Author Archives: kevin
← Older posts Newer posts →Why Why Why Why Why
June 23, 2018Early in the 20th century, Sakichi Toyoda of the Toyota Motor Corporation developed the 5 Whys Technique to determine the root cause of a problem. Taiichi Ohno, a pioneer of the Toyota Production Systems, described the 5 Whys succinctly: “Ask …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Leave a commentHow Communities Start
June 23, 2018You care about something—an interest, activity, cause, profession, person, place, product, or some part of who you are. And you have a hunch: there are others who care about the same thing. So you do something …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged communities, plant a flag | Leave a commentPlant a Flag
June 21, 2018Last week, I spoke with a fellow Cal grad about how to kickstart a community she’s working on. We discussed strategies for getting the attention of the specific group of people she aims to serve. Even with good intentions, it …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged plant a flag | Leave a commentVigorous writing is concise.
June 20, 2018I’ve been writing more. I’m writing a short book with my partners at People & Company, and I’m writing here regularly to reflect on what I’m learning. This quote on “omitting needless words” from “The Elements of Style” struck me …
Posted in Blog, Writing | Tagged concise, elements of style, quote, william strunk jr, writing | Leave a commentTrying Stuff That Shouldn’t Work
June 19, 2018This quote is by Alan Yang (producer and writer on Parks and Recreation, Master of None) during the “Fried Rice” episode of Ugly Delicious. He says: I think there’s a point in time you start losing your edge. You learn too …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged alan yang, chef's table, quote | Leave a commentEfficiency = Preparation
June 18, 2018I put some time into making my company‘s processes more efficient—creating templates and auditing our project tasks. I’ve been itching to do it. Until recently, I thought of optimizing our work as a pursuit to just get stuff done faster. …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged lean, variability | Leave a commentCommon (and Less Common) Process Map Symbols
June 17, 2018Here are a few, handy symbols for mapping out any process. They were recapped in this lecture on process improvement and Lean Thinking. And here are some less common ones that I use occasionally.
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged common, process, symbols, value stream map | Leave a commentHow Friends Have Conversations
June 16, 2018I drew this for Bailey’s essay “Why Community?” She writes: The functional unit of any community is dialogue. In our communities, we seek out our own identity through rich, repeat dialogue with others.
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged conversation | Leave a commentLess of this.
June 15, 2018“People show up for the meetup but come back for the people.” — Scott Heiferman, Meetup
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged dialogue, meetup, scott heiferman | Leave a commentOrganizers Develop Leaders
June 14, 2018Marshall Ganz discusses leadership and what it means to be an organizer. Ganz is a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. He says: “Organizers think of themselves as people that develop the leadership of others.” And that: “Leadership [is] …
Posted in Blog, People Systems | Tagged leadership, marshall ganz, organizers | Leave a comment ← Older posts Newer posts →