Steve Holt, is a good friend of mine who - as seems increasingly common in this virtual age - I've know for about a decade through my TOC work, but never met in person. He works for an awfully large aircraft manufacturer and is one of the cleverest people I've never met.
Steve sent me the following note re my recommendation of the wonderful "Made to Stick" book. He emailed me today to say that "Obviously I've finished the book by now and agree even more with your praise for it. I've begun using the method more and more. I'm especially aware of the Curse of Knowledge".
Steve gave me permission to post his analysis his analysis of the relative "stickiness" of Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma based on his initial reading of Made to Stick. I thought the analysis was worthy of repeating - especially how Ohno's s true message - it wasn't "eliminate waste", even though that is what stuck - has been (sadly) missed by many in the lean community.
Clarke
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Holt, Steven C
Hi Clarke, Before I forget, I'm sure that Amazon stockholders around the world would want me to thank you for recommending "Made to Stick." When you recommend something there's at least one of us out here in Blog-land who pays attention....and then we pay Amazon.
Obviously then I ordered it, received it, and I'm about 60 pages in. As I read about core and compact messages I keep thinking about Lean and TOC, with a few other thoughts of Deming and Six Sigma thrown in. I'm assuming that you've been thinking along that some line....plus things for the book, of course.
First, it's clear that "The Goal" is sticky. It's understandable, it's credible from a common sense standpoint, it appeals to the emotions, and it is above all else, a story. At the core of TG, is probably the Boy Scout hike, to the point that the part that really sticks for most people, even years later, is "find Herbie."
At a slightly higher context, the 5 Focusing Steps are also good, but now the message becomes more difficult. The ideas are concise and powerful, but the words just aren't sticky. Exploit? Subordinate? Elevate? They are precisely correct, but must be explained. Consequently, for people who invest in some study it becomes sticky, but for those who don't they're still on Find Herbie. To get them to invest the time they need the right sticky message.
It seems to me that TOC also has a number of other core messages as well:
- A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
- At the heart of complex systems is simplicity.
- The constraint changes depending on the system
Of course, we add to the problem because of the Curse of Knowledge. "Actually, no, this is different. Besides physical constraints we also have to worry about policy constraints. And then there's the market constraint and...." Another thing that seems clear is that the whole idea of a Viable Vision is to come up with a core message with enough appeal to get people's attention. It has a lot of the characteristics.
What about Lean? I think Lean is another situation where there are multiple core messages and the irony is that the one that most sticks with most senior managers isn't the real one. And that explains why despite all the books and seminars there's only one Toyota. I think the core message most people get is "Eliminate waste." Now, the beauty of that from a stickiness standpoint is that it's very close to "cut costs" and every senior manager understands that. It's like matching up a square peg to a square hole. In other words, most senior managers are totally aware of the Cut Cost schema, so when Eliminate Waste comes along they get it. (And this is also a TOC challenge, since TOC doesn't match the "cut costs" schema.)
But is that the real Lean core message? I don't think so. For that I go back to Ohno's book in which he says (note this is coming from memory, indicating its stickiness!), "All we are doing is looking at the time between when the customer orders a car and we get their cash and making that time as short as possible." In other words, Toyota's real core message is to eliminate time. Then the bit about waste elimination becomes a means to an end, not the end itself. But, several other key messages get stuck in some people's heads, like: * The continuous pursuit of perfection.
Despite what might be a misinterpreted core message, Lean succeeds because of the credibility of Toyota. Somewhat mistakenly. And I think that says a lot about Six Sigma, too. If there's a core to Six Sigma maybe it's "eliminate variation" but I think the only reason it's sticky at all is back to the effect on senior execs--the core message to them really may be something like, "Jack Welch did Six Sigma and he was wildly successful, if you do Six Sigma you'll be successful, too." That is, the core message may be nothing but credibility.
Right now this is pseudo-stream of consciousness thinking, but it's what's on my mind and I'm thinking that you may have been having some of the same thoughts. Once we get more people to read "Made to Stick" we can expand the conversation. :-)
Steve Holt
Russell Ackoff
