A deliberate and methodical process can greatly enhance the development of new ideas. New ideas are almost always a requisite of dramatic improvement. Dr. Edward de Bono coined the term lateral thinking which is based on how the mind works as a self-organizing system. I became intrigued with his work a number of years ago and often return to both his creative thinking tools and the six thinking hats. There is no better operating system for deliberate creativity. Here is a recent interview with him:  

THE global leader in quality is widely accepted to be Toyota. The physical order of their production environment must have something to do with this… and I have always felt there has to be more to it that simply creating and maintaining a tidy workplace with tools and materials aligned with process.

 

Recent research in the social sciences may be on the way to elucidating a mechanism that relates physical order to behavior. This research which focused on civil disorder such as graffiti, litter and unreturned shopping carts “found that, when people observe that others violated a certain social norm or legitimate rule, they are more likely to violate other norms or rules, which causes disorder to spread.”

OK, this might be a stretch but, could untidy, disorganized work environments influence compliance performance, rule or procedure following? And if so, could work materials organization and visual order improve safety and quality in unexpected ways? Food for thought.

Measurement is ALWAYS necessary in order to make improvement. But, sometimes hard data is hard to come by. I’m a weather watcher and it occurred to me that there is a wonderful analogy about measurement in the story of the Beaufort Scale - a method for measuring the strength of wind.

As you might imagine, in the early days of sailing it was important to be able to communicate the strength of the wind but the tools for accurate empirical measurement had not yet been invented. So, in 1805 Sir Francis Beaufort created what came to be known, creatively, as the Beaufort scale.

The Beaufort scale enables consistent determination and communication of wind speed based on observed conditions. There are 12 levels of wind strength on the Beaufort scale. A number 3 is also called a gentle breeze; sea observations include large wavelets, with crests beginning to break and scattered whitecaps; and on land leaves and smaller twigs are in constant motion. I have one of those amateur weather stations and it registers wind in kilometers per hour and cites the Beaufort scale number. I find myself referring to the Beaufort number and very seldom do I look to see the actual speed.

This concept can be applied to improvement in cases with you cannot measure the results of change directly, you may be able to create your version of the Beaufort scale. With care, a scale could be created and managed by a team for observations which lack a formal metrics. Not all change is improvement, make sure the changes you make measure up!