Creative Problem Solving and Lean Thinking

There has long been a debate in the Lean community about creativity. Clearly, a Lean organization thrives on standard work, and it is easy to assume that following standard work means that creativity must be curtailed. In her new book, Creatively Lean: How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Drive Innovation throughout Your Organization, Bella Englebach argues that creative thinking is fundamental to Lean thinking, and that using tools and approaches from the adjacent field of Creative Problem Solving makes for better Lean thinking, and better Lean thinkers. Recently, I asked her: "What is Creative Problem Solving and how it can be applied to Lean thinking?" Here is what she explained:

Deeper Thinking

In my book, I tell a story that many of us in Lean have heard, or even experienced. A Lean learner proudly presents their countermeasure to their coach or sensei, only to be told, “Go back. Think deeper.” That can be very frustrating. What does it mean to think deeper?

Creativity Has a Natural Rhythm

I believe “thinking deeper” means to take advantage of the natural rhythm of creativity, which requires developing skills in both thinking broadly (divergent thinking) as well as thinking convergently, which is to select and strengthen ideas.

Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) is a proven method for approaching a problem or challenge in an imaginative and innovative way, and it explicitly teaches convergent and divergent thinking. Like Lean, the CPS approach has distinct steps for solving a problem. Each CPS step deliberately uses divergent and convergent thinking. In my work I have found that paying attention to the divergent thinking/convergent thinking creative rhythm and using CPS tools with Lean approaches like the A3 and the improvement kata drives deeper thinking, and more innovative countermeasures.  And who doesn’t need more innovation?

What have been your experiences with creativity and Lean? When you need an innovative improvement, what approaches, and tools have you used?

Does Your Organization Deliver Fantastic Customer Experiences?

In November, Daniel Lafrenière published an interesting book -- entitled Delivering Fantastic Customer Experience: How to Turn Customer Satisfaction Into Customer Relationships --
about what customers now expect from their service providers and the importance of developing loyalty.

When I spoke with Daniel this past month, I asked him: What has drastically changed regarding customer service and customer expectations?

Well, the world has changed… drastically!

Today’s customers are connected. They have access to information: product specifications, experts and people reviews, videos, etc. They can buy everything anywhere at anytime, without leaving the comfort of their home.

Gone are the days in which businesses could simply offer an "OK" experience and get away with it. Today’s customers have high expectations because they have experienced great service elsewhere. It is hard to drink cheap wine after tasting a great one! 

When customers like a brand, a product, the business culture, they can be amazing promoters. However, when they feel depressed, abandoned, confused, disappointed, exploited, frustrated, humiliated, ignored, incompetent, misunderstood, irritated, taken for granted, ridiculed, unjustly treated, treated like a number, or unpleasantly surprised, they can be severe critics and spread the word all over social media.

Studies have shown that people compare your company’s customer experience with those of others that are not necessarily your competitors, either in a brick-and-mortar store or online. They will not understand – nor care – why you are not able to offer a stellar frictionless customer experience similar to that of Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and Nespresso.

Customers want to feel welcomed, helped, appreciated, understood, heard, happy, important, cared for, reassured, acknowledged, respected, and pleasantly surprised.

They also want great products/services, information and added-value content, great advice, reviews from friends, lightning-fast checkouts and easy-peasy returns. Whether you are a small, medium or large company, customers expect a flawless experience, nothing less. And these business-to-consumer (B2C) expectations are now migrating to business-to-business (B2B).

Beware! It was said before that the customer was king. Today, the customer is God!

Do you agree with Daniel's perspective? How do you think customer expectations have changed during the past decade?

"Greening Solutions" = Healthier Workplace?

How much have you considered the "health" of your organization's work space in regard to the success of your organization? Sustainable design is proven as an effective approach to the development of productive and healthy work spaces. Sustainably designed and redesigned work areas not only benefit practical aspects such as energy costs, but longer-term social issues such as reducing employee absenteeism and recruiting a wider pool of talent. 

Just recently, a forward-thinking book book entitled Green Up! Sustainable Design Solutions for Healthier Work and Living Environments by Stevie Famulari was published addressing this burgeoning topic. During this past month, I had the chance to discuss this new book with Stevie, and I asked her directly:  “What are ‘greening solutions’ and how do they contribute to a healthier workplace environment?” Here is her complete response:

There are many ways to look at healthier work place environments.  Greening solutions is one approach that improves the air quality, as well as the emotional health of the people who work there.  Let’s consider this -- we spend notable portion of our time in a work environment.  The views, air, colors, scent, lighting -- all these factors influence the health of the space and affect how we feel about it.

Greening solutions look at using natural resources, including plants, composting, recycling, and other sustainable resources to create a sense of ownership in how each person can improve the space.

One greening solution is to use plants that improve the air quality of work spaces.  Most people have read that any plant benefits a space for air and psychological effects.  That is true, but there are also some plants that can be used to clean contaminants of work spaces -- such as the off gassing of furniture, the VOCs from paints, and the cleaners used throughout the office.  Some plants specifically can be used to uptake those contaminants.  They are called plants for phytoremediation.  Using those can be specific for a site.

Then, go a step further -- Use plants for fresh scents, for color accents, and for soft shapes.  With growing plants, people can experience unexpected moments of joy, change, hope while watching something one cares for flower, leaf, die, and then return again.  These changes allow people to remember that we move forward each day and can make new choices.

Greening solutions come in a variety of scales, and can be specific for each site -- for each budget, lighting, space, users, materials on the site, contaminants, and message the company wants to share.  Greening solutions can help the employees have a work space in which they are healthier and the clients who visit the site to expand their practice of healthy spaces.  Greening solutions experts can help any person look at their space with fresh eyes to find new ways to practice a healthy lifestyle.

What do you think of Stevie's perspective? What is your company doing to improve the health of its office and work space?