Improve Something Today

You can't make an hourglass flow faster by yelling at the sand. Discussed: queuing, constraints, Little's Law .

Introducing my free field guide to finding waste in knowledge work and service work—and using the waste you find as an opportunity to start a practice of continuous improvement. Download the field guide here: improvesomething.today/field-guide .

The places where we don't know all the answers are where real improvements can happen. Discussed: Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor; T. H. Huxley's agnosticism.

Stories and what they do for us whether we like it or not. Discussed: No Thanks , a poem by Nven Mrgan; Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity by Richard Rorty; War Talk by Arundhati Roy.

What to do when you're clinging to piano tops and concepts. Stephen Mitchell's version of Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching .

Why respect for people is an important part of lean, and four starting points for determining how to do something with this idea. Slightly more detailed notes on the four starting points . More about motivation-hygiene theory .

Welcome back! Throughput, goodput, and making the most of it.

You gotta take care of yourself, so I'm taking a week to do just that. Also, 2 easy ways you can support this podcast after it returns from a 1 week break.

Looking for countermeasures instead of solutions.

Revisiting the wastes of lean, and two particular types of waste.

It's about getting good at small, reversible improvements. Over time folks will learn they no longer need to be scared of change, or even of failure.

Learning and training when things are complicated.

Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Measures-Success-React-Better-Improve-ebook/dp/B07DV8ZC4P/ A free sample chapter is also available at LeanPub: https://leanpub.com/measuresofsuccess

The job of facilitation and the value of facilitating with a partner.

Waste! Defects • Overproduction • Waiting • Not using what people to give • Transportation • Inventory • Movement • Extra processing.

If people can agree on what's good, the rest is details.

Nobody can make anything better alone. When you're working with other people, the time is ticking away according to one structure or another. Liberating structures online: http://www.liberatingstructures.com

Lay information and knowledge out as simply and concisely as possible, so you can get it out of your brain and into the world.

Guesses work best when it's OK for a guess to be wrong. Delany's tweet: https://twitter.com/DelanyBisbee/status/1020427472209432576

How can you distinguish between typical variation in a process and an indication that something has changed? Book recommendation: "Understanding Variation" by Donald J. Wheeler. https://amazon.com/dp/0945320531

Setting standards and trying to perform to standard is a method. Better service, better outcomes, better relationships—that's the goal.

You matter and your ideas matter. Taking time to notice what's going on around you is where those ideas come from.

Problems, solutions, and the problem with solutions.