engaging a disconnect switch:

Steve Bertone, the chief engineer for Transocean, wrote in his witness statement that he ran up the bridge and heard the captain screaming at a worker for pressing the distress button. Bertone turned to Pleasant, who was manning the emergency disconnect system, and asked whether it had been engaged.

Pleasant told Bertone that he needed approval first, according to Bertone’s sworn statement. Another manager tried to give the go-ahead, but someone else from Transocean said the order needed to come from the rig’s offshore installation manager.

Ultimately who gave the order is a matter of dispute. Donald Vidrine, well site leader for BP, said he did it. But Bertone said it was Jimmy Harrell of Transocean.

By the time the workers obtained the approval and got started, Pleasant said he “got all the electronic signals but no flow on meters,” meaning hydraulic fluid wasn’t flowing to close the valves on the blowout preventer.

A distress button and emergency disconnect system might be considered  part of an andon system, a Lean tool that allows line level workers to signal for help, and if necessary, stop production in order to correct a defect or problem.  The traditional “andon cord” in a Toyota factory could be pulled by any worker to request help from a team leader.  Buffer spacing was built into the line to allow for problem solving, but if the issue couldn’t be resolved quickly, the line would stop.

But on the Deepwater Horizon there may not have been enough buffer between the initial signal for help and the time to shut down the operation completely.  Salon also quotes an engineer on when workers may signal for help:

Gene Beck, a petroleum engineer at Texas A&M at College Station, said companies typically have criteria that allow any worker to engage the system if problems get bad enough.

The ambiguity of what constitutes “bad enough” might prevent workers from engaging the system in time. If there’s insufficient buffer in the process, workers will be reluctant to signal for help, knowing it will halt production. And if the organization lacks a culture of respect (e.g. screaming at workers for hitting a distress button), employees may be unwilling to risk making those sorts of decisions, even when their own lives are at risk.  Tragically, that may have been the case here.

D. Mark Jackson

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Reports From Shingo Prize Conference

Posted on May 20, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

(updated)

Just a quick note to be sure and check out Mark Graban’s reports from the Shingo Prize Conference.  In comments, Mark writes that he plans on interviewing Stephen Covey tomorrow.

In his report on Day 1, Mark relays this nugget from Bruce Hamilton about Shigeo Shingo’s priorities for improvement:

  1. Easier
  2. Better
  3. Faster
  4. Cheaper

That makes a whole lot of sense from a Lean perspective, for reasons Mark goes into.  But of course this priority list would be completely inverted for most managers.

Update: Mark’s interview with Stephen Covey can be read and heard here.

D. Mark Jackson

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Saving Lives By Reducing Medical Errors

Posted on May 19, 2010 by D. Mark Jackson

Chasing Zero: Winning the War on Healthcare Harm is airing on the Discovery Channel and available for viewing online.

The “war” metaphor seems inappropriate, and casting error as the “enemy” doesn’t resonate for me. It’s just not an accurate description of quality culture, which stresses collaboration, humility, and careful thinking. Nevertheless, the show features some interesting interviews with quality leaders in the healthcare industry and a look at some of their methodologies.

D. Mark Jackson

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