Improve something today
By Brian Kerr
Improve something todayJan 12, 2019
0031: Change management, with Devon Persing
Change management, readiness and adoption, otherwise pulling nerds across the chasm. Whatever you call it, it's important work that my guest and I are accidentally getting better at. A conversation with Devon Persing. Discussed: remote work, organizational and individual change, Muppets.
• Episode transcripts
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0030: The mountain, the muddle, and the morning after the earthquake
A year of working and living in crisis. So what? Now what? Discussed: the mountain (certainty), the muddle (ambiguity), and the morning after the earthquake (we're all geologists now, friends); Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Experience" and "The Conduct of Life"; Leonard Cohen.
• Episode transcripts
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0029: Respect for people, with Fabian Jimenez
Respect for people is a pillar of lean. It's also the first thing to go out the window in many botched implementations. A conversation with Fabian Jimenez. Discussed: stepping stones on the path to respect for people. Engaging head 🤖, heart 🫀, and hands 🙌 of people.
• Episode transcripts
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0028: Consensus and agreement, with Andre Helmstetter
When working with groups, agreement is fine—but consensus is better. A conversation with Andre Helmstetter. Discussed: the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ consensus workshop method, taught as part of their ToP Facilitation Training.
• Episode transcripts
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0027: The People, Yes
Checking in with Carl Sandburg's "The People, Yes" before Election Day. "The people have come far and can look back and say, 'We will go farther yet.'"
0026: The Tables Turned
We're still here, and we're still feeling stuck. Or at least I am. I bet you are too. Reading: William Wordsworth's "The Tables Turned"
0025: Shelter in place with Shantideva
The world has gone off format and so has this podcast. Discussed: it's time to change and/or die; the weird story of Shantideva, the failed 8th century prince, public servant, and monk; and comforting words from Shantideva's "A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life."
0024: Options
The cost and joys of options. Why are options so important to us anyways? Discussed: set-based design and the book Lean Product Design and Process Development by Allen Ward and Durward Sobek.
0023: Bottlenecks
You can't make an hourglass flow faster by yelling at the sand. Discussed: queuing, constraints, Little's Law.
0022: A field guide to learning from failure
Introducing my free field guide to finding waste in knowledge work and service work—and using the waste you find as an opportunity to start a practice of continuous improvement. Download the field guide here: improvesomething.today/field-guide.
0021: Not knowing
The places where we don't know all the answers are where real improvements can happen. Discussed: Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor; T. H. Huxley's agnosticism.
0020: Bought and sold and bought again
Stories and what they do for us whether we like it or not. Discussed: No Thanks, a poem by Nven Mrgan; Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity by Richard Rorty; War Talk by Arundhati Roy.
0019: Begin again
What to do when you're clinging to piano tops and concepts.
0018: Respect for people
Why respect for people is an important part of lean, and four starting points for determining how to do something with this idea.
- Slightly more detailed notes on the four starting points.
- More about motivation-hygiene theory.
0017: Throughput
Welcome back! Throughput, goodput, and making the most of it.
0016: Housekeeping
0015: Countermeasures
0014: Movement and transportation
0013: What is continuous improvement, anyways?
0012: See one, do one, teach one
0011: Book: Measures of Success, by Mark Graban
A free sample chapter is also available at LeanPub: leanpub.com/measuresofsuccess
0010: In which I split my pants
0009: Finding what's bad
0008: Knowing what's good
0007: Liberating structures
Liberating structures online: www.liberatingstructures.com
0006: A weird story about fax machines (updated)
0005: Guessing
Delany's tweet: twitter.com/DelanyBisbee/status/1020427472209432576
0004: Variation
Book recommendation: "Understanding Variation" by Donald J. Wheeler. amazon.com/dp/0945320531