LEAN Design Project Leaders Guide 20 Rules For Success

R ULE #1

Use The Innovation Cube

The Huthwaite Innovation Institutes LEAN Design Innovation cube makes innovation a systematic repeatable process. The cube helps your team to discover untapped opportunities and identify gaps in your current processes. Hundreds of companies world wide have used the cube to help achieve LEAN Design Success. For more information, please visit www.barthuthwaite.com

R ULE #2

Involve all Stakeholders

Stakeholders include anyone who may have an impact on your projects success. Involve all of those who must implement your project right from the start. They will understand the problem, own the project, and help you deliver solutions later. Remember: A stakeholder who is not part of the solution can later become part of the problem.

R ULE #3

Seek Diversity

Encourage diverse views, especially at the start of your project. Surface as many ideas and problems as possible. Welcome stakeholders who will later be asked to support your project. Important: Dont worry about having too many people on your team right from the start. You can always reconfigure or reduce the size of your team later. Build broad ownership right from the start.

R ULE #4

Divide and Discover

Encourage innovative thinking by dividing your team into sub-teams, all working on the same task at the same time. For example, if you have fifteen people on your team, create three teams of five people each. Try to balance each team by function, experience, etc. Remember: It is especially important to do this at the beginning of a project. Smaller groups improve discussion. Sharing ideas among sub-teams reveals common themes and more ideas.

R ULE #5

The Rule of Rules

Enable those who must abide by your team rules to help write them. They will better understand them and really apply them. Fact: Rules that are imposed arbitrarily from on high are seldom followed faithfully.

R ULE #6

Remember the Titanic

The Titanic was the ship that struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. Never leave the dock without knowing where the icebergs lurk. Surface expectations, concerns, obstacles and agendas early. Get potential problems out in the open quickly. You will never solve a problem you dont already know exists. Important: Have your team write down their expectations and concerns at the start of your project. Dont try to answer them immediately. Post them in full view and promise that each one will be addressed during the course of your project.

R ULE #7

Set Time Limits

Deadlines help get jobs done. Time is your most precious resource. Use it wisely. Do this no matter how small the task. Important: Always have a large clock in full view in your meeting room. Dont use your watch and be the time cop. A clock on the wall is an impartial keeper of time. It puts the responsibility of keeping time on each individual.

R ULE #8

Never Finish a Task Ontime

Always strive to finish ahead of time. Always build a sense of urgency and enthusiasm. This stimulates innovative thinking. Remember: Work typically expands to fill time. Reducing time focuses team effort and helps drive out wasteful decisions.

R ULE #9

Practice the Rule of 20/40

Never give a team a task during a event that requires less than 20 minutes or more than 40 minutes. Design all tasks to fit within these parameters. At least 20 minutes is needed for a team to get up to speed. When you allow more than 40 minutes for a task, teams begin to loose intensity and interest.

R ULE #10

Remember the Four Ws

A team leader should always state four things explaining each task: What is the task? What is the deliverable? When must the task be done? Why is it being done? Important: The team leader should repeat these four Ws several times as you move through a project. Always ask questions. Never assume everyone understands you. Write these on a flip chart, dont just state them verbally.

R ULE #11

Use Post-It Notes

Your goal is to encourage total participation. Have your team members individually write down their own thoughts on post-it notes and then share them with the team. Using post-it notes makes abstract ideas real and creates ownership. They can also be grouped into families of ideas for further discussion.

R ULE #12

Individual Thought Before Group Discussion

Pablo Picasso said without great solitude, no serious work is possible. Allow team participants 10 to 15 minutes to think autonomously and to do individual research on the topic of concern before convening to discuss. For more information click here

R ULE #13

Problem Seek Before Problem Solving

Einstein once said that if he had twenty days to solve a problem, he would spend the first 19 days trying to understand the problem. Experience shows that teams waste too much time by solving the wrong problems. They rush to implementation only to discover they are going down the wrong path.

R ULE #14

Find Common Ground

Build on a solid foundation of agreement. When doing tasks, agree on what you can agree on and then move on. Important: The opposite of common ground is rat holing. This is drilling down so deeply on a problem you end up in a downward spiral of argument and confrontation.

R ULE #15

Select Metrics that Guide you

Select a measurement system that guides you, not one that rates you. The acquisition of knowledge is the most important reason for all measurement. Measurement will bring knowledge, no matter how coarse the data. Important: Make sure your project team metrics are aligned with your customers goals and your companys strategic business strategy.

R ULE #16

That Which Gets Measured Gets Done

Make sure you are measuring what is important and not just what is easy to measure. Important: Go well beyond the easy three metrics of schedule, budget and technical specifications to measure the values that will make your total business model a success. Everything can be measured. Some things can be measured with more precision than others. But that does not make those things more important.

R ULE #17

Use a Parking Lot For Difficult Issues

Dont get wrapped around the axle. Put unresolved issues in a parking lot to be revisited later. Important: Always assign an owner for each issue.

R ULE #18

Seek Early Wins

Go for some quick victories. They build team morale, strengthen management buy-in and improve customer confidence. Important: Ninety days is the maximum amount of time you can go without demonstrating that you are heading in the right direction.

R ULE #19

Build on a Foundation of Agreement

Dont get entangled in endless arguments at the start of your project. Build on a solid foundation of agreement. Capture what you agree on and then move on. Fact: As John Wood, former UCLA Basketball Coach once said: Dont let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Contributed by Tom Nuzzo, General Electric

R ULE #20

It is Far Easier to Criticize Than Create

It takes more skill to build an engine than a set of brakes. Work on creating ideas first. Keep the criticizing for later. Contributed by Phil Ratliff, Siemens Company