I loved using Ishikawa or “Fishbone” diagrams (named after Kaoru Ishikawa who became one of the guru’s of modern management in the 1960s after he pioneered the use of them in quality management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards). It was like peeling an onion, carefully taking each layer of a problem and figuring out what had caused the problems we were seeing at the time so that we understood the cause. Once we understood the cause we could decide what our next course of action was; was it something we could fix and move on, or had something changed meaning that our landscape had altered and our course of action needed to change?

Beautifully simple.

Has this thinking gone out of fashion?

Take Eastman Kodak, so sad to see a company with such heritage file for bankruptcy. A company with the innovative intelligence to invent the first digital camera but lacking the business intelligence to understand the effect of that innovation in the market and how to use it to change its own destiny. Too scared to embrace the fact that this new technology would cannibalise its already successful business, it went for the alternative… made ill thought through decisions, didn’t look at the ongoing effect in the market, didn’t change, just died.

Do we like to react and respond more than we like to understand the real problems and what we can do to solve them?

IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS!

So, draw one cartoon like fishbone with a big head (see picture at the end of the post).

Take one problem and put the word WHY in front of it e.g. Why are sales of film declining?

Make this question the head of the fish. This is the effect or the consequence of an action.

Brainstorm all the reasons why that problem is happening e.g. all the reasons why the sales of film could be declining and attach them to the bones (branches) coming off the head of the fish. You can group reasons together if you have lots are that relating to the same thing e.g. new technology…

For each branch of the fishbone, dig deeper into what is happening and ask WHY again, creating spurs off each branch until you feel you understand what is happening.

Take time to take this in and decide on your course of action.

Let me know how it goes.

This is what the politicians wanted us to do isn’t it, be brave, be ballsy, put the country back on its feet.

This is of course a lesson in do what I say not what I do.

Take the debate over the benefits cap, a proposal that affects a reported 67,000 people out of the 60′ish million that live in the UK and would save £290m out of a £192b work and pensions budget (figures reported in BBC News). The debate itself has rattled on for days (that on its own costing a fair bit) and now the prospect that it might go regional, the cost of administration to support that will erode even more of that saving.

This wouldn’t get past the Project Board in big business today, it would get sent back with a REJECTED, reason? No game changing ambition and poor ROI. The debate on the matter would either end or the team proposing would work on it to show that a real difference could be made…

They might take the total £192b work and pensions budget and say “there will be no benefits system going forward”. The concept behind this would be that all people on benefits today become employees of the Company for Work and Pensions tomorrow. Suddenly everyone has a job. The admin that today is put behind assessing, giving and taking away benefits would be moved to assessing and giving people work. There would be no sick pay but a bonus for those who turn into work everyday. If you don’t show, or don’t work, there is no money. These jobs would not be classed as public sector jobs, they will be part of a growing number of entrepreneurial companies funded by us the taxpayer. The opportunities would be as diverse as the community of employees within it.

The ROI here is uncapped and the future proofing benefits that support ongoing positive outcomes of a country with zero unemployment…priceless.

OK, I might be dreaming now but I wish I wasn’t.

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What does 2012 hold for The Monkey?

Innovative in spirit, Monkeys get a helping hand in 2012 from the Year of the Dragon. Opportunities for growth are many and doing things for the general good of those around is recommended. Research/study and taking on activities to push their own personal growth will be on the anvil and prove exciting. With a taste for adventure and their love of partying, Monkeys will be wearing their social hats, throwing many a swanky do or taking trips around the world.

That is so accurate there might be something in this after all…

My view, believing in the good stuff only makes life better, gives you something to smile about, even have a daydream about what could be. The year of The Dragon is a very auspicious one, symbolises power, strength and good luck – we all need to believe that right now, wouldn’t it be amazing if we all did?

I’m not suggesting that thinking about it alone will make the difference as the Psychologists would say this is “external locus of control.” A kind of fatalism, where people believe that they can do little or nothing personally to change their lives. Because of this, they either merely hope for the best, focus on trying to change their luck by various kinds of superstition, or submit passively to whatever comes—while complaining that it doesn’t match their hopes.

To improve your fortune, first decide that what happens is nearly always down to you; then try focusing on what works and what turns out well, not the bad stuff. Your “fate” really does depend on the choices that you make. When random events happen, as they always will, do you choose to try to turn them to your advantage . . . or just complain about them? Thomas Jefferson is said to have used these words: “I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” Your luck, in the end, is pretty much what you choose it to be.

I’m thinking the opposite “internal locus of control.” People that believe that what happens in their life is nearly all down to them; and that even when chance events occur, what is important is not the event itself, but how you respond to it. This makes them pro-active, engaged, ready to try new things, and keen to find the means to change whatever in their lives they don’t like. They aren’t fatalistic and they don’t blame bad luck for what isn’t right in their world. They look for a way to make things better.

I’m born in the year of The Rooster 2012 brings new adventure, the Year of the Dragon will support every encounter and provide new avenues of change. On the professional front, starting up businesses or finding their expertise in demand will be some of the highlights for Roosters as they march to the beat of their own drum. It’s all about colour, variety and personal freedom. For all of you that know me, you know that’s pretty spot on too, not because I read it but it’s because I will make that happen.

What about you?

“It’s not just the Conservatives. I use a very old-fashioned term – it’s the ruling class … Politics has become hollow and bland. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Labour or Conservative, Lib Dem, whatever.” - Rod Dixon, Artistic Director of ‘Big Society!’

No matter how much I try to engage with it, I find it difficult to be enthusiastic about modern politics. Just reading political headlines or watching Question Time irritates me as I am faced with ‘career politicians’ who seem more interested in sniping at their opponents than anything else.

Worse than that is the ‘smoke and mirror’ tactics that they employ; as if any definitive answer that they give is instantly held up as policy.

I don’t think that I am alone in my disillusionment.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if somebody gave a direct response that addressed the question? Or, even better, wouldn’t it be nice to get some evidence that backed it up? Surely, it’s not beyond the realms of imagination to whip out a laptop and say, “Well, I’d love to employ more nurses but this is how much that would cost, and this is how much we actually have coming in and we still have to pay for education and policing and the rest.”

Isn’t it time for a change?

We work with businesses on projects that centralise information to help people make better decisions about their products and services based on facts, rather than on headlines and assumptions. One of the key outcomes of this process is that everybody can be engaged and passionate about the final outcomes.

What if the politicians did the same thing and gave us the facts rather than the headlines so that we could make informed decisions. Doesn’t that sound like a ‘Big Society’ that we could believe in?

I am drawn to how she became the most powerful female leader since the age of Queen Elizabeth, a person who tore apart the rule book with regards to gender and class and why that didn’t open the floodgates of women who believed they could do the same…what happened why don’t we have at least a handful of women who followed the trailblazing path she made and are rule making now?

So I thought about my own position…did MT make me think about going into politics…yes, in fact tried it at a local level and I hated everything about it. Did she inspire me to do anything else…yes, I always saw her smashing that glass ceiling as a moment that signified women could do anything, between her and the Queen, women were holding the most powerful positions in our country, the world was mine for the taking. So I looked to see if these role models have contributed to the shrinking of the entrepreneurship gender gap, what I found sent me into a depressive state.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2010 Womens Report makes miserable reading for an optimist like me. Although these are global statistics the UK is not a beacon of hope and the bit that made my heart sink the most was “compared to men, women are equally likely to see entrepreneurship as attractive, yet they lack positive attitudes about their own personal capacities or inclinations for starting businesses, and they have less personal contact with entrepreneurs.” WHY?

“in only one of these 59 economies (Ghana) did more women participate in entrepreneurship than men. While most policymakers and academics agree that entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic growth and national competitiveness, they must also acknowledge that not all groups in their societies have equal access to this endeavor. When a major part of a population does not engage in entrepreneurship,these economies lose the benefits that would otherwise be provided by new products and services, additional revenues, and new jobs. More specifically, when women do not participate equally in entrepreneurship, society loses out on the value that can be created by half its populace.”(Gem Consortium)

At the same time I came across some female statistics that are on the increase. 1 in 4 assaults now committed is by a women under the age of 25, horrifying tales about the rise of Girl Gangs. So on one hand, women are still insecure about their own capacity to be an entrepreneur on the other hand they are fighting back on the streets. I don’t want to generalise or trivialise very complex issues but its hard not to join some dots and look at cause and effect…

MT did ignite our capitalist culture, she followed her fathers view that not everyone was equal and never would be, but it didn’t mean we couldn’t aspire to and have the same things. Her policies made that possible and did start the “what’s in it for me” boom that so many benefited from (privatisation, home ownership, etc.). Past her reign because the going was good those policies spanned political parties and we have seen a deterioration of the social structure that had been in place, families have become broken, estranged and extended, respect for others has become tribal and some people don’t feel guilty about robbing – they just see it as getting something they want.

Is this the legacy of the first and only female PM? No, it’s the legacy of many decisions made by many people but we can only ever look back and learn and I for one think that that’s something worth doing as we find ourselves at another turning point for our country. MT was elected at a point in time where strong leadership was critical and she provided that, I’m not so confident our current coalition are doing the same. So do we wait or do we do something?

I don’t believe in positive discrimination and I’m not a member of any women’s groups but I don’t like what I’m hearing and I am more about the do something than waiting for something to happen. So anyone women reading this who wants some help setting up their business or wanting to know where to start, call me 07837 536979 or email ninadar@cheeky-monkey.co and I will give my help for free. For me MT’s legacy was “do something rather than try and be somebody” our culture could definitely benefit from that right now.

I didn’t want to write something negative about a cause I believe in and think that others should too. This led to a wider conversation with the lovely Katy Cory who agreed and added “this is the problem with movements that we want and need to believe because the headlines of what they are they for and what they do are so important but generally they don’t deliver, for example the United Nations (UN)”. We wouldn’t want to ‘out’ the UN as not having the muscle to deliver what it needs to because we know the world is better because of the concept of the UN but is this right? Do we expect less or are our expectations too high, after all it was Mandela who said “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb”.

That conversation has haunted me all afternoon. My disappointment with the ANC is firmly with its political transition where its leaders are failing the people who really need them while they indulge in the power struggles and greed that plights politics all over the world. The movement that that freed people from the Apartheid regime was amazing and resulted in a change that should always be believed in, they seem to have lost their way and I hope this anniversary puts a spotlight on that.

We were so quick to judge an organisation like the UN for its lack of tangible delivery but the truth is some things need to happen and they don’t always have a hard output that can be measured, does that mean they have failed, disappointed us or worse don’t give us a reason to believe?

When I though about this in the workplace I realised it had been 3 years since we had worked on an enabling project, a project that will help get a tangible result, but not directly, it provides the infrastructure or the glue that brings a number of people, concepts and processes together to get the result. Enabling Projects need a reason to believe that goes beyond a hard deliverable, something that you know should happen because so many things will be better because of it, the greater good…sadly this kind of thinking doesn’t resonate in these economic times but it should.

So, when you are reviewing what projects you are supporting in 2012, think about what you need to deliver in terms of output and how many of these deliverables could be brought home if you linked them together through an enabling project – the glue, infrastructure, sanctions that could provide the greater good that makes it all happen. Spare a thought for those organisations like the UN without which the world would be a worse place (Major Achievements of the UN).

“The absence of structure and routine in a young life can have a devastating impact. Without the right support, directionless teenagers can become lost young adults – unconfident, under-qualified and unemployed.” – Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince’s Trust

The report found that 27% of young people aged 16-25 claimed not to have grown up with a set bed time (versus 39% of those that achieved less than 5 A*-C grades). The results are doubled for those who did not have regular meal times (14% against 30%).

Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince’s Trust, says:

“The absence of structure and routine in a young life can have a devastating impact. Without the right support, directionless teenagers can become lost young adults – unconfident, under-qualified and unemployed.”

I have worked on a few PLM implementations and believe that a similar principle generally applies to people of all ages. Implementing a coherent structure to your new product development process can add benefit in helping the people in your organisation to create better quality products that appeal to your consumers. However, this does not necessarily mean that the process has to be routine.

In fact, the idea of routine seems to terrify a vast number of people. As everybody is pushed to deliver more and faster, creating unnecessary steps in the process only serves to frustrate people and make them disillusioned.

The secret is to provide clear direction and a consistent structure so that everybody understands what they are expected to deliver. But to remember that they are not children and that they have the knowledge and ability to create their own way to deliver it.

At Cheeky Monkey, we use the Virtual Project to do this. It gives the project team the opportunity to play out the project in advance, so that they can define what they are going to deliver and how they are going to do it. Getting the group together in this way means they can share their knowledge and define their approach without creating unnecessary step that slow down the process or create frustration.

Homelessness is more than just a housing issue; family problems , mental health issues, losing your job and so confidence, not feeling like you can be part of society for a variety of reasons – every person has their own story, you need to get beyond the drink and drugs issues, of course sometimes that is why they are there but it’s also a way of surviving where they are.

When I lived in Bristol I could walk to work everyday (the only time I have been able to do that), when you walk through a city early in the morning and late at night you can’t ignore how many people are living in subways, under bridges, doorways and park benches – I just couldn’t walk past them day in day out as if they weren’t part of my life, I saw some of them more than my family at that time! So I didn’t, I made them part of my life and it was an experience so rewarding I remember them dearly…BUT generally people thought I had finally lost it and I found the preconceived ideas of why people are homeless and the way they were judged very sad.

So this year we have donated the money we would have spent on Christmas cards to The Wellspring in Stockport, they have done a fantastic job for years and this year you will add to their Christmas cheer.

From everyone here at Cheeky Monkey we would like to thanks you for your support this year and hope you have a brilliant Christmas and New Year. Spare a thought for those not as lucky as we are and as you walk past the homeless as you rush getting your last minute bits, stop for a chat make them feel part of your life – it’s the warmest feeling you’ll get all season.

This is nothing to do with the ‘real message of Christmas’ or anything like that. Instead, it’s down to an article by Angela Raini on the BBC last week.

She is a technology journalist who does not feel the need to be the early adopter, ahead of the pack constantly replacing and updating her gadgets. Instead, she is much happier to stick with what she has until has completely outgrown its use or it cannot be repaired any longer.

“If this sounds like wartime Britain – make do and mend and all that – that’s because, in a way it is. Fixing things and recycling in some places is a necessity, not a choice. In the developing world you can see it everywhere.”

After reading the article, I have to admit that I started to feel a little bit greedy. Much of the stuff that was on my list was there to replace something that I have already. Not even things that need much fixing, just things that I wanted a shinier version of.

When did all this happen? I’m not that old but I can remember a time when you wouldn’t lightly scrap something and replace it without seeing if it could be repaired first. Once, we waited a whole week while our VHS player was at the repair shop! Admittedly, it was hardly the blitz but still …

This desire to rip out and replace things in need of repair is not exclusive to individuals. Many organisations have their own list of things that they want and are running initiatives to replace what they already. Don’t get me wrong, looking at ways to improve is definitely a good thing but some approaches can be more drastic than they need to be.

I was speaking to somebody the other day who had been challenged with coming up with a replacement for one of their company processes. After getting everybody in her team together to start from scratch and writing up the work, she found the documentation for the original, only to find that it was virtually the same as her new version.

As austerity hits, more people are looking for ways to save money by repairing their essentials; resoling shoes, mending clothes, etc. How are you looking for ways to ‘make do and mend’ the things that are important to your business?

PLM may sound simple, the art is all about science and magic. Ensuring that you understand what is happening in the world, in terms of the environment (where the stuff to make everything comes from = science), knowing as much as you can about the people who could buy it and what they need and want (even if they don’t know it yet = science) and putting something together that talks to you and me in such a way that we want it (magic).

This article focus on the start of any PLM journey WHO, WHAT, WHY…How could Reebok sell trainers for $1?

So, what is this really about?

• Generating employee loyalty?
• Creating and innovating projects in poor and developing areas of the world?
• A chance for people to feel good again?
• Corporations doing good, really? Just think about what Coke did years ago. They went to the far flung places in the world and sold their product at a price point that area could afford. Where ever I went with my backpack in the world I could share a coke with a local it was awesome and created world domination because of brand loyalty, people have grown up with that brand – it’s a fundamental part of their lives and has kept Coke at number 1 – creating brand loyalty is what this is all about isn’t it?
• Even if it is it’s a slap on the back all round because economically this is what developing areas need. Source the materials locally so the people involved in that get money to invest in looking for better materials, get the local workforce to make them, so they have money to buy them (and educate their families which will lead to lots of other ideas) – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sustainable PLM is still finding its feet in industry and I think this is a great example of just what can and needs to be done by companies who want to future proof what they do and how they do it. They say it’s a social project which is interesting and I assume a nice PR angle. Social is just one aspect of work that is being addressed adidas are creating projects that address the future needs of doing business, finding new markets and ultimately new consumers.

Interestingly the article focuses on the price point and how they are having to go back to basics to figure out how to make this work and what the price point is, it may not be a $1…this is fantastic and a exercise every business should be doing right now. Forget the term recession, our world has changed and we need to know how to work within the new rules.

How are you looking forward to see who your future customers are and how you are going to reach them no matter how unrealistic that may sound? May be everyone should start a $1 project…