The Value Of Stepping Back

The Value of Stepping BackHow to Get The Well-Oiled Machine You’ve Always Wanted

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(c) 2010 Michael P. Meier

You can get too close

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Or you can get too much distance

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We need perspective

Is the problem this spot?

Or this [thing/unit]?

Or this [batch/lot/area/organization]?

Or is the problem in the marketplace itself or our response to it?

How do I fit in?

To the problem?

To the solution?

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My Well-Oiled Machine

• What does a machine do?

• What does your machine do?

• What if you need to do something else?

▫ Is your machine adaptable?

• What if demand increases suddenly?

▫ Is your machine expandable?

• What if quality becomes an issue?

▫ Is your machine consistently effective?

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A Machine

• Has an intended purpose• Combines [many] simple but hidden process

steps into one apparent process.• Performs that one process repeatedly and with

consistent results.• Requires minimal to no intervention.

▫ When intervention is required, the internal processes are no longer hidden.

• Functions indefinitely with minimal maintenance.

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A Process

• One or more activities that may be considered as a whole.

• SIPOC

• Process requires input (from some source)

• Process produces output (delivered to a customer)

Supplier Input Process Output Customer

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Processes and Machines

• What’s the difference between “a machine” and “my [well-oiled] machine”?

▫ Human parts

▫ Ability to learn and adapt

▫ Process become visible and critical

▫ Abstract inputs and outputs

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A Word About Abstraction

• It isn’t about being “real”

▫ Some of our most cherished things are abstraction

Money—currency is a manifestation of money

Figures on a balance sheet are a manifestation of money.

▫ Abstractions manifest as things that we can touch and collect and sort.

• We can only manage the manifestations if we understand the abstraction.

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Process

• Human processes (our well-oiled machine) require information (or data) as input and produce information as product.

• If the process must be done by humans

▫ It’s because the input must be interpreted in some way

▫ Or because the output must be customized in some way.

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A Business

• Is based on the availability of two resources

▫ Money

▫ Information

• Both are necessary

• Both require management

• Both are abstractions

• Neither is consistently well understood.

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Sand in the Gears

• Can destroy the effectiveness of a machine.

• How do we get sand in the gears of our [well-oiled] machine?

▫ When the availability of the required resources is uncertain or haphazard

▫ When the resources are incomplete or inadequate

▫ When the resources are poorly understood and lead to poor decisions within the process(es)

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The Bottom Line

The Business

Money

People and Process

Information

Who takes care of your money?

Who takes care of your information?

Who takes care of your people?

Who takes care of your processes?

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Money and Information

• You know Money is complex and difficult to manage.▫ You hire the best experts you can find—

Accountants, Attorneys, experts on investments

• You believe that information is trivial and that “everyone knows” information.▫ You entrust it to literally everyone in your machine.

• And your machine sputters and surges, falters and dies.

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Information

• There is no one who comprehends the full scope of the abstraction, Information.

• You need someone who is able to ▫ grasp the manifestations that are critical to you▫ account for all of those manifestations and their

uses▫ audit them for consistency of meaning and quality

contamination▫ design mechanisms to put appropriate

information in the hands of the people and processes that need it

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Comparison

• Your Information management efforts will be larger and more costly than your Money management efforts.▫ You have way more Information than Money▫ Information comes in infinite variety▫ Money has been the focus for much longer—the

methods and tools are stable▫ The input channels for Information are much less

controlled▫ We have so much misunderstanding around

Information (e.g., your technology infrastructure people are handling your information needs)

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Finally

• Information is NOT dependent on technology▫ Though its storage and distribution may be

• Information is NOT▫ Software/applications▫ Databases▫ Servers▫ Data Models▫ Architectures

• Though all may be components of your Information resource.

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Mic

hael P.

Meie

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Abst

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Learn the story behind the photo and why it is relevant to this discussion:

Michael P. Meierdba WhiteLake Data Management

www.msdxtx.commailto: [email protected]

507.273.9742

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http://www.msdxtx.com/

mailto:[email protected]

The Value Of Stepping Back

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