Comments on: “So What?” – A Powerful Lean Question

By: markrhamel

markrhamel — Sat, 15 May 2010 04:16:51 +0000

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Good lean folks, by and large, are intellectually curious and also become quite impatient when dealing with recurring issues and less than useful information. The stand-up tiered meetings are a great way to engage the team, focus on meaningful stuff and practice continuous improvement.

Best regards,
Mark

By: markrhamel

markrhamel — Sat, 15 May 2010 04:12:12 +0000

Hey Jerry,

Thanks for the comment! It drives me absolutely crazy (as I am sure it does the same for you) when I observe a meeting in which issues are allowed to escape some sort of resolution. These issues then live another day, continue to serve as fodder for further unfruitful discussion and continue to crowd out value-added activity.

Best regards,
Mark

By: John Bushling

John Bushling — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:30:52 +0000

It’s a probing question that should demand an answer. Not a sassy question nor a sassy answer.

It also begs the questions (at least for me), Are you having daily stand-up (key point) meetings? Are they centered around a daily updated information board? Is there accountability? Are they tiered to pass along the information? If the answer is ‘No”, So what? and/or Now what?

Enjoyed the article.

By: Jerry Foster

Jerry Foster — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:30:23 +0000

Mark,
I like the visual of your dog asking the question. Your explanation relative to the meeting that discusses a problem and never quantifies and assigns responsibility is so common. It begs the question of how intelligent managers (not leaders) can allow an obvious opportunity to improve to slide by, often multiple times.

Capturing the opportunity, clearly, assigning responsibility and targets for resolution get overlooked for what they are in the normal state.

Jerry