Complex systems aren't created, they evolve
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted. This is largely due to an increase in our work volume, by no means a bad thing!
We are also busily, and excitedly, preparing for our webinar presentation in The Toyota Way to Service Excellence Online Event hosted by Lean Frontiers on 31 January 2018. There are some prominent lean thinkers presenting at the event including "Toyota Way to Service Excellence" authors Jeff Liker & Karyn Ross.
Our presentation will involve exploring how visual management can benefit organisations and, by extension, customers, a topic we also covered at our recently hosted Lean Workshop for Insolvency Practitioners here at EKemp’s offices. During the presentation we showed how our visual management system, centred largely on our filing system, uses the client files as a form of Kanban (a lean term for a signal for a process to begin). This is illustrated in the picture below:
Our visual management system. Now, the purpose of this post is not to give a full explanation of our (visual management) filing system (you’ll have to attend the Online Event for that!) However, here’s a few things to start your thinking:
- The colour of the file indicates the stage each case is at, hence the rainbow of colours in our cupboard!
- Files are organised by due date of the next action within the filing system, which enables us to schedule work appropriately e.g. according to the time and team members available each day. It also enables us to plan ahead.
- At the start of each day, the appropriate files are allocated to individual team members who each have their own shelf to pick from.
During a conversation with a colleague today, it occurred to us both that using a filing system with multi-coloured stickers and writing to manage work may seem complex to the outside world. Curiously, it does not seem this way to us, because, as you’ll see, our system evolved over time, based on need. Which brings me to my main point today – Complex systems are not created, they evolve!
Evolve your own system. Don’t just imitate. Unfortunately, in the business world we are all too quick to imitate ‘complete’ solutions employed by others and then wonder why, in a different context, they are less effective and, more often than not, completely redundant. It was my prior belief that work in professional services could only be effectively managed using practice management software. How wrong I was!
I have steadily come to the realisation that the countermeasure (preferred to the word solution in lean which implies permanence) to a given problem should instead evolve according to the specific circumstances that apply. Surely the problem itself, company culture, availability of resources etc. must have some bearing on the appropriateness of the countermeasure.
Bearing the above in mind, I would caution anybody inclined to transplant our visual management system into their organisation in exactly the way we do it. My theory is that it will almost certainly fail. Our system has been adapted specifically for our own internal and external environment. Indeed, when we first implemented this system, it looked radically different and (to the outside world at least) far more simplistic. However, over time, it has evolved to better meet the needs of our business and its customers as new challenges have arisen. As our lean coach, Karyn Ross, frequently reminds us, more often than not the next step (or iteration) becomes clear only when you take action. We can certainly attest to this from experience!
Small Steps. There have been many iterations of our visual management system, which leads me back to my main point. To the outside world, our visual management system may seem somewhat complicated at this stage of its evolution, but not to us. This is because we have co-evolved with the system over the past year. Had this method of working been transplanted from elsewhere it would, in my humble opinion, have been destined to fail. However, by employing the principle of continuous improvement, one can make huge leaps one small step at a time. Just like the evolution of the human species did not happen overnight; it took around 3.5 billion years (and even longer if you take into the evolution of the environment – the Universe – in which these single celled organisms themselves evolved) our filing system has evolved, little by little, organically over time!.
And this perhaps explains one of the great mysteries in the lean world – why no company has quite been able to replicate Toyota’s success by mimicking its systems and processes. Let’s face it, they really couldn’t have made each much easier for imitators; they open their facilities to competitors and have even entered into joint ventures with them. Ultimately, the systems and processes that Toyota has evolved over the past 60 or so years were designed in response to conditions in their (internal and external) environment, which differ from those of their competitors.
Don’t strive to be the same. Strive to be different: Who you are. What your customers need. So next time you look to a competitor (or even a company outside of your industry) when faced with a challenge, please don’t expect the same degree of success by transplanting their ‘solution’ into your own organisation. Instead, creatively solve your own problems and re-solve them over and over again, endlessly, as new dimensions reveal themselves over the course of time. Eventually, you will stumble upon an elegant solution which in the passage of time has become too “complex” to copy, at least effectively. This is the true meaning of sustainable differentiation and the key to long-term business success.
I’m looking forward to having you join us at the Online event, and, if you’re in the Manchester area, give us a call! We’d love to have you stop by and see our visual management for yourself.