Simple : killing complexity for a lean and agile organization

200 Pages·2017·4.91 MB·English

by  Cross

Simple
Killing Complexity for a Lean
and Agile Organization
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Simple
Killing Complexity for a Lean
and Agile Organization
Barry Cross
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Cross, Barry L., author.
Title: Simple : killing complexity for a lean and agile organization / Barry Cross.
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016050455 | ISBN 9781138713437 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational change. | Organizational behavior. | Organizational
effectiveness.
Classification: LCC HD58.8 .C755 2017 | DDC 658.4/06--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016050455
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
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Contents
List of Figures .......................................................................................vii
Acknowledgments .................................................................................ix
Introduction ...........................................................................................xi
Chapter 1 Who Is Your Customer? .....................................................1
One Last Story .............................................................................14
References ....................................................................................15
Chapter 2 Complexity and the Barriers to Agility ..........................17
Barriers to Agility ......................................................................20
One Last Story .............................................................................31
References ....................................................................................33
Chapter 3 Simple Strategy and Building a Vision ...........................35
Building a Strategy Roadmap ...................................................39
One Last (Continuing) Story ....................................................50
References ....................................................................................53
Chapter 4 Lean and Enabling Agility. ..............................................55
Process Visualization .................................................................63
Customer Value Map ................................................................66
One Last Story .............................................................................72
References ....................................................................................75
Chapter 5 Execution and the Operating Plan ..................................77
The Operating Plan ....................................................................82
One Last Story .............................................................................91
References ....................................................................................93
Chapter 6 Lean Innovation ...............................................................95
Anatomy of a Curve ..................................................................99
Who Is the Customer? .............................................................102
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vi • Contents
Innovation and Unintended Consequences .........................103
Business Model Innovation .....................................................110
One Last Story ...........................................................................112
References ..................................................................................115
Chapter 7 Communication and Selling the Plan ........................... 117
Selling the Plan: The Initial Communication .......................121
Reinforcing the Plan: Following Up......................................123
Good and Bad Communication .............................................125
One Last Story ..........................................................................128
References ..................................................................................132
Chapter 8 Agile Culture ..................................................................133
Improving Culture ...................................................................141
Connect Culture to Strategy ..............................................141
Reflect on Best Practices .....................................................141
Are We Asking the Right Questions? ...............................142
Think Like Steve ...................................................................143
Stay in Synch with Change with an Eyes-Wide-Open
Approach ...............................................................................143
Stop Blaming Your Culture ................................................144
Beware the Bias ....................................................................144
Move Your Chair ..................................................................145
Know When You Are at Your Best ....................................145
One Last Story ...........................................................................152
References ..................................................................................153
Chapter 9 Simple Closure. ...............................................................155
One Last Story ...........................................................................159
Reference ....................................................................................159
Appendix A: Communication II: Email and Making Sense
in the English Language ..................................................................... 161
Appendix B: East Coast Historical Society Operating Plan ............167
Appendix C: Personal Lean ............................................................... 171
Index ....................................................................................................177
About the Author. ...............................................................................185
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Barriers to agility ......................................................................20
Figure 2.2 BusinessWeek’s Service Winners, 2007–2012. (Data for
2011 is not available on BusinessWeek.com.) The number to the left
of each firm is its actual top 50 ranking .......................................................25
Figure 2.3 What do you see? (Originally from a nineteenth-century
German postcard.) ............................................................................................26
Figure 2.4 Agility cycle. ..............................................................................28
Figure 3.1 Strategy roadmap.......................................................................38
Figure 3.2 Strategy roadmap order of process ........................................40
Figure 3.3 Strategy roadmap for FB&S ....................................................42
Figure 3.4 General Motors then and now .................................................52
Figure 4.1 Airport check-in process .........................................................64
Figure 4.2 Customer value map for two firms in consumer
electronics..........................................................................................................67
Figure 4.3 Customer value map for OurCo vs. customer
expectations .....................................................................................................68
Figure 4.4 OurCo strategy roadmap .........................................................70
Figure 5.1 A3 change realization model ....................................................79
Figure 5.2 Framework relationships. .........................................................81
Figure 6.1 Life cycle ..................................................................................100
Figure 6.2 What leadership needs to think about .................................101
Figure 6.3 Valuables. ..................................................................................105
Figure 6.4 Innovation gap .........................................................................108
Figure 6.5 Innovation gap in an agile firm. ............................................109
Figure 6.6 Netflix business model innovation .......................................110
vii
viii • List of Figures
Figure 7.1 Execution gap ...........................................................................119
Figure 7.2 Agility cycle .............................................................................120
Figure 7.3 Barriers to agility ....................................................................124
Figure 7.4 Moira Vet Clinic ......................................................................131
Figure 7.5 No Wi-Fi ...................................................................................131
Figure 8.1 Business model life cycle ........................................................135
Figure 8.2 Agility cycle. .............................................................................139
Figure 8.3 Barriers to agility.....................................................................140
Figure 8.4 The three legs of change .........................................................148
Figure 9.1 A3 change realization model ..................................................156
Figure B.1 ECHS operating plan (abridged) ..........................................168
Acknowledgments
A number of people and organizations played key roles in the develop-
ment and writing of this book, knowingly or otherwise, and all have my
sincere gratitude.
My readers—Cheryl and David Green, Katrina Cross—your input, sug-
gestions, sharp eyes, and comments were invaluable. Many of your ideas
led to further development throughout the book. Thank you!
You may note that my approach to illustrations have been punched up a
bit from what was published in Lean Innovation. All credit here goes to my
new graphic artist, Rosey Li. Thanks Rosey! Check out her work at www
.roseyli.com.
There are two CEOs that I have known for years and whose work is the
embodiment of what I have created here with Simple. Darren Dalgleish is
a longtime friend and former coworker, and now heads up St. Lawrence
Parks Commission (SLPC) in Ontario, Canada. What he and his team
have done over the past five years in turning around SLPC, eliminating
a generation of complexity, and focusing on creating customer value is
nothing short of remarkable. He has taken a business model designed
around the summer tourist season and extended it to virtually the full
calendar, preserving SLPC’s central themes along the way.
Carrie Gregoire is the CEO of Quinte First Credit Union, which was
really a small player with an identity crisis in banking, behaving much
like its far larger peers when she took over the organization. She has been
relentless in her vision of identifying and understanding her core custom-
ers (or members), and has single-handedly driven the business to operate
as a members-first entity. Not a bank!
Thank you to all my students, leadership program participants, and cli-
ents over the years, for supporting and reinforcing my ideas around the
theme of simplicity and agility in all organizations. Those discussions,
programs, and situations continue to help us all understand and appreci-
ate the concept of speed, regardless of our industry.
My thanks again to my colleagues, the faculty, staff, and administration
at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business, for the opportunity to
work in such a creative environment. You are a sounding board, platform,
and catalyst. Here is to another 10 years.
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