Dawn of the DEAD

When the lady on the till at Cafe Comunal in Schipol airport said, “Here again, eh, another late flight?” I knew it was time to leave European sales and go back into operations.

I found a gig as Supply Chain Director at a company in my own city. There was still a lot of selling involved; convincing customers to take on our services, convincing staff I knew what I was on about and persuading suppliers to stop taking the piss.

One transferrable skill that quickly became vital was a total surprise to me.

As I interacted with other departments a theme emerged of frustration at the way we did things, inefficiencies of process and friction between silos.

In sales this was always front and centre, getting disparate groups to work together to achieve goals. Every sale and implementation I’d ever been involved in had a set of problems to solve.

I had developed my own method; distilled from all the various techniques I had come across.

I’d done Kaizen, been trained in Six Sigma, run quality circles and LeanAgile events, FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), Value Stream, PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) and 4 Disciplines of Execution.

All great, but involving heavy training, effort and usually specialists to run activities.

What they needed was quick results to build confidence its own ability to get better. There was a wide spread belief that they were rubbish and always would be.

In all honesty, I have to say that some of the staff did fall into that category, but the virtuous majority were worth saving.

I invented a method that used a single workshop and then no more than two or three follow ups, which could be by email.

A sceptical fellow director said (rather dramatically),

“Continuous improvement projects? No thanks I’d rather be dead.”

I immediately set about fitting my method into the acronym “DEAD.”

Yes, I am that man.

Here is a more in depth description of the method:

D for “Define”

This means getting to a clear statement of what the problem is, and how it presents.

A huge part of the success of problem solving involves getting a clear agreement of the problem.

For example saying you have an issue with your car is true but useless, saying you have a flat tyre is immediately solvable.

E for “Evaluate”

This starts with brainstorming ideas for solutions. Then group similar solutions together. For each group score them in terms of effort required and likelihood of success or payback. Now you have a set of possible ways forward.

A for “Action”.

Make a quick plan for the best solution(s), the next steps and the headline steps to reach completion. Use enough detail so you have effectively walked through each solution and you get a good feel for whether it will really work or not.

D for “Decide”

This is the final output of the process before you get on and do it. You decide which solution(s) you are going to go for and assign real time, resource and ownership to them. Agree a feedback cadence and what needs to be done by when.

Easy. We solved 25 problems in the first six months, everything from room booking to contract accuracy, from answering the phone properly to rewarding the sales team for renewals.

Even the Keith got involved because his team dragged him into one of the sessions. Unfortunately he survived.

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