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Annual Review 2018

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It’s that time of year again, time to reflect on what the year has brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review. In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 6th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015

Annual Review 2016 Annual Review 2017

2018 wasn’t a bad year but I did find it very challenging for many different reasons. In turn these challenges had a counterproductive impact on the goals I set in all areas of my life. I reached very few targets and 2018 was probably my least productive year in many years. In saying that I learned more lessons this year than many previous years and so it was more of a learning year than a productive year! In his amazing book ‘The Power of Now’, Eckhart Tolle talks about cycles of low and high energy that we all go through. 2018 was for me definitely a year of low energy, which if I look on the bright side means 2019 will most certainly be a year of high energy!

In the Lean world when things don’t work out as planned (as they often don’t) we always evaluate why things didn’t work out, what lessons we can take and how we can do things better. I will keep this Lean philosophy very much in mind as i set goals for 2019.

But for now, here is my Annual Review for 2018 – as always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of much of my happiness.

I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa implementing Lean Strategy & Culture. As with my personal life, my professional life seemed to be about learning lots of lessons this year. The highlight of my year was traveling to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to train Riyadh Airport colleagues on the principles of Lean and Project Management. This was an incredible opportunity & trip thanks to my amazing friend Debbie Kearns. I loved every minute of my time in Riyadh and hold dear memories of the people I met, the food, the culture and the 42C heat!

In 2018 I became even more convinced of the power and necessity of Lean Culture in business. Respect for and development of people is truly the only way to grow and sustain businesses to what they are capable of becoming. Lacking these people focused elements and treating people poorly will ensure your company is one that people cannot wait to leave and are in no hurry to join, leaving your company moral on a downward spiral with your profits following closely behind.

In terms of personal goals, 2018 was my second year using the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) to set, monitor, action and review personal goals and objectives. These systems and structure give me more visibility into progress of goals and in 2018 highlighted so many areas of my life that need focus, attention and/or change.

This blog is where I share thoughts, information and resources on Lean and Positive Change. One of my goals for 2018 was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this goal as I completely underestimated how much time it takes to create, edit and publish blog posts. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is the same number as last year and the most I have published in any year. Better luck next year!

I continued to work with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford who creates the cartoons of ‘Pinky the Positive Pig’ who is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts in this series here ‘The Complete A-Z Of Effective Change’. Andy, Pinky and I are currently working on a new writing project which will be launched early in 2019!

In terms of travel, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away around Ireland during the year and a fabulous week in Rome at the end of November. I dusted off my skiing skills and joined my mates Karin and Paula for a fun few days on the German slopes in February. In June my fabulous sister in law, Aoife turned 40 and we celebrated with a family holiday in Lanzarote. As mentioned above I travelled to Saudi Arabia with work and loved every minute of my trip.

I’m way behind with editing images from trips in 2018 and 2017. This is another area that needs more focus in 2019. A little later than planned I published ‘The Top 5 Things To Do In Dubai’ following my trip to Dubal with my Mom in 2017.

I enjoyed working with my gorgeous family and friends on photo shoots this year and have a few already booked in for 2019. It is always a joy to work with those you love.

If you are new to my Travel Photography work you can view my images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

As mentioned above I published 24 blog posts this year which helped moved my social media metrics in the right direction. I’m not a professional writer nor do I have any formal training as a writer. What i have learned over the past couple of years is that not only do you need to build skills to write content but you also need to find the time to think, write, edit, publish and market content. Finding the time to write, edit , publish and market is where I struggled last year and is a real focus area for me in 2019.

Throughout most of 2018 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Social media and online tools are constantly changing and it is a job in itself to keep up with these changes. It’s as challenging as it is fascinating and I look forward to learning and sharing more in 2019.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’. Knowing what nurtures or challenges my physical & mental health allows me to make decisions to protect both.

I try to eat healthy and exercise regularly but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. We all know that eating healthy and exercising is all we need to do to be fit and healthy – if it were as simple as this I’d be size 8 with abs of steel! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2019.

To keep my mind/spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can. My goal was to read a new book every 2 weeks this year (26 in total) but I didn’t get near this goal reading just 13 new books. I did however read some books many times. Ironically my favourite book this year was ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed. This book highlights the inevitability of failure and subsequent learnings from failure on the path to success. Matthew’s writing is genius as he explores learning from failure that ultimately leads to success in the Aviation, Healthcare and Criminal Justice worlds.

In 2018 even though I didn’t reach many of my personal goals in this area I am much more aware of what actions are required to reach these goals and the discipline needed to consistently take this action.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal & business finance. In this quest every year I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I like it so much.

This year I monitored income, spending and savings much more closely than I have done in previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2019.

That’s it, 2018 in review. When I look back on 2018 I do so with gratitude. Gratitude for all the amazing people in my life and gratitude for the lessons 2018 has taught me no matter how hard some of these lessons were to learn. I look forward to ringing in the New Year and seeing what 2019 has in store!

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a had a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for everything – you are the reason for it all.

Here’s to a super 2019 – may the New Year bring you health, happiness and prosperity.

Thanks for reading, with love,

Siobhain

x x x

Note: The system I use for my annual review is still a work in progress and evolves year on year as my own life evolves. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template shared and used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris Guillebeau’s How To Conduct your own Annual Review. This is a great read and highlights how powerful planning and reviewing can be.

Chris’s updated annual review template can be found here – Annual Review Template, I used this initially then changed and modified it over the years. Chris is a very inspirational guy which is why I follow him on social media and I travelled all the way to Oslo a few years ago to attend his celebration of visiting every country in the world.

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How To Free Up Your Time Using Online Outsourcing

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

My blog post on the time management tool ‘The Priority Matrix’ explains that in order to use your time more effectively and make more progress towards your vision and goals you will need to delegate.

There are many reasons to delegate – it will free up your time to do more of what you want in life and business, you will make more and faster progress towards your goals and among many other benefits you will get access to the skills and talents of those who you delegate to.

Whether you are running a full-time business, a hustle on the side or building a brand there is always so much to do and one person cannot do everything.

I outsource as much as I can which frees up my time to write, research, create content and focus on what I need to focus on.

There are many websites offering outsourcing and judging by the expertise available you can outsource just about anything – Administration, Graphic Design, SEO, Web Development, Blog Editing, Podcast Editing etc, the list goes on and on.

My website of choice is Upwork.

Upwork is a user friendly, highly efficient website that makes the process of hiring and working with freelancers from all over the world so quick and simple.

To find suitable freelancers to work with through Upwork you will require the following

An Upwork account – this takes about 5 minutes to set up

An e-mail account – this takes 5 minutes to set up on any of the free platforms

A method of payment – Upwork accepts Visa or Paypal – Paypal takes about 5 mins to set up

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) – these are documents outlining the step by step tasks required that your freelancer can easily follow. The more detailed the SOP the more efficient the process will be – I use Google Docs to create SOPs as it is a dream to use and is easily sharable

An online sharing platform – this allows you to share your files/images/documents with your freelancer. My favourite online sharing platform is DropBox which takes 5 minutes to set up. I also use Google Drive which is very handy and is free with a gmail email account.

All of the above are ABSOLUTELY FREE and are sufficient to get you on the road to hiring your first freelancer!!

When you have all of the above in place, you are ready to hire your first freelancer. Upwork’s hiring process is really simple and goes something like this

Create your job description on Upwork – the more specific you are when creating your job description, the more streamlined the hiring process will be

Post your job on Upwork – fabulous freelancers will then apply for it

Review the applicants – for me this is the most challenging part of the process as there are so many talented people available through Upwork

Connect with/interview shortlisted applicants – as Upwork has access to globally based freelancers, chances are your preferred applicants won’t live near you and so you will need Zoom or another platform for face to face interviews. Most of the time there is no need to interview as the freelancer’s portfolio speaks for itself, such is the calibre of freelancers available on Upwork.

Hire your freelancer of choice – share the Standard Operating Procedure with goals, timelines and an agreed price for the job then sit back and relax. Your freelancer will notify you when the job is completed and Upwork will arrange payment. All that is left to do is thank your freelancer for a job well done!!

Upwork is highly efficient – within 10 minutes of setting up my account I posted my first job, in 3 hours I had almost 20 job applicants and within that same day I hired my first freelancer. That was eight years ago and since then I have worked with the most talented, wonderful people from all over the world.

Can fabulous freelancers help free up your precious time?

Can fabulous freelancers bring you and your business to a different level?

Could you make a side income by becoming a fabulous freelancer and sharing your gifts with the world?

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x

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5 Leadership Lessons from the King Of The Cats

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Kilkenny Senior Hurling team Manager Brian Cody was the speaker at the Limerick Chamber Leadership talk hosted by Dell, Limerick last Monday. To say Brian is an inspirational speaker is a huge understatement!

I come from a hurling background and totally understand the passion that people feel towards the fast paced, skillful and exciting game that is hurling.

Brian Cody throughout his 20 years as manager with Kilkenny has taken this speed, skill and passion to another level, leading the Kilkenny Cats to win 42 major honours. These include 11 All-Ireland Championships (including a record-equalling four-in-a-row between 2006 and 2009), 15 Leinster Championships in eighteen seasons, 9 National Leagues, including 5 league championship doubles and 7 Walsh Cups. (Thanks for the stats Wikipedia)

Brian Cody is an unassuming man but has immense presence, from the minute he took to the stage I was hanging on his every word.

Here are some of the Leadership Lessons Brian shared with us,

Cultivate an unbreakable spirit – Brian spoke about the spirit of teams and individuals many times. As he did he gave a downward air punch showing that not only must you have an unbreakable spirit but you must have passion behind this unbreakable spirit. Brian explained it is this unbreakable spirit that keeps you and your team going and keeps you and your team focused during the hard times whether in sport or business
Be yourself and be confident in your own ability – Brian suggests to be a great leader you must be yourself and be happy with being yourself and who you are. As well as being yourself, you must have the utmost confidence in yourself and your ability and know that there are no limits for you or for anyone on your team – the sky is the limit! When your team know you have immense confidence in them, the sky really is the limit.
Be a team player – Brian spoke fondly of all the Kilkenny players he has managed and coached to success. He suggested that everyone has something to contribute and everyone has the potential to be a leader. Treating everyone fairly and with respect instilled the essential teamwork that has led Kilkenny through so many successful years
Have standards of excellence – Brian is not the sort of man that accepts mediocrity. He expects standards of excellence from all of his players and all of the staff that work with and support the players. He holds high standards for himself and ensures he is the the leader who leads by example.
Be humble and remove the ego – Many times Brian quoted the following ‘Nobody knows everything but everyone knows something’. It is such a true saying. Ego driven leaders believe they know it all and that everyone else knows very little! Humble leaders like Brian Cody know they have a certain skill set that is of utmost importance but also that their team have the other skills that are of equal importance and are necessary for success. A good leader like Brian, utilises his team’s strengths and skills to instill teamwork and make the team as strong as it can be

During the Q&A session Brian was asked ‘When will you step down’?.

Looking around at a mostly Limerick audience he smiled and said ‘When Limerick win the All-Ireland’. So will this be the year Brian Cody steps down? Limerick Abu!!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x
My mates Marie and Brian

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2017

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It’s that time of year again, time to look back reflecting on what last year brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review.

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 5th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015 Annual Review 2016

As always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. By far the most exciting thing that happened to my family this year was my younger brother Declan and his beautiful wife Aoife welcomed my gorgeous niece Ayla Danaher to the world, a wonderful addition to our ever-growing family.

Here goes, in no particular order, my Annual Review for 2017.

2017 was a big year for me in the world of Lean. I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa. This year saw us implement Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) for the first time which brought new learnings every day in terms of our Lean journey.

For my personal goals it was also the first year I used the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri to set and monitor goals and objectives. In terms of planning, organising and changing direction when required this brought the process of goal setting to a whole new level.

One of my goals was to share information and learnings from the world of Lean. I did this by designing, creating and launching my new website ‘‘The Art Of Positive Change’ in March. This took way longer than I had anticipated but it was worth the wait as I now have somewhere dedicated to sharing information on Lean, Simplicity and Positive Change and the immense benefits they bring to our businesses and personal lives.

Another goal was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this, completely underestimating how much time it takes to create blog posts and edit them. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is more than I have published in any previous year. So while I didn’t reach my goal I’m definitely improving in this space.

Also in March I started working with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford creating a new character called Pinky, aptly named by my 7 year old niece Miah. Pinky is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts here.

The Complete A-Z of Effective Change

This year I was reminded how much I love Travel Photography and so I will be working more on this in 2018. If you are new to my work you can view my Travel Photography images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

In terms of travel near and far, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away in Edinburgh, Killarney and Kilkenny, my parents and I spent a few days in London and later in the year my Mom and I spent 10 days in the amazing city of Dubai. Earlier in the year I dusted off my skiing skills and joined one of my best mates Karin Hennessy for a few days skiing in fabulous Pila in the Italian Alps.

Following a trip to Abu Dhabi with Mike in 2016 I created and published my 8th Travel Photography book ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Abu Dhabi’ in September complimenting the blog post I wrote on this beautiful city ‘The Top 5 things To Do in Abu Dhabi’.

I worked with some of my family and friends on photo shoots this year which I enjoyed immensely. It’s always a joy to shoot images of family and friends,

My Travel Photography Fine Art prints and my Fine Art Catalogue are now displayed at my friend Michelle Quilty’s newly opened business, The Tea Cosy in Ardpatrick. This makes me very proud and gives me itchy feet to do more Travel Photography exhibitions – watch this space!

Social media continues to provide a steep learning curve for me that twists and turns at an exponential rate.

I have been using social media for online marketing for many years, however 2017 was the first year I created a social media strategy as part of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment). This allowed me to focus on clear goals and objectives and ensured I tracked the correct metrics and used these metrics to change direction when required.

Just like the world of Lean and Continuous Improvement, the only way to definitively know if you are improving is to have ‘fact based’ metrics. I currently track 13 metrics across 9 social media platforms. Each one of these metrics increased in 2017 which means I’m moving in the right direction!!! In saying that, growth is slow – slow but steady!

Tracking and evaluating metrics may sound like a lot of work but just like metrics in business, when you get used to setting, tracking and using valuable information from the metrics, they can become quiet addictive and it really is the only way to measure improvement accurately!

If you’re not using metrics to measure performance in your business maybe 2018 is the year that you start, they really are a game changer!

Throughout most of 2017 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

In terms of health I welcomed 2017 with open arms as 2016 saw my Dad go through his second heart surgery. As I wrote in my annual review last year – there is no greater pain than watching someone you love and adore battling an illness. My Dad’s surgery and subsequent recovery has made me intensely aware of and grateful for every breath I take and every day my family and I spend illness free.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’.

Knowing what nurtures my mental health and knowing what challenges it allows me to make decisions to protect it.

To keep my mind and spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can (see my Top 10 Books of 2017 here), meditate (not as much as I would like) and journal (again not as much as I would like).

I try to eat healthy but do have a rubber arm that can be twisted quiet easily when it comes to biscuits and savoury treats. Exercise has always been part of my life but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. With this comes an immense respect for what the human body can achieve when we put the work in! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2018.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal finance. In this quest, I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I liked it so much.

I have always known this but 2016 made me more acutely aware that no matter how much you earn or how much is in your bank account it doesn’t make you happy, make you a good person or heal you when you are ill and I continued to be very aware of th throughout 2017.

Just like my social media stats I monitored income, spending and savings much more than I have done in any previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. I continued to support these charities in 2017 and also found new charities to support. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2018.

That’s it, 2017 was like most years, full of ups and downs, twists and turns.

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a made a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for making each year better than the last, you are the reason for it all.

May 2018 bring you health, happiness and prosperity,

With love,

Siobhain

x x x

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Lean Transformation in a Barcelona A&E Department

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Lean healthcare is a subject that is becoming more and more commonplace and this is good news for each and every one of us.

Last year I attended the The Lean Enterprise Academy Summit. This Summit is always an amazing event – 3 days packed with presentations, learning sessions and masterclasses solely focused on Lean and the immense business and personal benefits a Lean culture brings.

My 2 favourite sessions were from industries both based in Barcelona. The first learning session introduced us to Augustin Tena Leon (Head of Sales, 365 Cafe) and Oriol Cuatrecasas (Founder and Lean Development – Instituto Lean Management). My previous blog post ‘The Virtual Gemba Walk in Barcelona’ outlines the incredible work Cafe 365 have done on their Lean journey.

The second learning session was from Dr Miguel Sanchez, Head of the Accident and Emergency department at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

From the beginning of his presentation Dr Miguel Sanchez showed immense passion for the Emergency Department he works in, the work he does, his team and the Lean journey they are on. His passion was obvious as he spoke about the improvements they had made and was equally evident when he spoke about where level 3 of the Emergency Department was before they started on their Lean journey and all of the problem they originally had.

This was very impressive as for Lean to be successful you need to be as interested in your problems as you are in your proposed solutions. Human nature sends us running at the speed of light to solutions before we even know what the real problem is and before we have taken time to investigate exactly why (root cause) the problem is occurring.

Oriol brought us through a simulation to show how chaotic the A&E department was before they started their Lean journey. We split into teams of 4 hospitals with the quest to see how many patients we could get through the hospital process. We were all given ‘imaginary’ jobs, titles, tolls, instructions and 8 minutes.

As the simulation progressed the process and the people started to fall apart and chaos set in! Patients continuously flowed into the hospital, the administrator got stressed and confused, the blood and urine analysts started shouting that they needed to get more patients in, the patient discharge person was frustrated as they weren’t very busy. The doctor who had to sign off on all the tests were stressed and frustrated at the level of repeated analysis required, seeing patients many times and the overall chaotic conditions under which they were working. At the end of the 8 minutes everyone was stressed. Does this sound familiar? Is this how your workplace works?

What was the problem?

As mentioned above, everyone started diving straight into solution mode – ‘I know what’s wrong’ ‘I know how to fix it’ ‘Let’s do this , let’s do that!’!!! Keep in mind this is a room full of Lean practitioners who had just created immense Lean waste and gone against every lean principle we had ever learned.

Now we had felt the stress and frustration that by Dr Miguel Sanchez’s team experienced on a daily basis it was time to see the results of their Lean journey.

The results were absolutely amazing, thanks to Dr. Sanchez and his team, the A&E department was transformed and reduced the patient waiting time by 44%. That is a phenomenal reduction in patient waiting time. If you work in a hospital, can you imagine what this would do for your department, your patients, your employees?

They achieved this by some simple changes such as

1. One Doctor and nurse team

2. One medical cart per team

3. One computer and workstation per team

4. Assigned beds per team

These changes enabled the Accident and Emergency department to implement Standard Work, Flow, Visual Management and eliminate the immense amount of Lean waste that they had identified at the beginning of their journey.

The changes increased the patient throughput, enhanced the patient experience and also increased the safety and job satisfaction for all of Dr Miguel’s team.

Another fine example of Lean and the huge benefits is brings.

Could Lean benefit your A&E department or your workplace?

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

x x x

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The Virtual Gemba Walk in Barcelona

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Photo Credit – Mink Mingle (Unsplash)

Last year I attended the UK Lean Enterprise Academy Summit. This Summit is always an amazing event – 3 days packed with presentations, learning sessions and masterclasses solely focused on Lean and the immense business and personal benefits a Lean culture brings.

My 2 favourite sessions were from industries both based in Barcelona.

The first learning session introduced us to Augustin Tena Leon (Head of Sales, 365 Cafe) and Oriol Cuatrecasas (Founder and Lean Development – Instituto Lean Management).

Augustin and Oriol held our attention throughout the presentation with their high energy, obvious passion for Lean and pride in what they have achieved through their Lean journey with Cafe 365. Augustin and Oriol made it very clear that culture change was at the heart of their Lean transformation as they spoke about

‘The most important part of our company is our people’, ‘The joy never has to be lost’ and ‘Customer first’

Their presentation took us through their Lean journey starting with their factory where their delicious products are created through to their shops where their products are sold. They involved us all in a hilarious simulation of the bakery shops pre 2009. This simulation highlighted the chaos, waste, unhappy customers and unhappy employees that used to be part of the daily operations of Cafe 365.

In contrast to this chaos Augustin and Oriol invited us to see what their business is like now that they work in a Lean environment. I expected a presentation or maybe another simulation but no….in true genius style Augustin and Oriol connected us to one of their shops in Barcelona via web link! And so a virtual Gemba Walk in Barcelona began!

Photo Credit – Leon Ephraim (Unsplash)

The staff of Cafe 365 in Barcelona were as excited to be part of this virtual Gemba Walk as we were, they welcomed us to their cafe and introduced us to their Standard Work, Kanban system, Audit system and their problem identification, escalation and resolution system. They showed us their storage area which was tiny but hugely sufficient and their refrigeration area that was also tiny but hugely sufficient.

This was a most impressive Gemba Walk – to see the simple tools of Lean implemented into a bakery and cafe environment instilled in me more confidence that Lean can be used and taken advantage of in absolutely every area of business no matter what the industry is.

The tools and principles implemented were obviously making Cafe 365’s business more profitable and sustainable and set them up for growth of which they have enjoyed at an exponential rate. More than this and what really stood out for me was the positive culture we were lucky enough to be witnessing.

As we moved from one area to the next of this virtual Gemba Walk it was the employees who spoke to us, it was the employees who answered all of our questions and it was the employees to whom gratitude and recognition was given by Augustin and Oriol and each other. Everyone was so proud to show us how they work for the company and for each other.

Photo Credit – Kari Shea (Unsplash)

Cafe 365 is a supreme example of what a Lean culture is. Lean tools and principles can be learned from any of the many amazing books available on Lean, however it is the deep respect that is shown for each and every employee that will bring the real sustainable and transformational change that is required for a business to fully embed and enjoy a Lean culture.

When asked if there was any employee currently in the shop that was also there pre 2009 (pre Lean implementation) and what the transformation had meant to them, one lady stepped forward from the back of the crowd of employees and with a beaming smile and said

‘Before things were difficult and hard, now they are enjoyable and simple’ .

These words were softly spoken, however the message was profoundly loud.

Augustin and Oriol left us with this statement

‘Lean brought us one of the most extraordinary and radicle changes we have witnessed in a business’

This learning session with Augustin, Oriol and Cafe 365 left me with confidence that the career path I have chosen is completely the right one for me and that Lean is even more powerful than I had previously envisioned.

Could Lean transform your business?

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

x x x

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Meeting Art and Understanding Lean

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Oprah calls it an ‘Aha’ moment – the moment when something falls into place, when the penny drops, when a lightbulb goes off in your brain and you understand something with an immense clarity that you previously didn’t have.

I experienced this ‘Aha’ moment over 6 years ago when Art Byrne delivered his keynote speech at the 2013 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit. As well as a great guy, Art is a powerhouse of Lean knowledge having lived Lean with it’s highs and lows for many decades. I have read Art’s wonderful book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ many times and knew I was in for something special as Art took to the stage.

My ‘Aha’ moment came in as short a time as 4 minutes into Art’s talk. I had always known that Lean enabled a better, more efficient, more inclusive way of working however after listening to and understanding Art’s simple explanation of Lean, the power of this methodology was finally clear to me. Key elements from these short 4 minutes of Art’s talk that helped me understand the power of Lean are as follows

Lean is not a bunch of tools
Lean is not a collection of projects or belts (Art in his fabulous honesty makes it clear that in running a business you are not running a karate class!!!)
Lean is ‘the biggest strategic business weapon you can ever have’ – a business being ‘a collection of people and processes trying to deliver value to a set of customers and always the best team wins’.
Lean is a growth strategy not a cost cutting strategy.

Art continued by explaining the key elements required to be successful at Lean which are having Lean and Operational Excellence are your core strategy, that Lean is led from the top and that people are transformed. Without these elements, Art explains very honestly, failure will be the outcome!

As Art spoke about transforming people, he explained that people are the only asset you have that appreciates and you want them to keep appreciating, that you also need to respect your people because the best improvement ideas come from the people doing the work. To do this you need to create a learning environment where people are learning every day and are excited to come to work. This then becomes your culture, the way things are done around here – this is Lean.

Art summed up all of the above by simply saying – Lean is a people thing!

[tweetthis]’Lean is a people thing’ Art Byrne[/tweetthis]

I met Art at one of the break out sessions. He was gracious, humble and generous with his time. I spoke with him around challenges I was having in implementing Lean in my role as I did not have the influence of a CEO for Lean to ‘come from the top’. He smiled and gave me some of the best advice I have ever received. He said ‘be the CEO in your area’, excellent advice for anyone trying to make things better when it’s not coming from the top!

Art signed my copy of his book ‘The Lean Turnaround’ by using a popular phrase synonymous with Guinness – it was Art’s way of saying how much he loved Ireland and how much he respects Kaizen. And yes, I totally agree with him, Kaizen is good for you!!!!

I left the 2103 Lean Enterprise Academy Summit energetic, enthused and looking forward to the next steps on my Lean journey.

Over 6 years later my Lean journey continues to experience highs and lows, I’m happy to say more highs than lows these days and always, always learning lessons which is at the core of what Lean is about – continuous learning!

Thanks for reading,

Keeping it Simple,

Siobhain

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