A Hammer in the Hand - a Screwdriver in the Toolbox

My dad calls it "Manchestering" (probably just a casual contempt of Lancastrians from a Yorkshireman). It was what he'd do when he found himself needing to screw in a screw and not being bothered to go to the toolbox and find the right screwdriver - he would try to put the screws in using a hammer. It would rarely work. Rather than obliging and going straight in as my dad hoped, the screws would simply transfer the energy of the blow to the surrounding door, panel or whatever it was, sometimes causing the whole thing to shake apart.

"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." I'm not sure where I read that but I think it's very true. One way of looking at Agile Training is as a way of extending your toolkit. We're not the kind of people who try to tell our clients that they don't know what they're doing. Most of them have fantastic management skills, but that doesn't mean they can't benefit from a few more.

But most of the time, training isn't enough. It isn't enough to go to the trouble of going out and getting a screwdriver and putting it in the toolbox (like paying and going on a training course). When it gets to that crucial point where you've got a screw in one hand and a hammer in the other, you're still going to need some gentle encouragement to put the hammer down and root around for the screwdriver. And that's where Agile Coaching comes in.
For further information, contact Mark@agilelab.co.uk (07736 807 604) or Matt@agilelab.co.uk (07713 634 830)

On the level?

This is a quote attributed to Einstein:

The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same
level of thinking we were at when we created them.

I was thinking this morning that the practical action attached to this understanding is the Toyota "seven Whys" problem solving approach. Answering the "Why" questions force you either up or down a level.

Also W. Edwards Demming's red bead game. When an employee looks like they're under-performing or over-performing, the chances are that their performance has got more to do with the system than their innate skills.

I'm surprised that this isn't offered more often as a problem-solving strategy: "When presented with a problem, before you do anything else, try to identify what level you're on, then try to up-level (get more abstract) and also down-level (get more precise, more detailed, more specific)."

For further information, contact Mark@agilelab.co.uk (07736 807 604) or Matt@agilelab.co.uk (07713 634 830)