Self Evaluation

Happy Thursday, 

It's time to hit below the belt again and make you really think.  How are you at self-evaluation?  If you are like me, you probably think everyone else should evaluate themselves.  I don't really have any deficiencies myself...it's just a long list of all the things I'm great at.  Does that sound familiar?

Take a moment and forget about everyone else.  Think about you and only you.  Can you be brutally honest with yourself?  Can you really see the areas you need to improve?  Can you really understand your strengths?  Do you even want to know your strengths and weaknesses?

Now, how about going one step further.  How about approaching a colleague or close friend, or maybe your boss or someone that reports to you.  Can you ask them to give you a true evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses?  Would they come up with the same list as you came up with?  If the list is different, are you fooling yourself?  Are you really good at the things you think you are good at?  Do you really know and understand your weaknesses?

You could do like me and go to someone that will sugar coat it for you and ask their opinion....I'm going to Todd and Anna (I'm sure they will sugar coat telling me my weaknesses... ha ha)  What is important in this, if you do it, is that you don't argue or defend what they tell you.  You want someone to tell you the truth and not feel threatened by being honest.

Are you prepared to really understand the areas you need to work on?  Do you have the guts to ask someone, who will be direct and straightforward, for their evaluation of you?  

 

Have a great Thursday,

Chris

P.S.  Just because you know I'm going to Todd and Anna doesn't mean they want lists of all my weaknesses from you, I'm sure they can make big enough lists themselves.

Old School

Thursday Think Tank - Old School

by Anna Biggins

At my age, thinking differently does not come easy.  As I try to do this, I find myself recalling all my years at PAI, or Paramount Cap as it was called back when I started.  In those days we were only doing cut and sew caps and hats and we had to walk 9 miles in the snow to get to work.  It snowed every day back then, and we didn't have fancy Nike shoes to keep our feet warm, we wore hat boxes strapped to our feet and secured to our ankles with binder twine and horse hair. Back in those days Paramount enjoyed large volumes of work, just like we do now, and we employed processes that helped make us successful.

One of our recent Lean Success Stories involved Derick Curtis in raw materials.  He came up with an idea to change how to stage shirts for screening.  Derick's idea was a great one but also happened to be one of the successful processes we had used in Cut cap staging all those years ago before Derick was even a glimmer in his daddy's eye.  This made me consider some of the successful methods we've employed over the years and wonder about their applicability today.

So the theme of this Thursday Think Tank is to challenge some of us old people around here...

 

...to remember the processes we have successfully used in the past and see if they will work in today's model.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Submitted by Anna Biggins

Innovative Thinker?

Hi All,

Are you an innovative thinker?  Do you know what innovative thinking is?  Is it important to be able to be innovative?  

What are traits that innovative thinkers have?  Here is a list of traits innovative thinkers have, do you have these also?

1.  Innovators have their ego in check.  They are open to others ideas and don't think their own ideas are always the best ideas.  Because of their openness to others ideas, they have lots of ideas to choose from.

2.  Confident, not arrogant.  They believe in what they are doing. They are not afraid to fail.  Failing just means they have found another way that doesn't work.  They see failures as temporary and don't take them personally.

3.  They are continually curious.  Open to new information, on the lookout for new ideas, read a lot, ask lots of questions, and take every opportunity available to them to gain knowledge.

4.  They are good listeners.  They pay attention to others and then come up with a response, not like most who are busy thinking about their response while the other person is speaking.  Good listeners listen to not only the words spoken, but the emotion behind them, tone used with them, and body language expressed.  

5.  They don't let their emotions affect their innovation efforts.  They don't get too down with failure and don't get too high with success.  

6.  They can take direction, and you must be able to take direction to give direction.  They can be assertive without being aggressive.  They can express their emotions in a way that isn't confrontational.

7.  They empathize with co-workers and customers.  They allow others to be comfortable around them.  You may not remember what someone said to you, but you will remember how they made you feel.

Have a great Thursday.

Chris

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Happy Thursday Everyone,

Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Isn't that what a curious little kid asks?  If they keep asking why, they usually get to the real answer.  What happens when you ask why 5 times?  Will you get to the root cause of the problem relatively quickly?  When we go straight to the "How" without clarity about our "Why" we can make solving the problem much more complicated.

Here is my 5 why challenge from this morning......

Once we are clear about our "Why", the "How" will magically show up.  (I'm going to Wal-Mart tonight for a new alarm clock)

Keep thinking and asking questions,

Chris

Waste Observation

Waste Observation and PDCA thinking cycle (Plan. Do. Check. Adjust.)

Submitted by Pam Volner.

Hello Gang,

Last week it was my pleasure to be nominated as the official photographer for the production office's weekly team building games.  This particular week's game was a cotton ball drop.  Each person applied Vaseline to the end of their nose, then proceeded to a bowl containing cotton balls where they dove face first trying to collect as many cotton balls as possible on the sticky Vaseline.  The next step was to run to the opposite end of the room and deposit the cotton balls into a different bowl.  Object of the game, team with the most cotton balls deposited in the bowl in 2 minutes wins.

As I watched each team take their turn, I began noticing the different thinking processes each team displayed.  The First team started out with one person taking their turn and then the next person would go when that person was done and so on.  There was a pause between each team member (waiting waste).  While the first team was performing their task, you could tell the second team was already thinking of what they could do to speed up the process to pick up more cotton balls.  The first team planned and executed, but lacked the benefit gained by subsequent teams who had the advantage of observation.  They could see the waste in the current team's process and could adjust their plan to eliminate that waste.  By the time the 3rd team was up it was like a BLUUUR!  Through observation and the power of PDCA thinking, they figured out how to improve efficiency which helped them win the game.

Not only was I entertained, but inspired seeing these principles executed in a quick real life example.  Imagine what we can see and improve if we all perform some Ohno Circles in all areas of Paramount.  

Your partner in observing and improving,

Pam