Leading at Toyota, Telling Stories and whining.

This months Harvard Business review has a few good articles.

The first is Learning to Lead at Toyota by Steven J. Spear (co-author of the seminal Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System)

"It is one thing to realize that the Toyota Production System (TPS) is a system of nested experiments through which operations are constantly improved. It is another to have an organization in which employees and managers at all levels in all functions are able to live those principles and teach others to apply them. Decoding the DNA of Toyota doesn't mean that you can replicate it.

So how exactly does a company replicate it? In the following pages, I try to answer that question by describing how a talented young American, hired for an upper-level position at one of Toyota's U.S. plants, was initiated into the TPS. His training was hardly what he might have expected given his achievements. With several degrees from top-tier universities, he had already managed large plants for one of Toyota's North American competitors. But rather than undergo a brief period of cursory walkthroughs, orientations, and introductions that an incoming fast-track executive might expect, he learned TPS the long, hard way--by practicing it, which is how Toyota trains any new employee regardless of rank or function. It would take more than three months before he even arrived at the plant in which he was to be a manager."

Spear suggests 4 lessons:

1. There's no substitute for direct observation.
2. Proposed changes should always be structured as experiments
3. Workers and managers should experiment as frequently as possible
4. Managers should coach, not fix

An excellent read and worth the $US6.

The second is Telling Tales by Stephen Denning (author of the pretty-good-even-if-it-did-go-on-a-bit,-but-then-don't-we-all-some-times book The Springboard : How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations)  which is all about story telling and knowledge management.  I'm not sure it's worth $US6 - but take a look at the authors website and then decide.  I enjoyed the article, but then I get free electronic access via the MBA). 

And finally, Whining Away the Hours by John Weeks, talks about whining and why it's useful:

"When Mark Twain said, "Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," he exposed a compunction that's crucial to the smooth functioning of organizations: the urge to whine when it's clear nothing will change.

People complain about their companies for the same reasons they complain about the weather--not because they hope to change anything but because these small rituals of negativity draw people together by affirming their shared experiences and their shared suffering. The recitation of innocuous complaints becomes part of a comfortable routine that puts people at ease with one another. These complaints can help strengthen social bonds and build a sense of community".

Some people whine at work ... others get weblogs. 

It's a good read if it is free.