Lean 3P Design: More Humanistic by Going Back to Nature

In the Lean Design we use a process that is called Lean 3P. One of the most contentious part of 3P is this idea of looking to nature, to try to find solutions to the problems you're trying to solve. We begin by looking at all the value‑adding steps. Then for each of those value‑adding steps, we try to get the group to look at seven different alternatives that can be created to create that process step. They come from nature. This tends to be a very interesting part of the event, where a lot of people really love it. Other people really hate it.

Allan Colletta in a Business901 Podcast said about this process:

This part of the process attempts to expand the thinking beyond the common approaches we use within the industry. So, at a very minimum, I always say, "It's a great icebreaker to get the whole group just working well together and to get everything a little bit out of the box."

At its best, we've seen some really great examples, where this out of the box thinking from nature has pointed us in some alternative directions that we never would have considered otherwise. That's really the goal and that whole process doesn't take more than a couple of hours, normally.

From there, you go into taking those seven natural alternatives and you bring it into the realm of sort of industry‑proven approaches. So if you were rolling something along the thing, what mechanisms do we have for rolling things? Well, you could have a laboratory table. There are all kinds of ways from industry that people have used to do these different things.

You got all these different alternatives. Then once you get seven alternatives for every one of the process steps, then we start narrowing it down. And you're narrowing those down to three viable alternatives that you could actually do. While this is going on, you've got your teams that are pursuing these, investing, and trying to understand how viable these options are. So a lot of research being done, a lot of learning taking place. As you go through it, you converge on three that are very practical and your divide your group up into, typically three groups, and they go off and they build. They're actually, physically, trying to build the prototypes of whatever it is that they've been assigned.

At first, I felt this process of looking to nature was silly. It took some real effort to try it. However, I have found it  to be very eye-opening and challenging. Going back to nature, going back to the source makes it more humanistic, maybe.

Lean 3P Design: Podcast and Transcriptions

Have you ever seen a Comedian use a PowerPoint?

I will admit that I use a PowerPoint more often than not. It is not because I am trying to dazzle anyone, it is mostly for the sake of being my notes for the process. Seldom do I use a tremendous amount of wording on them, but I need a few key prompts to get me through most presentations. I blame this reliance on lack of preparation or procrastination; I am not sure which is more powerful or more to blame.

Recently, I was viewing a few George Carlin presentations on YouTube, and it reminded me, have I ever seen a comedian use a PowerPoint? If you study comedians, you will find them quite professional in their delivery. A list that I created with help from the Wikihow on How to be a Comedian:

1. Original Material
2. Ability to read an audience
3. Relate to the average person
4. Remember to walk the stage
5. Respectful attitude
6. Watch others and emulate one you like
7. Practice body language and timing
8. Practice in front of others and notice their reaction
9. Watch classic presenters like Steve Jobs, Johnny Carson, Jack Welch, Dr. Deming
10. It’s not a monologue
11. The single most important, PRACTICE (I might have said it twice) 

George Carlin Talks about “Stuff” (there may be some inappropriate language)

George Carlin's (Farewell George, 1937-2008) classic standup routine about the importance of 'Stuff' in our lives. This was from his appearance at Comic Relief in 1986.

Are you looking at growth strategies from a customer’s viewpoint?

We find our greatest growth opportunities on the edges of the use of our product/services. We must make a concentrated effort to identify and participate in relevant knowledge flows on the edge (EDCA). In the book The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion, the authors discuss the relationship between the core and the edge. In the excerpt below, think about the core being the standard work (SDCA) of your growth strategy. PDCA provides the bridge between the core (SDCA) and the edge (EDCA).

Knowledge flows naturally flourishes on the edge. Why? Because by definition, participants on these edges are wrestling with how to match unmet needs with unexploited capabilities and all the uncertainty that implies. Edge participants therefore focus on ways to innovate and create value by connecting unmet needs with unexploited capabilities and then scaling these opportunities as rapidly as possible. In the process, they create significant new knowledge.

Since much of the most relevant knowledge on the edge is tacit knowledge, edge participants naturally place a heavy emphasis on building diverse networks of relationships that will help them to collaborate more effectively with others in the creation of new knowledge. For this reason, gatherings where participants can share stories and experiences, learn from each other, and identify potential collaborators become particularly prominent on the edges.

Edge participants often reach out to participants in the core in an effort to build relationships and enhance knowledge flows. But those efforts are often frustrated or at best to marginalize because where participants are too busy concentrating on defensive strategies within the core, trying to protect their profits and position, to understand the true growth opportunities represented by relevant edges. Or participants tend to focus on transactions rather than investing in a long-term effort to build sustainable, trust-based relationships on the edge.

When we envision tomorrow’s best product or service being used in our customer’s future it creates far-reaching possibilities. Our most successful sales people are already thinking in these terms. Recently, I wrote a blog post, Lean Salespeople are Challengers, not Problem Solvers, about how The Challenger type salespeople are willing to challenge a customer’s thinking to create new opportunities through more effectiveness or innovative ways. It is this type of thinking of your customer’s business, the edges of their business that we must strive to achieve through the methods of SDCA, PDCA and EDCA.