Taxing matters

(Should've posted this before xmas!)


This week heading rapidly into the festive season it felt like the entire European media establishment was salivating over gifts; more precisely the gift promised by Starbucks to the UK treasury over the next two years (£20bn in goodwill tax). For any North American readers not familiar with the current climate in the Euro-area (Outside of the headlines proclaiming economic doom), it can be summarised as “Big multi-national business is out to pay as little tax as legally possible, they should be shamed into paying more than the owe”. The Swiss government is attempting to organise agreements with major nations over the secretive banking policies it adopts, to avoid losing its appeal in that regard. Amazon and Google are defending the ramparts against its policy of locating it European headquarters in Luxembourg, and thus avoiding (legally!) corporation taxes in multiple jurisdictions.

Before going any further, I should state I am not a tax expert. However it is my understanding that these companies are operating in accordance with the law (phew!), and that any government (especially a EU member country) would find it legally impossible to legislate and close these gaps in the tax code. The most interesting aspect of this debate (albeit rather one sided) is that despite no laws being broken, and no prospect of legislation being successfully implemented, there has been a successful campaign against Starbucks, shaming them into paying more tax on moral grounds. Drawing into view the prospect that other causes or companies may fall foul of this new austerity induced climate of what is acceptable conduct. How can businesses navigate this new terrain, where acceptable conduct is not defined by law makers or lobbyists, but by the people and their influence groups?

Before the festive break I also had the opportunity to attend the British Chamber of Commerce Christmas lunch. Pierre Gramegna (Director General of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, ably stepping in for the British Ambassador) was keen to point out the importance of high technology companies in the future of the country's economy, indeed stating that Luxembourg had the second best IT infrastructure in the world after South Korea. It wasn't all fanfare, with warnings of complacency peppering his pitch to the chamber. Stressing the importance, to a small country such as Luxembourg, of remaining competitive in the face of bleak economic times. As a result he and the Chamber he administers have been highly critical of the measures taken in the latest draft of the annual budget, urging the government to drop some projects that make no economic sense, and think seriously about some of the social programmes on the books. This in spite of the slated increases in across the board income tax for 2013.

The Great election adventure 2012

Boston, Massachusetts; a liberal bastion for most of my lifetime, home of the Kennedy’s, the base for the error strewn campaign of John Kerry (made running against Bush 43 look harder than it should’ve been). But in a strange twist it is also the birthplace of American freedom from oppression; the blacksmith Paul Revere and his famous ride that signaled the start of the American war of Independence, the Tea party protest over taxation without representation (the genesis of which prompts modern day debates on big vs. small government and American self sufficiency).

For the trip moving into its defining leg, Boston was the perfect place for two reasons; the first being related to John Kerry and 2004. It was in this year and this campaign that Ant and I started working together, and as the campaign with international ramifications drew to its thrilling conclusion we began talking about our mutual love of politics, and our developing fascination with US elections and of course the West Wing (so many people begin their interest in US politics through the wonder of Sorkin’s 7 season series on the ups and more often downs of the Bartlett administration). At this point I’ll be fair to Ant, as although an avowed British Conservative, he would translate more as a fiscal conservative with a small c in the American context. I however am an evolving liberal (evolving towards libertarian in my middle years), and so was confused by his stance on many issues, leading to many hard fought debates!

The second reason Boston was a good choice was that as the home of the Tea party this election would be defined by what Republican candidate Romney referred to as “gifts”. In political terms a debate about big vs. small government, in economic terms it was about the 47% (Romney’s term) of the country that wanted something from government vs. the rest that were self sufficient. Or indeed on a human level this election was about the equity of the current system and the ethics of withholding state aid from those in need of it most. I don’t want this to be a political essay, or indeed an overtly political story. This is essentially about the drive from Boston Logan airport to a small town on the Canadian border in the state of New Hampshire called Dixville Notch. But I guess the context of the trip helps?

Having gone from terminal building to transport bus to hire car company, we’d met half a dozen people and engaged them in conversation, not one of which were or had ever voted Democratic! I was beginning to get nervous about Obama’s chances if we could meet people at all levels of the economic spectrum but not find a supporter of his…. Maybe he had alienated the country? Having spent time in Pittsburgh last year I was able to correctly predict the route our journey would take. Leaving Boston on a bumpy under maintained four lane highway, the signs of a metropolis were clear; concrete over passes, a mish mash of interconnecting highways with houses seemingly crammed onto slip roads, SUVs jostling to primacy over-cutting and undercutting to gain small advantages on the commute back to suburbia. As we moved through place names that resembled the English home counties; Cambridge, Winchester, Andover, we saw a small reduction in traffic and in lane numbers (now down to 3). On crossing the border into New Hampshire we got our first taste of the eccentricities of the north country. “Live free, or die” proclaimed the state we were about to enter, including reminders that we were now allowed to exercise that freedom by not wearing a seatbelt…. Damn those lily livered liberals in Massachusetts and their concern for our welfare. Ant and I chose to buckle up, but I guess as we chose this we were in compliance with the state motto.

Once past Manchester we were treated to the well known beauty of New Hampshire. Down to two lanes now, we were just about able to make out acres of forest on either side of the highway as the sun plummeted below the horizon. Even though it was only 6pm the darkness of the night sky and rural environs made it feel much more like 10pm or even midnight. Down to one lane and warnings of moose 500yds ahead. How the local transportation police knew with such certainty that a series of permanent signs were appropriate I don’t know. Luckily we didn't have an encounter with a moose to verify the accuracy of their claims. Quickly off the beaten track, through a range of literal one horse towns that pepper the rural New Hampshire roads. Typically a Rite Aid (equivalent of Boots), a tavern, a church and maybe a dozen houses to provide customers for this local economy. As we traveled further and further north we kept a regular check on the temperature gauge, dropping from a positively balmy 60 degrees in Boston, now down below freezing (32 degrees) which was confirmed by the constant interruptions of snow drifts; making visibility tough but not impossible.

Having exhausted the charms of talk radio exalting the clear landslide victory for Romney that was just around the corner, we stopped off in one of the Rite Aid’s in a one horse town, for a stretch, take on some fluids and a cheeky packet of M&Ms. One more hour of driving brought us into deep forest, and more snow drifts. And finally after four hours of driving we reach our destination; an RV park on top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. No lights, no sound, no people, seemingly no wildlife either. On arrival we were greeted by a 6ft tall bear of a man who was the guest house owner, a full shock of white and grey hair atop his head and the hard worn complexion of an outdoors man, indeed just the sort of chap who wouldn't take to kindly to two office workers. He welcomed us in and immediately assumed we were reporters coming to write copy on the oddity of the Dixville Notch democratic electoral process. Conversation moved too quickly for two guys who had been cooped up in a Toyota Camry for 4 hours, and so we forgot to set him straight.

Hungry, and bleary eyed from a journey that had began in Washington DC at 6am that morning we sought refuge in the only pub in Colebrook; the Dancing Bear. Arriving at just before 9 we both order burgers, and were promptly served. The only other patrons in the pub were prospective state senator Jeff Woodburn and his aide. After they left it was clear (from all other lights in the building being sequentially turned off) that the bar was keen for us to move on. On inquiring about the official closing time we were told “well we closed earlier than this yesterday evening”. Our plans of staying until just before midnight and hot footing it to the ski lodge that would hold the vote were scuppered. Which in hindsight was a stroke of luck; as it took us over an hour to find the polling place, secluded as it was down a dirt track road with limited signage that was guarded by an actual lone wolf!

So that brings us to why we were there. Ant has the original idea of backing up our 2008 Denver trip to the Democratic national convention with an election week adventure. What we wanted to be careful of was repeating the assumption of the Denver trip; that we would be able to get close to the action and experience democracy in action at close quarters. We chose Washington and Boston, over the draw of going to a swing state (Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, et al) as we wanted to be able to have a plan B if all else failed. Where did Dixville Notch come from? Well an episode of the West Wing of course. Dixville Notch and Harts Location (or Harts Landing as it is referred to in the West Wing) take advantage of a New Hampshire election law that allows the vote to be opened and closed if all of the eligible voters are present. Dixville Notch has 10 registered voters, and so it isn't a push to ensure that they are all available at midnight on election day morning to open and close the ballot and announce the results. Harts location has a trickier job of being first in the nation, as they have closer to 40 registered voters. Aside from being first, Dixville Notch has absolutely no bearing on the election results, other than it is pretty much the only thing the news networks report in the first 12 hours of election day.

Drawing into the car park, we saw two imposing satellite trucks positioned to broadcast the results live nationally. We approached the building with great trepidation, after all we had no accreditation and were simply two British tourists. There was no one on the door, but a sign advising us not to campaign for a candidate beyond this point. We walked up the hall to the main room of the hunting lodge and encountered our first and only resistance. The coordinator of the election warmly welcomed us, advised us to not get in the way of the camera’s or the cordoned off “VIP” area for the 10 voters and suggested we help ourselves to the chocolate brownies and coffee provided in what usually was the bar area. Needless to say we were both flabbergasted! Front row seats, alongside the global news media!

Needless to say it was very surreal, we had a reporter speaking live to Piers Morgan on CNN, the AFP making frantic stabs at their computer keyboard, the University of New Hampshire student news paper took our names to add to a human interest story that they were doing, and local State senate candidate Jeff Woodburn overseeing the results that hopefully would kick start his entry into public office. My excitement was further enhanced by the results the first time they had seen a tie in the history of the vote. This also made me glum, as having watched live the Redskins beaten by the Panthers (an election week bad omen for sitting presidents), not encountered a single Democrat in Massachusetts, and now witnessed a tie I was more than nervous about the President’s chances of re-election. I needn't have been concerned, as it all appeared to be over by 9pm and confirmed just after 11:18 that evening.

Throughout the trip I was taking video with the occasional commentary here are some of the highlights

my 1st NFL fantasy draft

So aside from having to get up at 4am to participate, and also figure out controls etc. I really enjoyed my first NFL fantasy draft. Like i say, i wasn't really sure on tactics, and i saw a lot of strange movement in the early rounds. I sort of just assumed that everyone would pic their QB first, but there were people picking out their 1 allowed TE starter and some premier running backs going too.

Story of my draft:

#1 Cam Newton, QB, Car- Had a good year last year, and i my view will only get better. They've strengthened his offensive line and improved the D. But don't get me wrong, with 6th pick i was hoping Brady would still be on the table. Not surprised that Brees took so long to go, i think people are worried about no Payton on the sidelines

#2 Wes Welker, WR, NE- Obvious, Brady's pet receiver, a points monster in the last few seasons, expecting the same from him again

#3 Frank Gore, RB, SF- the 49ers don't tend to air it out, Gore is their 1st down back, and he is coming off a good season. I was hoping Turner would still be available, he breaks tackles

#4 Aaron Hernandez, TE, NE- I think NE are gonna have a good year, would've preferred Gronkowski, but that was never going to happen, I think Jimmy Graham was still available at this point aswell, but again nervous about the impact of the bounty programme.

#5 David Akers, K, SF- this was a risk, picking him early. But more often than not the 49ers don't convert in the red zone, and Akers won them a couple of games last year on points alone. the alternative was picking Dan Carpenter (Mia) but i can't guarantee the Fins will be getting out of their own half this year!

#6 Demaryius Thomas, WR, Den- Peyton has gotta throw to someone, i just hope it is this guy

#7 Houston defence- Moved from ranked 31 to top 5 in the league last year. All of the parts are still in place. Alternative was to pick Baltimore, but they've got big names that are getting old and banged up 

#8 Randall Cobb, WR, GB- Rogers spreads his passes around, as 3rd receiver on my draft, i figured he would generate regular points, rather than a big name that could be shut out of a game.

#9 Jonathan Stewart, RB, Car- Badly wanted Redman, as Pit are a run first offence (not sure Haley is going to change that), plus i though Mendenhall was still out with an injury. What i got as my 2nd RB was Stewart.

Bench

#10 Michael Crabtree, WR, SF- so i obviously think the 49ers are going to have a good year. I'm not sold on Thomas and so having Crabtree is a good back-up option

#11 Heath Miller, TE, Pit- Finally showed some love to the city i spent 5 months in. If Hernandez isn't get the receptions then i'll swap Heath in

#12 Nate Burleson, WR, Det- Figured that Stafford had to throw to someone other than Johnson, and maybe some D's have figured out how to play Detroit

#13 LaGarratte Blount, RB, TB- i agonized over whether to make him my 2nd RB, sadly i remembered that TB have drafted a franchise RB, and so Blount might not get a lot of rushes.

#14 Matt Flynn, QB, Sea- I don't think i'll need to bench Cam, but Flynn should be a confirmed a starter by the time Cam has his bye week

#15 Jerome Simpson, WR, Min- have no idea who this kid is, might Wikipedia him later. Simply the highest ranking WR in the final round.

First game is this weekend, looking forward to it.

And now i shall bore you with my holiday reading

So having recently returned from a luxurious week of lounging around by a pool in Tunisia. Batteries fully recharged and mind cleansed etc etc. I thought I would write a quick blog post on my holiday reading. Having so much free time on my hands and aiming for maximum relaxation, I was able to get through 5 books! Here follows a short review of each of those.

I’m Ok, You’re Ok by Thomas A. Harris

What a way to kick off the holiday reading, a 200 pager on the psychology of relationships based on the pioneering work of Berne’s Transactional Analysis. I was introduced to this book by an enlightened HR business Partner in about 2005, and despite its last re-draft having been in the early 60’s it still stands the test of time. I like to try and read it every year (this doesn’t always happen), and I find it a useful tool for reflecting on recent work, personal and social relationships and interactions. The book essentially explains why people “game play”, why some people just love moaning and complaining and there are a couple of handy chapters on those overly emotional characters you meet from time to time. I won’t go into the theory here, other than to say that it gives you plenty of examples of how to engage the rational, compassionate, logical aspect of each of our personalities, and escape the overbearing lecturing of the Parent and the zero-sum games of the Child.

Richistan by Robert Frank

Recommended by the Economist, and written by the Wall Street Journal’s own wealth correspondent. Feels a tad dated now that the financial crisis has swept through. However I particularly enjoyed the opening chapters about Butler school, and the 3 distinct periods in the history of rich people (admittedly in America); The gilded age, the roaring twenties and the current (1985-2008) period. Some of the stories and 1 on 1’s were fantastical and well told, so much so that I read 3/4’s of the book in one evening. On finishing the book, my overriding sentiment was 1. That I didn’t want to be rich (well not a millionaire anyways) and secondly that I actually felt sorry for these people! They had chased the American dream, but it had consumed them to the extent that only being a $10millionare was not enough. Let me be clear this wasn’t a Gordon Gekko style “greed is good” but more of a dependence on the lifestyle and the need to keep up with the Joneses. Also there was a great chapter on the impact of wealth on the children of the Richistani’s, which made me despair for future generations! Great read

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Bit late on this one, and also totally missed the movie (despite promising myself I would go see it). Lets tackle the big criticism up front: People claim that the new owners of Liverpool are investing in the Sabermetrics that made the Oakland A’s punch above their weight. Anyone that actually reads this book will realise that is absolute bunk. J.W Henry was late to the scene in baseball as Owner of the Red Sox and tried to employ the workings of Billy Beane and Bill James (he later employed Bill), and secondly football does not fit the structured nature of baseball, additionally crosses or goal scoring opportunities created is not the same as on-base percentage (the metric used by Beane and the gang).

Now to the book. I loved it, Lewis tells a great story; it isn’t linear and isn’t meant to chronicle the achievements of the A’s during a season. It explores in enough detail the history of baseball statistics, the reason why Beane is attracted to this way of selecting in the draft, and the closed shop club like atmosphere that hinders the evolution of baseball as a sport. It also contains some lovely vignettes on particular players unloved by America’s Pastime but adored by Beane.

A couple of things I took away from this book: Having been to a couple of games when I was out in Pittsburgh last year, this book removed some of the mystery from RBI’s, Triple A, pitching innings of relief, watching the pitch count etc. Although the NYTimes baseball reports still look like a something churned out of the Enigma machine, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the game. Now if it is possible to hold two conflicting opinions at once, I also thought less of the people in the game of baseball; old crusty former players desperately holding onto the practices of the 1950’s in scouting and tactics. Also the way in which they closed ranks when the book came out, and declared (without reading it) that Beane had commissioned the book to make him look good (it doesn’t by the way), virtually excommunicating him from a community in which he was already viewed as an outsider. I drew some parallels with this and Football (both versions). If anyone in the premiership is adopting Moneyball style tactics it is Newcastle, but alas Alan Pardew still isn’t getting the respect he deserves, also in the NFL they say defense wins championships and that every team needs a good running game…. Just like bunting and stolen bases in baseball these are orthodoxies not to be challenged, and are holding back innovation in both sports.

The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford

I’ll keep this one short: I enjoyed learning more about economic theory, but not as much as I had hoped. I love his Financial Times column’s but this was a tough read. Sorry Tim, but I’ll still follow you on Twitter!

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

As I’m currently in training for a 10 mile run in the south of Luxembourg, I figured this would be a good complimentary read which might give me more inspiration. Having suffered a couple of injuries over the last few weeks, despite moving into new distance territories I took comfort from Murakami’s own struggles and the advice he gives for getting through them. The book is incredibly personal and at times very self-indulgent, although he is clear to make the point he is no expert on running and that the book serves as more of a memoir of his lead up to the Boston Marathon and re-starting triathlons. It was good to read, but unfortunately Pitcher’s Law of Hype (2009) applied, and it couldn’t rise above the recommendations and army of advocates pushing its credentials. On the plus side it only took about 90 minutes to read cover to cover, perfect for the plane journey from Djerba back to Luxembourg.

Does size matter?

I appreciate that by placing provocative title on top of this post, I have certain obligations to you the reader. So lets get the disappointment out of the way…. This topic sprang to mind when I was in attendance at “The Place for Luxembourg Improvers” and their Pecha Kucha evening (Which apparently is the sound in Japanese that best signifies chit chat). The evening was attended by many a varied speaker from across the Luxembourg “improvement scene”, but it was a presentation by Floriane Maffei of DHL. Her presentation explored the DHL improvement way; leaning heavily on the six sigma concepts, mixing it with a performance management system that rewarded a continuous improvement mindset. But it wasn’t their incredible progress that got me thinking, it was actually the prevalence of large programmes in defining the improvement journey of many companies.

Although it didn’t feel particularly pleasurable at the time, before landing a role at Open Text, I was wandering around various companies hearing about their approaches to Lean, Sigma, BPS, OpEx etc. But really there was great pleasure to be derived from hearing about the latest advances in the industry, and the student in me had a great time comparing and contrasting the different approaches. In this time each company I spoke to was keen to stress the gigantic scale and number of resources being ploughed into their “Programme”. Evidently if you are going to be serious about doing improvement the bigger the better, right?

So it’s worth exploring these big beasts and how they worked their programmes. Having worked at Lloyds TSB just after they had pulled together their Lean programme, the size was at times overwhelming; £18m in bottom-line efficiency savings within 18 months, 50 people roaming the UK, a small centralised team, but very explicitly a programme that one day would run out of funding and be consigned to history with all the plaudits a successful initiative brings. Its date with destiny arrived at about the 2 year mark, at which point something miraculous happened… the business of its own accord agreed to set-up its own improvement teams, made up of former members of the programme team. And so the improvement journey continued to evolve at a local level, with customisations and differing targets/objectives, and to my knowledge (although branded differently) still exists today as the way most departments do business. RBS was at the same stage of its development when I was there; looking off into the distance they saw that they would run out of roll-out style projects within operations. Consolidation was not on their mind, instead the big programme concept continued to hold sway, leading to expansion into other non-operational areas to continue to fuel the 300 people employed specifically for the task of implementing Lean. In hindsight there were two key differences between these programmes, one was that despite being a programme the desire was to keep the resources utilized rather than exploring other options, and this in part was driven by the other difference which was at least 50% of the staff were drafted in from outside and not necessarily with prior banking experience. Whereas in the Lloyds scenario the staff could go back to their old jobs, or had a decent enough network/skills to source an internal position, in the RBS example those who came into the organisation came with a specific purpose of doing Lean, to keep that talent in the organisation the show has to go on.

Two other examples of big beast like programmes, are Maersk’s Process Excellence programme and Zurich’s entry into Lean Six Sigma work. Both are huge global programmes, they have a defined shelf life (and executive funding), and utilize miniscule centralised resource. The model is much more reliant on enthusiasm being generated within the operational departments, with part-time improvers achieving their badges and fitting their improvement initiatives alongside other priorities. The central teams manage reporting, training, coaching, mentoring, and standardisation. However both companies are fully endorsing this approach, and expect leaders throughout the company to respond to the improvement pressures within their respective industries.

At the other end of the spectrum you have the example of more, what I will call, organic programmes that develop as smaller ventures. The sort of programmes that spread like a contagion as the successes become part of the water cooler gossip. Companies like those mentioned by Lean Thinking; Wiremold, Lantech, etc. But also you could stretch the definition of organic to the origins of Toyota’s TPS; being that Ohno was spreading his approaches through trial, error, success, word of mouth, and not through corporate fanfare.

So big or small? The advantages of going big are fairly obvious economies of scale, coverage of large swaths of the organisation, the resources to do it right, the sense of it being an unstoppable juggernaut increasing engagement and adoption, return on investment (big costs with a big payoff).Typically these programmes are swift, with the first repayments being made within 3 months of kicking off. However perhaps the biggest disadvantage is that organisations are set up to manage such efforts as programmes, which of course are expected to end or complete; subconsciously you’re letting people know it is short term and not a cultural adjustment.

What about small. Well there is not as much pressure because there is very little cost, mistakes can be made at this scale, it is without fanfare and so isn’t typically labelled a corporate initiative, the successes will speak for themselves, people can also sharing in the joy of discovering improvement without it being foisted on them. The biggest advantage is flexibility, something we’re discovering at Open Text, you can choose to approach projects in a way that suits the client needs, you can have the same resources working on more than one project at once, and there is flexibility in the learning as well; choosing what is appropriate at that time.

But forgive me for a thousand word distraction, because the debate shouldn’t be about big or small, but about your improvement philosophy or vision. In a previous post I talked about the Investment banking team that wasn’t clear on their purpose and so produced a muddled Lean approach that confused customers and practitioners alike. Why are you choosing to improve? What is your burning platform?

Here are some examples of burning platforms or visions that could shape your improvement philosophy (they are not exhaustive):

Costs- reduce them, reassign them. The best cost rationale I’ve come across is when people link it to the customer; Unit costs or cost of production being too high, rather than workforce reduction- it rarely gets people whooping!

Quality- TQM and Six sigma focus on producing high quality through processes and service interactions, devilishly difficult to measure. Is your company in a position to make quality it’s USP?

Delivery- this platform is all about reducing delays, and becoming a more responsive organisation. How much more quickly can we deliver this to a customer?

Engagement- It could be that you want staff to be more engaged with the work they do, and by giving them the autonomy and authority to change; you might just achieve this

You could also add customer and safety (especially in heavy manufacturing industries) to these examples, again they are not exhaustive. They should frame the goals you’re going to pursue, the way you go about improving an area, what success looks like, and what processes or areas you look to improve. That clarity will influence the training you develop, and the type of people you want on the team.

Big or small? I don’t know which is best; I’m going to find out more about small as I continue my journey at Open Text. What I do know is that you need to understand why you’re doing it.

Turning away from the tools: Improver behaviours

Tonight i'll be speaking for just 6 minutes on this topic at a Pecha Kutcha evening of the "Place for Luxembourg Improvers" I'll be one of many speakers, but i hope to be able to add something insightful and spark a bit of a debate.

6 minutes (as i found out writing the following text) is a very short amount of time, try it some time and you'll realise how precise and structured you have to be. Unfortunately i wont get the opportunity to say all i had to say, or use all of the resources i had hoped too. But the beauty of blogs is i can put the Directors cut in here. So below i've included the Full text of what i believe the improver behaviours to be, and also included the material i will use this evening as well as some extra goodies!

Hello my name is Luke, and I’m a process and business improvement specialist at Open Text in Luxembourg. Open Text is a global software company with over 100million users in 114 countries, some of the products we sell include; clould technology, document management, BPS and many more.

I’ve been working to improve the processes and business practices that impact customers in a variety of companies for over a decade now. My current role focuses on working across the R&D function; deploying my improvement expertise to solve problems that stop Open Text from serving its customers better, imparting my knowledge to build comfort and capability with improvement methodologies in our staff, to work with senior leaders to understand how Lean Six Sigma can help them achieve, and develop a strategy to make Lean Six Sigma part of the way we work in R&D globally, but especially Europe.

We’re in the very early stages of our improvement journey, and I hope that I will be able to come back and talk about our progress at a later date. But today I want to talk about something I am deeply passionate about, something that when it hit me allowed me to become a more effective Improvement practitioner, and an easier person to work with!

But first let me start with a question. How did you find Improvement? What courses did you attend? What was your first introduction to the wide field of improvement?

(Audience Participation)

Do you know I’m not surprised by those answers, because they mirror my experience and the typical experience of most Improvers. The foundation of our introduction to improvement is through tools, models, methodology, sometimes strange languages like Japanese, German or Americanised business speak! Think about it, Six Sigma talks about Voice of the Customer, Lean about the 8 wastes, BPM talks about elegantly designed processes, Operational Excellence is about process efficiency and productivity models. All of which are tools and techniques that build up a science around improvement, barriers to entry; do you speak the language? Do you know the difference between a VSM and a Process Map? Where did you get your badge?

A fantastic industry has been built up around determining and delivering the tools to improvement professionals; whether it be through training, consultancy, or the myriad of books cluttering bookshelves. The orthodoxy is tools, specialist knowledge, language, methods…. I’m not against any of these; I think they’ve given credibility to a skill set that only existed in manufacturing up until the early 90’s. They’ve opened up the potential to make massive changes to the customer experience, and from a purely selfish perspective they’ve kept me in employment!

But I’m concerned. Because despite the volume of training and models, we are still contending with this statistic….

Thousands of words have been written on the subject, and I can tell you, very few of the conclusions blame the failure on the paucity of training or the ineffectiveness of tools used. So if we all acknowledge that improvement is influenced by the human aspect and less about the tools, can we start to turn away from tools and start a dialogue around improvement behaviours?

I’m not claiming to be the first to realise this. The excellent people at the Lean Enterprise Institute are making Collaborative learning a focus of their summits this year. Having worked with McKinsey & Co. whilst at the Royal Bank of Scotland I am aware of their laser like focus on “Mindsets and behaviours” to enhance the likelihood changes and improvements stick. I’m sure you’ve got other examples of where the people aspect has been explored as part of your improvement work….From my experience a lot of this focus on people is more about influencing, coercing, cajoling them into changing their behaviours. Rather than taking the time to explore the behaviour you as a change agent exhibit and understanding the impact that has on others and their behaviour.

A quick question; who here thinks people are naturally resistant to change? (show of hands), and who is on the other side of the fence? (respond to show of hands) There is an excellent video on youtube, which unfortunately I don’t have the time to show that explains the behavioural reasons behind resistance to change.

Successful improvement efforts are conducted by people, who know how to engage other people, and typically we, as improvers, have to rely on those people bring ideas and new ways of thinking as we ourselves are not the experts in their job. How can you create the right atmosphere for successful improvement? Lets talk about behaviours.

Negative ones first! I’m sure that some of these will be familiar to you, and that you yourselves may have fallen into some of these behaviours…. My first 5 years as an improver looked a little bit like this!

 Are you an improvement fundamentalist?

Where are you on the continuum? At one end you have the adaptors, they have very little conviction for their tools and techniques, they sense the mood of the company or the department they are working in and adapt, conform, or as a Fundamentalist would say “they go native!” At the other end of the continuum you have the Fundamentalists; this is where improvement can start to feel like religion, you’ll know a fundamentalist by how much they love 5s (typically they’ll have upset their partners by Sorting, Setting in order, Shining, Standardising and sustain auditing the kitchen at home!). They’ll also be the person that when standing in a queue at the shop is not moaning at how long it is taking, but instead be drawing a process map in their mind and seeing how Takt can be introduced to ease the flow. What I’m advocating is a middle ground, an adaptable flexible improver that has a toolkit they can use, but is humble and respects all of those involved.

 The Emperors new clothes

This is where you delight in finding faults in the company processes or operations. Where everyday is a series of conversations where you expose (hence the Emperors new clothes reference) the area you are working in. I mean, that is why they brought you in right? To be an insufferable know it all to tell them everything that is going wrong in their organisation? However the part of the fable that people forget is that someone convinced the Emperor of the merits of his new line of clothing, he agreed and went ahead with this wardrobe malfunction. Those people that convinced him are still around, and they don’t appreciate being told they were wrong on a daily basis. In fact they’ll come back to haunt you later when you need to convince the Emperor to put some clothes on! What I’m saying is, be humble, be conscious of your impact, be interested in the history and how the company came to work in this way as it may help you put what you’re seeing in context.

 Hiding behind the language

We’re rightly very proud of the training we’ve received, the hours spent reading the wise words of our improvement forefathers. It also feels like we really have been accepted into the secret society of improvement when we know the difference between Heijunka and Kaizen, or between Takt time and cycle time. Take Musa Faisal of Emirates Group talking about his role and the improvement work that is happening in his company:

“In my capacity I operate as a corporate advisor to senior leadership teams on business performance excellence, hence, along with my team we partner with leadership teams in the business to identify and initiate business transformation programs and initiatives necessary to successfully manage profitable growth. These are then enabled through our tool kit of which lean six sigma is a part.
Within my division, I am the only Black Belt and we currently have over 10 team members trained to a Green Belt level. We are planning to train more people up to Green Belt level during this financial year.

The thinking behind the DMAIC approach as well as the agility that lean thinking and tools bring has helped us in enhancing our problem solving approach and speed in addressing some of the growth challenges.
When we scope an engagement around Lean Six Sigma, for instance, we are capable to turn around a project up to the recommendation stage within 3 weeks. The business would highly favour this approach as they are able to see what the future state looks like in a quick manner as opposed to spending significant time in stakeholders meetings/ interviews and extensive analysis. A typical Six Sigma project would typically take from 3-6months based on complexity of the problem on hand and the availability of data. “

       

(Source: http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/six-sigma-quality/articles/lean-six-sigma-at-emirates-airlines/)

I mean it’s perfectly understandable to me and you, because we know the secret handshake… but most of the people we collaborate with on improvements don’t. So let’s keep it simple, after all improvement and simplification is what we’re trying to achieve right?Focusing on objectives, goals, and adopting a checklist mentalityNot a bad thing, right? Providing a measurable focus makes it easier to prove success. Having a goal is an excellent way to ensure consistency across improvement efforts. What I have a problem with is the checklist mentality that sometimes comes with an obsession with goals and objectives. It links a little bit with the first point around where you sit on the continuum. Being adaptable to changing priorities and customer requirements is a fact of life these days. The typical improvement effort varies in duration from a couple of weeks to 6 months; during that time many things can change and so adopting a checklist mentality or being too focused on objectives lends the impression that you are not interested in what is happening around you. I was recently undertaking an engagement in an Investment Banking unit, assisting their local improvement teams with the programme of activity they had laid out for the next 2 years. They had a laser like focus on the cost goals and the ticking off of items from their checklist of mandatory activities- again I’m not against this. But it distracted them from improving the situation in the processes and also the customer experience, because everything centred on how to reduce cost and ensuring that the inflexible checklist was completed. What I tried to get them to figure out was what philosophy they were following in pursuit of their improvement goals? I asked them this question because if it were cost they were interested in controlling they could’ve conducted a “slash and burn” exercise, but they had chosen Lean Six Sigma, and so it seemed apt to get them to think about why? And what they were really hoping to achieve from their programme of work?
 

So lets talk about positive improvers behaviours

Firstly make it clear in actions words that you are here to help and not to hack away at their area. This involves the simple act of taking an interest in what they do, how they do it, what frustrations they suffer on a daily basis. Understand the history of previous attempts at improving, talk to as many people as possible, regardless of position, and show curiosity.

 Lean teaches Go, See, Understand and show respect. Go with an open mind, open your eyes to see how work is completed (leave your assumptions at the door, and show curiosity), make an effort to understand how and why things are done the way they are, and most importantly show respect, listen, ask open questions, challenge assumptions and absorb their frustrations. Go and See is not about showing how much you know about the process, but saying I don’t know how this works and am keen to learn

On that last point, be comfortable saying “I don’t know the answer”. This doesn’t reduce your power, it isn’t improver kryptonite, it is reasserting the fact you are here to help facilitate the improvement, and not to channel the dark arts to come up with a perfect solution. It positions you as having no pre-agreed agenda, it empowers the experts you’re working with to share their experiences and also admit there are things they don’t know. 

Teach by coaching. Every interaction with people should be an opportunity to coach them in some of the skills you’ve learnt as an improver. Most people learn best by doing, and so coaching on the improvement itself can be a very powerful way of getting the concepts across.

Finally, be a conscious problem solver. Use the challenges that occur during improvement projects as opportunities to use structured problem solving techniques from your toolkit. If you impart one piece of knowledge to those you are working with, let it be conscious problem solving, as this will create a lasting continuous improvement attitude.

So in summary; turn away from the tools. Consider how you exhibit the positive and negative behaviours, and finally how you can improve the success of your projects by switching on the people aspect of improvement

A Short history of avoidance

Living on the coast and having the delights of a metropolitan setting such as Brighton, has left me a little spoiled and occasionally closed minded. I guess I have a degree of understanding for those people from Wales that declare it “Gods own country” without ever having really been anywhere else. BTW people from Kerala say the same, but they are never in Kerala when they say it!

As a young ‘un going through school there was always a nagging doubt, an unconscious pull, a distant realisation that one day I would have to live and work in London. That big, smelly, overcrowded, overpriced, place where everyone walks very quickly, doesn’t have the time, looks bloody miserable to be frank! I had a fear of living life like one of those fuzzy filler shots they would use on the 6 o clock news (does that still exist?) of commuters trudging across Tower Bridge looking like an army of the damned forced into fighting in support of the capitalist dream. Being jostled by other foot soldiers, but not even reacting to the stray elbows of the bowler hated men, so accustomed had these warriors become to suffering such contact.

Ever since then my I’ve grown up with a strong avoidance complex. That is, wanting to avoid London at all costs. I mean I took a job in Birmingham, probably as a warm up act for the inevitable, for two years. With the prospect of having to further my career in the big smoke, I upped sticks and with my all worldly possessions (which at this stage amounted to a Nissan micra full of DVDs and clothes) and moved 3,500 miles away from London to Dubai. Sadly after 3 year years getting sweaty in the desert, hearing every place in the UK referred to as “London” regardless of where it might be situated, I succumbed to the inevitable. Looking for a job back in the UK required acknowledging that there is only one commercial centre, and the gravitational pull proved too strong.

The one thing that hits you when you finally lose all your principles…. Sorry I mean... move to London, is it vastness… no wrong again, apologies, it is how bloody expensive it is. I know this is not news, but truth be told looking for an affordable flat (even with 2 other roommates) means searching some pretty shady areas, and having to put up with low water pressure, lack of maintenance, and a crime rate that wouldn’t look out of place on “Midsommer murders”. Having found the place of your dreams/nightmares you then have to tackle a commute; that takes some figuring out. After about 6 months, I figured out that to get the optimal amount of space on the tube I had to get up at stupid o clock for my inbound journey, and stay until “are you really still here, don’t you have anywhere else to go” territory on the outbound journey.

Next there is the culture of the City. I’m not talking about the greater metropolitan area of London, but where all the slickers live. Hard drinking, hard smoking, hard working, hard womanising, you name it, although where anyone gets the time for this is beyond me. For more qualified opinions on this visit Joris Luyendijk’s comment blog on the Guardian. Face time, being seen to be in the office, busy, but not too busy, socialable but not too… well you get the picture. It is essentially an elaborate mechanism of control. As you realise from the contradictions in the last sentences, there is no rule book or guide to follow, and so the rules are applied arbitrarily to keep you on your toes. You begin to ask yourself; “what happened to just working to get the job done, rather than being in the right place at the right time”.

9 months of 5 days a week city working had done me in. So I escaped to a peripatetic role; roaming the rolling hillsides of Great Britain, taking in the wonderment of a fully functioning railway system, marvelling at the vibrancy of the village market place, or alternatively getting smashed in Nottingham, Enjoying the exquisite cuisine of the only establishment open on a Monday in Southend, or being caught in a snow drift in Edinburgh. Not as glamorous as first imagined, but infinitely better than the stupefying monotony of commuter life in London.

My last role tipped me over the edge. I wasn’t specifically the working conditions (although they didn’t help), it was the return to ye olde Londinium, and all that I have described being applied at a 7 on the Richter scale. Getting up at 5:30 each day, leaving for the train at 6:20 (before @weasypeasy was even awake), eyes down on the train for fear of catching the rest of the passengers silently weeping at the thought of another day, arriving into Liverpool Street station, dodging the free paper jockey’s (Stylist, Standard, City AM, Metro, Sport, and the other one that had something to do with culture), walking in all weathers the 30 minutes to Bankside (as there were no easily accessible tube routes) arriving at bankside to order the largest coffee they could possible provide me with, then being the good foot soldier and applying the principles of face time and looking productive, only taking a 30 minute lunch for fear of taking liberties (how dare you take your mandated lunch hour!), trying not to doze off in the afternoon, slipping out to grab a double espresso to make the afternoon fly by, leave around 6 ish (depending on what you think you could get away with), curse yourself for having sat around working two hours unpaid overtime, walk 30 minutes back to the station, wait 20 minutes for train, due to Olympic improvements endure a journey of 50 minutes that should take 30 minutes, get home collapse eat and go to bed. Repeat each weekday.

I’m giving London a bit of a bad review here. I wouldn’t have stayed in London or its general vicinity if it didn’t have its charms. Saturday’s and Sunday’s in Queens Park could be very hospitable. Plenty of bistro’s and coffee shops to sit in reading the papers, the occasional park to wander aimlessly in, BBQ’s in the summer, access to the theatres and sporting events. And my favourite part was exploring a farmers market for some Sunday lunch ingredients. But it didn’t last, of my own free will, and to follow the love of my life, I moved to Harlow.

I could do an entire blog post on this sorry little island of poverty in an affluent part of Essex. The following graphic merits at least a double page spread in the Times:

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/mar/06/poverty-map-england-experian

That little red dot is Harlow, how is it even possible? “Ranked 132 in England for the biggest risk of poverty and 173 for child poverty out of 326 local authorities”, so says the Grauniad. An anomaly perhaps, but having lived there for two years I will recant one tale that will justify my disgust. In the short time I had before moving to Luxembourg, I was on the phone to my parents, when my mother said “what was that sound, like a barking noise, are there dogs nearby?” it was my duty to inform her that it was 3 of the local inhabitants who had been on the sauce all day barking like dogs at one another. One of many low points during my time there, I know I said only one story, but another one has sprung to mind. I very rarely ventured into the Harvey Centre or general area, as like Superman and kryptonite it sapped my will to live on and diminished my faith in humanity. One afternoon I ventured into town, to be confronted by a Grandmother and 6 children, reminiscent of the pied piper she held an open can of stella in one hand (no need for a pipe) and beckoned the children to “get a F%$king move on, you can play xbox when we get home”. A dystopian vision if ever there was one.

 So time ran out on my patience, time was running out on being a good and healthy person and I collected my possessions and those of @weasypeasy (significantly more than a Micra’s worth, especially with all the shoes) to flee for the continent.

I hope you’ll forgive me for not liking the big smoke or wanting to return there soon?