Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Dan Markovitz
Not Another Argument for MBWA or Management by Walking Around
xijian/iStock/Getty Unscheduled wandering isn’t good for you or your company. Dan Markovitz | Nov 12, 2019 Theodore Kinni argues in Strategy + Business that leaders must practice management by walking around (MBWA), a concept popularized by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their seminal book, In Search of Excellence. That’s the best way for them to stay connected to their businesses and understand what’s really happening with their customers.
We Need to Stop Talking About Lean Manufacturing
MoMorad/iStock/GettyImages People might be more receptive if we just talked about good business practices. Dan Markovitz | Oct 22, 2019 Lean advocates—and I consider myself one—might do better if they stop talking about lean. Let’s face it: When executives and workers hear “lean,” not a lot of good happens. They think it’s yet another short-term management fad. Or a cost-cutting program that will lead to layoffs. Or some Japanese thing that only works for car manufacturers.
Your Lean Six Sigma Belt Program Is the Problem
Wavebreakmedia/iStock/Getty Images Plus Don’t let the easily quantifiable metric substitute for the real goal. Dan Markovitz | Sep 17, 2019 I visited a company a few weeks ago that asks all of their employees to do a green belt project. It’s not mandatory, but completion of a project is part of their annual review. Not surprisingly, the management boasts that nearly everyone does a project. You know how many people do a second project? Less than 5%.
Higher Employee Engagement Is Not Just About Hiring Better Managers
Thinkstock, Getty Images What if we set up policies and processes so it’s easy for people to grow in their jobs? Dan Markovitz | Apr 09, 2019 A recent article by Sam Walker in the Wall Street Journal argues that better managers are the key to delivering better results. Walker cites research by Gallup showing that the quality of middle managers determines 70% of the variance between high-performing and low-performing companies.
Lean is *Not* a Training and Development Activity
A prospect told me recently that he wanted to work with me to bring lean/continuous improvement to his company, but first he needed to “integrate it into his Training and Development” plans. I told him that he was making a mistake, and that he was likely to fail. If you frame lean/CI as a training and development activity, you won’t get the of buy-in and commitment from staff that you need.
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
An organization dedicated to change must be one that is fundamentally human-centered, that enables people to thrive and grow. Dan Markovitz | Feb 08, 2019 Having an ideal organizational culture (however you define “ideal”) is the white whale for many leaders. This is more than a bit surprising, considering all the books that have been published on corporate culture and on change management. You’d think we’d have that issue solved by now. And yet we don’t.
Why Companies Struggle with Corporate Culture and Change Management
Thinkstock/Getty Images An organization dedicated to change must be one that is fundamentally human-centered, that enables people to thrive and grow. Dan Markovitz | Jan 29, 2019 Having an ideal organizational culture (however you define “ideal”) is the white whale for many leaders. This is more than a bit surprising, considering all the books that have been published on corporate culture and on change management. You’d think we’d have that issue solved by now. And yet we don’t.
First, You've Got to Show That You Care
Thinkstock You can’t get people to care about their work until you first show that you care about them. Dan Markovitz | Nov 20, 2018 The overhead light in aisle two has been burned out for three months. It’s hard for the workers in that row to see the small parts they handle and repair. Workers sent a request to the facilities department when the light died, but for some reason nothing was done, and no one bothers to complain anymore.
Speaking the Language of Your Team
I started using Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata approach at a new client in NYC recently. The mechanics are young (18-25 years) old, and the education level is low. No one has been to college, and not all of them have even completed high school.
Avoid These Mistakes for Successful Strategy Deployment
I’ve been working with a company on a strategy deployment project recently and noticed some common problems across the teams as they’ve worked on their hoshin plans. 1. No, you’re not an army of one. Leaders are smart and experienced, which makes them think that they can develop the hoshin plan on their own. But without including the whole team in the conversation, they may not be fully on board during the year.
What Strategy Is and What It's Not
Hoshin Kanhri, Strategy Deployment, Policy Deployment, Seven Steps, X-Matrices that turn on their axis, catchball… the list goes on. I don’t know about you, but it all gets a bit overwhelming. Human beings can take any idea and turn it into complicated gobbley-goo. From what I’ve been able to understand, many organizations (including Toyota) use what has been called a “Hoshin” (as well as other names) process to set and deploy a few critical high-level objectives throughout the organization.
Sometimes Lean Journeys Can Begin With Hoshin Kanri | Manufacturing
For a long time, I’ve been dismissive of organizations that want to start their lean journeys with hoshin kanri, (also known as strategy deployment). When you’ve got a company where people are not engaged (at best) or suspicious of management (at worst), it seems to me that getting people involved in everyday improvement to make their jobs easier is a better place to start.
How to Deal with Seasonal Fluctuation in Customer Demand | Variation
Recently, I heard Ritsuo Shingo chastise a company president for the seasonal fluctuation in their business. “No good,” he said. It’s sales and marketing responsibility to dampen that variability. Shingo knows what he’s talking about.
Why You’re Struggling to Improve Company Culture
The new Proqis BTOES Insights report on operational excellence is out, and by a landslide margin (55% to 37%), the most critical challenge for respondents is “improving the company culture.” Anytime I read that culture is a stumbling block for companies pursuing continuous improvement, I go back to John Shook’s reflections on NUMMI (pdf).
Let’s Get Serious About Lowering the Water Level
When it comes to the shop floor, every organization embracing lean uses Toyota’s rocks and lake metaphor to talk about improvement: You lower the water level (inventory) to reveal the rocks (obstacles) that prevent you from reaching the ultimate goal of 1x1 flow. People constantly strive to remove inventory and other buffers that hide problems in the various production processes. Now, consider what happens in the office.
Ditch the Diet. And the Layoffs.
If you're trying to get physically fit, don’t try to lose weight by going on a diet. If you’re trying to get organizationally fit, don’t try to cut costs through layoffs. In my new book, Building the Fit Organization, I argue that real fitness isn’t defined by overall weight, or by body fat percentage. Sure, if you’re 5’6” and weigh as much as a double-door Sub-Zero refrigerator, you should probably put down the box of Twinkies.
Why Visual Management Boards Fail
Organizations pursuing lean often rush to deploy visual management boards. They fill the walls with metrics and charts, performance data and improvement project plans. Sadly, as often as not, these visual boards turn into unattractive wallpaper, unused, unloved, and out of date. The reason that they fail to fulfill expectations is that the necessary groundwork hasn’t yet been laid. 1. They haven’t established the right mindset/culture to support the boards.
Three Reasons Why Visual Management Boards Fail
Organizations pursuing lean often rush to deploy visual management boards. They fill the walls with metrics and charts, performance data and improvement project plans. Sadly, as often as not, these visual boards turn into unattractive wallpaper, unused, unloved, and out of date. The reason that they fail to fulfill expectations is that the necessary groundwork hasn’t yet been laid. 1. They haven’t established the right mindset/culture to support the boards.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Dan
Contact Dan, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack