Chasing the Rabbit: Official Blog by Author Steven Spear

Often confused are “continuous improvement” and “innovation,” as if one is merely the disciplined creation of order where there was chaos (e.g., by creating value streams with pull and standard work) and the other is the serendipitous inspiration of the blessed genius.

In fact, the evidence is that in the highest performing organizations, those that succeed by out racing their rivals, both CI and innovation are rooted in high speed, disciplined, consistent curiosity, inquiry, and problem solving.

The differences between the two may have more to do with time frame and scope and less to do with approach. In either case, the key issue is deliberating converting ignorance into useful knowledge.

Firms have to accelerate their speed of innovation to keep ahead of rivals, particularly as globalization whittles down in number and size the places free from intense rivalry. Innovation increasingly has to be a ‘team sport,’ engaging the brains of many, as the complexity and sophistication of systems increase beyond what small groups can manage on their own.

The result? Firms have to develop broad based, deep rooted innovative capacity at all levels and across all disciplines. My new article, “Innovation and Workforce Engagement in a High-Velocity World,” explores how.

I hope it, and the examples in my book, prove helpful in achieving success.

Best wishes,
Steve Spear

• “Innovation and Workforce Engagement in a High-Velocity World,” in Quality Magazine.

• “Leadership and Innovation in a Commoditized World,” e article on HarvardBusiness.Org

• Interview with Dr. Robert Wachter of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Incident Reporting Systems (IRSs) have been energetically engaged by hospitals seeking to emulate the aviation industry’s record of safety.  According to safety expert, Dr. Bob Wachter, they cost too much and accomplish too little.  His complaint is backed by sound systems thinking.  IRSs gather and process data that is delayed and aggregated.  While useful for seeing trends and identifying hotspots, such data is not useful for diagnosis and treatment.  By the time there is a response, the conditions that caused the problems may have disappeared.  What is needed is real time, nested problem seeing and problems solving so systems can maintain their stability and responsiveness without overloading some central safety function.

Read the rest of this entry »

Twenty years after the term “lean production” was introduced there have been countless books, immeasurable benchmarking studies, and innumerable lean implementations. The problem? No second Toyota.

For comparison? Toyota first one attention for affordable, reliable, fuel efficient small cars. It added mid sized and large autos, cars, trucks, and SUVs, the luxury brand–Lexus, and the entry brand–Scion, globalized its design and production capacity, and ran well ahead with the hybrid drive.

Certainly, in the auto industry, no one has leaned to dominate its rivals through speed, agility, quality, and cost. Any examples in another industry?

If so, who?

If not, why not?

There is a widely held but mistaken impression that senior leaders set direction with the achievement of those objectives delegated down and out to others less influential and ‘important.’  That approaches assumes an inherent simplicity in creating and operating the systems on which success depends and the straight forwardness of aligning what is to be accomplished with the how it will be achieved.

Those are wildly false assumptions, particularly in a world in which globalization and technological invention accelerate the velocity at which competition occurs.  In the world’s best organizations, leadership recognizes this reality and responds to it appropriately, accepting responsibility both for setting strategy and ensuring its sound execution.

But how can that be accomplished without overloading the core?  It means that seniors must lead, not merely by telling others what do to but by investing time and effort–top down and center out–in developing innovative and inventive capacity broadly and deeply throughout the organization.

Here is a link to an article, “Unleasing the Problem Solving Capabilities of Employees,” from Target Magazine, by Karen Wilhelm, describing efforts by leadership at DTE, the large Midwestern utility, to do just that, by applying lessons from the world’s greatest in its own work.

Best wishes,
Steve Spear

Author of Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders
Outdistance the Competition (McGraw-Hill: October 2008)
• http://chasingtherabbitbook.com for preface, forward, intro, and blog.
• “Leadership and Innovation in a Commoditized World,” new piece on HarvardBusiness.Org