Category Archives: On Theory

Articles on theory or the “why” behind the what.

Wicked Problems

I’m a process guy, a disciple of Lean, Agile, Six Sigma and Empirical Process Control. But I’m also a contrarian, a critic of those same disciplines because they too often focus on so called best practices, usually in the form … Continue reading

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A Visual Tool for Large Group Facilitation

Problem Statement: A school board which has not agreed to an increase in recommended levy funding in 16 years. A community which regularly votes down the levy funding requests recommended by the board. A school system which is largely under … Continue reading

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Strategic Planning Framework

Show as a single page The Goal of Strategic Planning There is a story told inside Hewlett-Packard about Dave Packard, one of the founding partners of Hewlett-Packard Company. In the late 1940s he was at a meeting with executives from … Continue reading

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Adaptive Project Management

Adaptive Project Management is, at it’s core, the art and science of solving complex problems by getting the right people talking about the right things at the right time. There is more to Adaptive Project Management than this statement suggests … Continue reading

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The Thomas Question

The Thomas Question is the name given by three unrelated people in three different contexts for a skill I have developed over the years. That skill is the ability to ask questions which, while kind, penetrate to the core of … Continue reading

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5S and Epoxy-Polyamide Paint — A Submarine Story

5S is one of the key practices of the Toyota Production System. The 5 S’s derive from five Japanese words which when romanized, begin with the letter ‘S’: Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. The Japanese word Seiso translates to … Continue reading

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