![]() Now I suppose the technology enables them to track all kinds of great metrics like table turnover, etc. But as we handed in our pager, I commented “I thought the grease pencil worked just fine.” The response was “Tell me about it.” Of course the system is new, and the team was struggling a bit. And the computer pages you when an appropriate table is available. They hand you the pager, and I suppose it gets logged in to “the system” as a party of 2, or whatever. Now there is a computer screen with the layout on it. As tables were cleared and bussed, they were reported as available. As tables became available, they moved down the list, triggered the pager, and took guests to the table. They had a laminated chart of the table layout, and marked tables as occupied, uncleared and available with a grease pencil. They wrote your name on a list, and gave you a pager. When you arrived, you told them your name, the number in your party. ![]() I was in a popular “Gold Rush” themed restaurant the other night, and they were struggling with a new table assignment system. If so, develop a plan to close those gaps. You are likely to find gaps between the ideal state you defined and your actual performance. Talk to your customers, and ask them how they perceive your organization. Compare your actual attitudes, beliefs, behaviors with that list. This is creating the idea of the ideal supplier. organization that does exactly the opposite would perform and behave with its customers. Then do the following:įor each key point in the article, write down how an I.T. ![]() person, and are encountering the same push-back that Emma is from your kaizen people (or for that matter, push-back from anyone), I would recommend you read the article. #6 “Failing to understand the relationship between technology and business” – read the technology chapter of “Good to Great” and “The Toyota Way.” Those both offer great insights on how great companies use technology as a multiplier without making it a boat anchor. And make sure the “solution” solves a “problem.” It is OK to take on an experiment, but please control it and understand it before it is imposed on everyone. If you don’t know how to do it, please don’t say you do. #4 “Reach beyond the competency level” is classic. Any more provides a distraction, an opportunity for error. I want just what is necessary for the next step in the process. More features, and for that matter, more information, is not necessarily better. Just because it is slick and “does this” and “does that” does not mean it is useful. Again, though, I want to take the title of the paragraph and expand the scope. In #3 “Create solutions in search of a problem” the article emphasizes off-the-shelf solutions vs. One of the fundamental principles we taught at a previous company was “Simple is best.” But often there is a simpler way, perhaps with the information system as an enabler rather than the centerpiece. Now that’s great, and it is what we pay them for. folks are biased toward computerized solutions. I would expand this to discuss “Acquire technology simply because it’s cool.” I.T. #1, “Acquire technology simply because it’s new” talks mainly about upgrades. However, there are a few points where I think the scope should be expanded. Though the article is written about individual CIO’s, it applies to the sub-culture of information technology in general. “Lean” stuff aside, I offer this recent post on Tech Republic, “ The Seven Habits Of Wildly unsuccessful CIOs.” In a short, but interesting, thread on, Emma asks an interesting question: “Can an IT system support Lean?” She goes on to point out a general trend she has seen where the “kaizen guys” offer a lot of resistance to the introduction of sophisticated I.T. Just what is the ROI of “getting it right every time?” It’s pretty hard to calculate, but I’m pretty sure the opposite is more expensive. In this world of seemingly having to put up a positive short-term ROI for every idea, we deprive ourselves of so much innovation it isn’t funny. That article, in turn, links back to another called Costs and benefits of projects: Looking beyond the dollar sign. Reading those five things, my feeling is that I could easily substitute the term “Continuous Improvement” where ever “I.T.” appears, and maybe a couple of other very simple edits, and most of the article really strikes home. There are five in this list but I could have just as easily added another twenty. I want to share with you a small collection of such limiting beliefs. I often encounter situations where I can’t help but feel that an IT department could be a runaway success within its organization if it weren’t for the beliefs that their leader seems to hold. leaders, author Ilya Bogorad lists some limiting beliefs that can result in the I.T. In Five ways of thinking that can fell I.T. ![]() community, Tech Republic sometimes publishes pieces could have that have a wider application. ![]()
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