…today I find myself deeply frustrated observing sloppy user of what I consider a precision instrument, the Think Reliability cause map.

I think it’s the engineer in me that can’t stand watching someone use a precision instrument (picture a caliper or a precision measuring cup) in a dismissive way.  Are they thinking they’re measurement is precise just because they;re using a precision instrument? They must not understand that the precision is in using the precise instrument in a precise way.  The Wikipedia entry on caliper warns,

Accuracy of measurement when using a caliper is highly dependent on the skill of the operator…”

That statement is just as true written,

Accuracy of the cause map is highly dependent on the skill of the person creating the map.”

I know for many of you this will be the first time you’ve heard about a cause map, so let me tell you a little about why you would want one, when you would use one, and what you can gain by using one.   I’ll use this summary picture, featured in the free Cause Map Template from Think Reliability,

You want a cause map when you’ve got a problem impacting the goals of your organization and you must determine why the problem occurred and prevent its recurrence.

You would create one to force yourself and your organization to reveal (and record) the details of the problem occurrence and why it happened (that information goes in the little yellow boxes in the picture above).

With a cause map you gain a rigorous processes that if followed drives you to think deliberately about your problem, validate your assumptions with evidence and look at the larger network of causes than you ever would through typical narratives and meetings to “get at the truth.”  If you follow the process, you can produce a qualitatively more accurate picture of the problem and offer yourself more solutions to choose from.

I define accuracy of the cause map as it’s reflection of what actually happened in reality–not what happened according to people’s perceptions.  I think it’s easy to tell just by looking at a cause map, without even reading the words, whether or not the analysis is even close to accurate to reality.

Here’s what I look for:

1.  How detailed is the mess of boxes and arrows?

In a map trying to be accurate you’ll see those salmon colored boxes hanging off of all of the yellow boxes.  While the yellow boxes contain the fact statements, the salmon colored boxes contain the evidence you’re using to prove that fact statement is true.  The evidence matters because without it, many people in cause mapping sessions (both knowingly and unknowingly) try to offer their mental fictions in place of reality.  Sir Issac Newton overcame this same problem when in response to Descartes inventing elaborate scientific theories entirely out of his imagination, Newton noted that science requires observational evidence and unless you have it you aren’t entitled to imagine possibilities.  Scientific progress has shown that you want to side with Newton and find your cause maps packed full of evidence.

2.  Have they included any information about the problems impact to the organization’s goals?

This look may require you to read some of the words on the cause map, but typically it doesn’t.   If the people preparing the cause map are following the Think Reliability method they would have a break out box on their cause map page that would likely include large bold headings for the What, Where, When and Goal of the problem.  All good cause maps have this box.  If yours doesn’t, ask why not.

3.  Have they tied the map to anyone or anything you can check?

This will require you to look at the words.  First I look for a name.  I want to find the name of the person who create the cause map, its authors name.  In his one day course on visual displays of information, Edward Tufte stresses the importance of putting your name on your visual displays of information.  He rants (that must be my word of the day) over the visuals produced by a faceless bureaucracy, unaccountable for their work.  Also look for any citations or references mentioned.  A cause map that doesn’t include a letter, technical manual, material specification or employee handbook note citation is living closer fiction than reality.  Without the evidence, you just can’t trust it.

I could go on and on; this is a rant after all and I truly love cause maps.  With a cause map used with precision, and in the right circumstances (e..g, just as a caliper is awesome for measure machined parts and useless for heart surgery), you can illuminate the dark corners of so many problems.  Sadly, in the wrong hands, when all the cause map is is words, arrows and boxes, I’d tell you to flip the paper over and start your own map on the back, this time doing it the right way.  That’ll at least make the old map good for something.

Think Reliability has a ton of excellent graphics, videos and more to teach you all you need to know about cause maps.  I especially like the recent Unaccompanied Minor cause map because it shows you typical errors in stopping at “failure to follow procedures” as your problem’s cause.  Will “pay better attention,” be the right solution?  Also, for a good look at the use of evidence, check out the Mars Orbiter cause map too.  Enjoy cause maps, good cause maps anyway.

Now going back to borrowing from Dennis Miller, I’ll end with “but that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong.”  Check my evidence and observe for yourself.

                          

If you put fences around people, you get sheep.  Give people the room they need.” – James Collins and Jerry Porras, citing a 3M phrase

My thanks to Kenneth Thomas for citing this quote in his book, Intrinsic Motivation at Work: What Really Drives Employee Engagement. Too often in our fervor to make our expectations clear we rob people of their freedom of motion and of thought.  Think of this quote the next time you pile even one more, “You must…” upon your team.

After spending nearly eight full days closely monitoring a 2-year-old who wasn’t permitted to leave his hospital bed, I can relate to the sheep watching their fences go up all around them.

At the same time I’m returning to work tomorrow from three full weeks of absence (two planned for vacation and one added on for the above mentioned hospital stay) feeling energized to see what the Guiding Coalition teams have done with the room I gave them when I left. There should be no sheep there.  If I am the shepherd, I’ve been gone too long to have constrained anything. [Note: I'm actually feeling very bad for how long I've been gone.  The weeks seem as decades.]

Right now we’re winding down more than a years worth of effort and launching new projects.  We’ve never run an overlap of efforts before and I’m excited to see what the seven teams have accomplished (with three closing out their work and four starting up).

As I’m never one to slow down during down times, in the weeks I was gone I read seven books and filled my head with many things to write about on this blog.  Now if only I could get all the laundry and camping gear and miscellaneous things put away from our trip, finally clear the pile of mail off of my desk, and then concentrate, then I would be happy.

Thank you for sticking with me through the vacation and the forced seclusion.  I’m looking forward to a fall season full of posts and conversations.  As always, if you’re wondering about something specific, drop me a line and we’ll see what I can do with it.  Hilbert is the only one who took me up on my challenge while I was gone.  He asked for a review of Daniel Pink’s Drive.  Look for that in the coming months.

Have a fabulous week!

                          

I’ve now learned that prolonged stress, confined conditions and sleep deprivation shut down my interest in transmitting knowledge.  I only have the energy to receive information.  I cannot will myself to create anything.”

Today marks Day 5 of my son’s second, extended hospital confinement of 2010.  My mind is mush. I know my limit.I’ve hit it. Hence, I’ve got nothing new for you tonight. 

Look for the holiday weekend Quote of the Week on Monday night or Tuesday morning.  Hopefully I’ll be back up from my shut down by then.

                          

As I started my lovely dining experience I looked at the bread and wondered, “Is this bread topping a mixed grain blend or a pulverized nut?” As I have a severe nut allergy, the later option would be terribly dreadful for me.

Acting on my concern I asked the closest restaurant employee, a bus boy, “Is this nuts on top of the bread?” He shook his head no, so I began eating the bread. Mere moments later a scratchy feeling spread up my throat. I was having an allergic reaction.

As I departed for a local emergency room, the bus boy presented me with a plate covered in crushed walnuts, pointed to it and said, in rough English, “This.”

I can’t remember if I said anything in response or not. By then there was nothing more to say. That night I learned the “Ask twice,” lesson the hard way. You don’t have to.

When someone tells you they’ll come to your meeting, send them a meeting invite to ask them again. You’ll confirm they understand the meeting they committed to attend.

When the hotel website says they have WiFi access in every room, if you really need that WiFi, call and ask again. How else will you find out they plan to upgrade their network the night of your stay?

When someone tells you they know there is a rule against the change you want to make, ask again (preferably asking the person who controls the alleged rule book). Maybe you’ll find there is no rule in your way.

When it matters, ask twice.

                          

There are some things in life you must wait for whether you like it or not. Yet all around me I see people waiting for things to happen that they could speed along if only they would act.

Don’t confuse what you must wait for with what you could bring about today.

This week’s quote:
“Stop waiting. Start driving the change you want.” – April K. Mills

                          

Minutes include:

• Who attended
• What topics you discussed
• What decisions you made
• Who will take action (and by when)
• When you’ll meet again

[I like to use a standard format, with a fixed font and set of typical headers and footers, but I'm a detail freak for those sorts of things.]

Your minutes can be rough, can be fragments instead of sentences and can only be kept in a 3-ring binder in your office, but they are an invaluable record of your team’s work.

When you’re questioned, when you’re praise or when you’re ignored you’ll have your minutes to remind you, celebrate you and keep you claiming your forward momentum.

Don’t ignore your minutes.  Your hours invested are too important not to document.

                          

This one is simple: Publish an agenda for every meeting and follow your agenda every time. Even if you include a portion in the agenda for open discussion/final thoughts/last nuggets, have an agenda!

You’ll think you don’t need an agenda because everyone knows the order of your meetings.

You’ll think you don’t need an agenda because you know how to control a meeting.

You do know your order and you can control a meeting, but you’ll get observably better results when you have an agenda.

Have an agenda. Publish it. Stick to it.  You’ll thank me later.

                          

Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one’s arguments.” – Admiral H.G. Rickover

At work we use a lot of Plans of Action and Milestones or POA&Ms to track our work.

If you’ve never seen one before, a POA&M is a typically an Excel spreadsheet listing actions, who will do the action, when they will do the action by, and any notes or details to go with the task.

Each team goal has its own detailed list of actions and actors to get from the start to the finish.

A POA&M may seem a dictators dream. [Insert The Simpson's Mr. Burns doing the evil "excellent" fingers here.]

Step 1: Construct a plan.

Step 2: Whip the masses into following it.

Step 3: Check off task by task toward success.

I disagree with that view.  Instead, I see a POA&M as a way of making your plans real by getting your thoughts of “how” you’ll accomplish your change  out of your head and onto paper.

Creating the POA&M often reveals how many steps you’ll truly have to go through, around and over to accomplish your change.

Track your work with a POA&M and though at first you’ll think you’re slowing down, in the end you’ll be driving change all the faster.

                          

“They” tried that before.

“They” don’t care.

Whenever you hear someone use “they” you must ask,

Who’s “they”?

Usually “they” is an untested assumption that some group or some person may be against your change.

Once you know the group or person, by code or by name, you can call them up and ask them, “Can you support this change?”  I’m cheerfully shocked how often when calling and asking I get a “Yes” in response.

Don’t let “they” get in your way.

Ask “who?” and keep driving change.

                          

When you’re driving change, if you’ve lined your brain in Velcro, you’ll be better equipped to pick up patterns, to see  connections and to catch the facts you need.

Try it.  Read something meaningful.

May I suggest:

• Anything by Seth Godin, but especially Tribes and Linchpin
• Anything by Eli Goldratt, but especially The Goal and It’s Not Luck
• Anything by John Kotter, but especially Leading Change and Sense of Urgency