Slowing Down to Speed Up

Tweet

Borrowing From Neuroscience to Drive Kaizen Thinking

"If you are going to do TPS you must do it all the way. You also need to change the way you think. You need to change how you look at things." - Taiichi Ohno 

One of the most common issues lean coaches face when teaching structured problem-solving is keeping people from immediately jumping to countermeasures when addressing a problem. Touting the virtues of sticking to the process and mentioning that the countermeasure may be wrong is rarely an effective way to getting someone to forget what they already think is the answer and to take more time and effort only to arrive at the same conclusion. There are a number of reasons for countermeasure-jumping, and understanding the motivation behind the behavior can help people appreciate the importance of following the process. 

There are many reasons people jump to countermeasures rather than following the process to solve problems. The need to be an expert (for personal or cultural reasons) and being stressed or overloaded are two common reasons.  A third reason, which is the focus of this blog, comes from the study of neuroscience and our internal programming regarding how we make decisions. 

Fast vs Slow Thinking 

In his book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman presents the results of his research into decision-making. Kahneman presents two distinct processes in the brain that, although apparently designed to work together, often conflict with one another. The first, which he refers to as System 1, is the fast thinking process that runs on autopilot. The obvious purpose of the fast brain is to protect us from danger - i.e., we don't have to take the time to think about getting out of the street when a car is coming - and to keep us from having to relearn simple tasks each time we perform them. The fast brain is guided by intuition and habits, and takes virtually no effort to use. 

System 2 is the slow brain, and is used for issues that require deep-thinking logic and focus. It takes time and effort to use the slow brain, but it is the part of thinking that deals with complex issues and enables innovation and creativity to occur.   

The issue with all this, however, is that that the more the fast brain is used, the more it tends to dominate the slow brain and could, in fact, shut it down in most situations.  When applied to the workplace, the fast brain always wants to jump to countermeasures immediately.  

For a variety of reasons, many organizations tend to reward fast-brained people through promotions and bonuses because companies that want quick answers and immediate results do not value deep, careful thinking. Because of this, organizations that have not identified their few highly critical priorities will have cultures that lean toward fast thinking. 

Thinking, Reflecting, and Learning 

Kaizen requires slow thinking and reflecting in order to identify and challenge assumptions that are preventing effective and innovative countermeasures. This may be what Taiichi Ohno meant in the above quote when he wrote that TPS requires you to "change the way you think," since lean requires much more engagement of the slow brain. 

I believe that this is the reason kaizen is not natural for most people. Since most of us are overloaded in our professional and personal lives, we are dominated by our fast brains. As a result, we probably get more done by operating in this way - it's the quality of our work that we have to question. Getting people to understand kaizen requires making them realize this and to learn how to access their slow brains when approaching a problem. 

I spend a lot of time these days getting people to slow down when they're addressing problems.  If it's a small, one-time issue, I only try to get those involved to do a basic 5-why exercise to help them start to appreciate slower thinking without shutting them down completely. When dealing with the larger and more critical problems, however, I continually coach them to slow down and think about the steps in problem-solving before jumping to any conclusions.  It requires a lot more time and coaching to get a person or team to clearly understand a problem and think deeply about each step in the process. When people can start to understand the value of accessing their slow brains, the transformation (or "thinking differently" as Ohno stated) starts to occur. 

When you think about it, Toyota's 8-step problem-solving process is designed to encourage slow thinking. Clearly identifying the gap frames the process, and breaking it down requires looking at data and going to gemba to understand the issue from various perspectives before wasting time attempting to think about causes or countermeasures. Anyone who thinks an A3 can be completed in one sitting is being guided by their fast brain. And for people who do this, their fast brains will get a lot of exercise as they continue to address the same issues over and over again. 

The Big Gains 

Slow thinking is what leads to the big gains that lean thinking drives.  Organizations that approach lean without changing the way people think will likely end up disappointed and abandon the process as not applicable to their business.

The Value of Thinking

Tweet

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford

Do we consider the ability to think critical to business success?  If so, why do companies place such a low value on thinking?  How many organizations today would truly appreciate an employee who takes time regularly to sit in his or her office to think?

I believe if we started to value thinking and took the time to teach our organizations how to think, we could revolutionize the world of business, leading to greatly improved performance, as well as employee satisfaction and quality of life.

Thinking in Business

When I led an organization, I encouraged team members to make decisions. I also encouraged people to think - individually and as a group - before making a decision.  What I found in many cases was that a vast majority of poor decisions were the result of jumping to a solution without thinking.  On the other hand, I have observed that the most creative solutions and innovative idea result from deep reflection and thought before acting.

The U.S. culture is heavily rooted in the Puritan ethic that greatly appreciates doing.  This contributes to the tendency of businesses to value the person who acts quickly much more than the one to takes time to think before acting.  Our organizations are fjull of people who stay very busy doing things, but rarely think about what they are doing.  As a result, we face the same problems day-in and day-out and fail to achieve or sustain significant levels of improvement in productivity or quality.

This general disregard for thinking creates friction that continually pulls even those organizations that value thinking toward a culture of doing.  I believe this is the reason that companies respected for creativity and innovation tend to lose their edge as they become larger and more successful.  Think about how many internet startups have changed from high growth companies with imaginative offerings to stagnant, poor performing organizations.  Companies like Apple
, Toyota and LG, on the other hand, are among the very few that have been able to maintain their creative edge in products, processes, and services.

Thinking Required

Organizations are very complex systems that make it difficult to clearly understand the effects that result from actions taken.  To truly comprehend how a change in one part of the organization will affect another requires thought and reflection.  On many occasions, I have seen a change implemented by one area of the company result in increased costs and headaches for another.

I also believe that the lack of thinking is one of the reasons lean initiatives fail.  Lean requires a level of creativity and systems thinking that are nonexistent in many companies.  solving a problem requires a clear understanding of the underlying causes and the creativity to develop effective solutions.  Without the ability to think and reflect, improvements will tend to be short-lived.

What to Do

Because of the cultural resistance to thinking, encouraging people to reflect on issues before acting is not easy.  Everybody is so busy doing things that it very difficult to get them to take time to think.  Orders need to be entered, reports need to be written, customers need to be called, and deliveries need to be made.  Asking people to stop and think will be seen as adding more to an already full plate of things to do.

The key is to start small.  Leaders can encourage thinking as part of the coaching process to help
team members deal with problems and issues.  In one company, I initiated a policy requiring people to sit and think about their jobs for ten minutes each day.  Some did it and, I'm sure, others just said they did, but eventually the organization began to change because it became clear that I valued thinking.

However it is done, transforming the culture toward thinking before doing will help release the dammed up potential within the company.  Eventually, the change will become evident in productivity improves, more innovative products and services are introduced, and ultimately, the performance of the organization improves.