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Peter Abilla
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» Maintain Forward Tension

One principle in Wing Chun is the maintaining of forward tension. To explain, I’ll draw the distinction between Tension and Energy and show how this principle in Wing Chun can be applied to Change Management.

Tension is a type of Energy

A Wing Chun maxim goes as follows:

soft and relaxed strength will put your opponent in jeopardy

That maxim means that forward tension is not necessarily using force, or forcing through a barrier or “pushing through”. But, there is soft force, or tension, such that when a gap presents itself, then the hand or arm shoots forward like a spring. The “shooting forward” is not done with force, but is an unleashing of potential energy.

Using that definition, then, Forward Tension is much different than the overly-used business term “Breakthrough.” In the context of Forward Tension, the notion of “breakthrough” is ridiculous, because it connotes a forcing of oneself or of one’s ideas. Forcing anything only invites resistance and rebellion, not conversion.

So, in sum, tension is really potential energy and when a gap presents itself, that potential energy becomes kinetic energy. Forward Tension works with the current context in such a way that does not invite rebellion or resistance or eventual back-biting. It is open, but straightforward.

Application to Change Management

Don’t force things on people. The most humane approach to change management is to treat those involved in the change as human beings; this means having a dialogue — listen, speak, listen some more, argue a little, and steadily deposit goodwill.

As much as I like love data, I also fully understand that data does not soften hearts or change people’s minds: true change happens when people feel heard, have given their opinion, are willing to try something new, and are part of the change. The challenge in change management is largely an emotional one; a psychological one; a relational one.

Hold The Tension

Without forcing or pushing of people, maintaining the tension encourages discussion, debate, and invites people to inquire and become curious about the topic of change. That is the key: behave in such a way that it invites people to learn, argue, debate, and eventually try it out.

Tension in Wing Chun

The video below shows Sifu Grados in Chi Sao (Sticky Hands). This sensitivity exercise demonstrates the principle of holding the tension and visually explains the principle of transformation of potential energy to kinetic energy very well.

NOTE: none of the movements are rehearsed. What is taught and practiced are the principles and how those principles are applied during Chi Sao depends on the situation.

Articles on Ethnography and Design:

Articles on Leadership:

Articles on Queueing Theory:

Articles on Operations, lean and six sigma:

by psabilla at 7:36 AM under 5s , a3 report , bullwhip effect , business , change management , click-to-ship , complexity , customer obsession , customer service , design thinking , drum-buffer-rope , dynamic systems , efficiency , ethnography , featuritis , gemba , genchi genbutsu , general , heijunka , ishikawa , it at toyota , kanban , leadership , lean , lean consumption maps , metrics , muda , obeya , operations , pareto principle , poka-yoke , process measures , productivity , quality , root cause analysis , six sigma , statistical process control , strategy , supply chain , takt time , the beer distribution game , theory of constraints , the profit tree , the visual factory , toyota , variation , visual management , waste , wing chun , zero defects (Comments)

Peter Abilla
no nic
shmula

» After the “Place Order” Button

What happens after the customer clicks the “Place Order Button”? For some customers, this is a large black hole. But, wise companies understand that customers need to be informed and aware of the steps after the “Place Order Button” is clicked. In fact, customers want to be involved in the end-to-end transaction. In this article, we’ll discuss how we can better satisfy this critical customer need, thereby ensuring repeat-business, loyalty, and also good, old fashioned, customer happiness.

It’s critically important in any transaction to be able to answer the question “where’s my stuff” or “where are we in the process?” This requirement is often referred to as Traceability and Visibility; sometimes, people refer to this overall process as Click-to-Ship.

Almost all transactions have Traceability and Visibility as a requirement. From the customer’s perspective, they ought and need to know the status of the transaction. The company, then, needs to provide feedback and status to the customer whenever she needs it. Take, for example, the following transaction types:

Library Book Check-out: User physically searches for books; user check books out; for each book checked-out, there is a 10 business day expiration date; when there is 2 days left in the check-out timer, an email notification is fired to the customer as a reminder.
Online Subscription: User follows the sign-up process; user pays with credit card; credit card is verified; user is admitted to full subscription access page; an email is sent, notifying the customer of the amount charged on credit card and that the transaction was successful.
Online Ordering System: User searches online; user selects items and places items in shopping cart; user pays with credit card; credit card is verified and an email is sent to notify the customer the amount charged and the items bought and an estimate of when the items will be delivered.
You order the #4 meal at McDonald’s; you wait for a really long time and nobody behind the counter comes to tell you the status of your order.
etc., etc.

We’ve all experienced transactions where a notification is sent and feedback is delivered to help us know exactly where we are in the process and, for hard-good transactions, where our stuff is and when we’ll receive it.

Traceability and Visibility

But, there are some processes where Traceability and Visibility are not available. Often, we hear of statements like “I entereed my credit card number and nothing happened. It felt like a black hole.” Statements like this point to the fact that users’ need to know status and receive feedback — they want to be involved in the transaction.

Diagramming Traceability and Visibility

Below is a hypothetical map of what an order system might look like. This system involves a front-end store, credit card verification, and warehousing or fulfillment activities:

Click on the image for a larger view.

Because time is an element in any process, we can collect time-based data and, because the time-based data can be approximated by a statistical distribution, we can approximately predict when the transaction enters a process and when it might exit the process; this line of argument can be extended from start-to-end and this type of traceability and visibility allows the firm to provide accurate feedback and status to the customer.

But, it also allows the firm to do something else: it allows the firm to collect natural metrics and then improve its operations. For example, if we see a large backlog and items begin to queue in front of a process, that might signal management to transfer labor to that process to drive-down the backlog, or for management to implement improvements in front of that process so that items don’t queue there in the future. The ability to make improvements is only possible when we can follow and visually see the how the process and operation is performing.

Do you know how your company is performing? Is your operation a black hole to the customer?

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Please find originally-written articles on Queueing Theory below:

For a few articles on Operations, lean and six sigma, please visit the links below:

Managing Constraints Under Peak Volumes

Order Pipeline of Events

On Game Theory

Series on Queueing Theory

Applied Regression Analysis

5S

Click-to-Ship Processes

Kanban Sizing and “Pull”

Lean at Krispy Kreme

Theory of Constraints and Camping

Lean for Software Development

Don’t Waste the Customer’s Time

Featuritis and the Focus on the Customer

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by psabilla at 5:56 AM under click-to-ship , customer obsession , customer service , design thinking , dynamic systems , gemba , genchi genbutsu , heijunka , ishikawa , kanban , lean , lean consumption maps , muda , obeya , operations , poka-yoke , process measures , root cause analysis , six sigma , strategy , supply chain , toyota , variation , waste (Comments)

Peter Abilla
no nic
shmula

» The Basics Perfect or Engendering Loyalty? or Both?

Bijan shared this great, real-world experience of how getting the basics perfect is, in fact, a loyalty driver: his experience? — with Amazon.com Customer Service.

In his words,

Two weeks ago I bought an item on Amazon. It was a toaster oven.

In my haste I shipped it to my brother instead of my home address.

Even worse, it was my brother’s old address so the product was shipped to the wrong house and I don’t know the owner. Even worse, that new owner signed and accepted the shipment.

I called Amazon and told them the whole story. The customer service rep put me on hold for 2 minutes. Then he came back on and told me that they would like to send me the item to my home address w/out an additional charge. I said thanks very much. Two minutes later I received a confirmation email.

Amazing customer service.

Amazon rules.

Then, In the comments section, a reader asked:

They improved, they were not like this before. I remember when you could not call them and email response took days.

And, Bijan, responded — no — he defended, Amazon.com Customer Service:

Actually calling them by phone was very easy. They use click-to-call so I just punched in my phone number, the service calls me immediately and then I’m connected to customer service.

Bijan’s experience with Amazon.com Customer Service was an act of the simple basics, in my opinion. But, it is a clear example of how getting the basics right can lead to loyalty, as evidenced in Bijan’s praise for Amazon and also in his later defense of Amazon.com Customer Service in the comment section of his blog.

The Amazon.com Core Values

The Amazon Core Values are realized in the way they treat the customer — also, they are hard-core in every Amazonian. Specifically, the Amazon Core Values are:

Customer Obsession: We start with the customer and work backwards.
Innovation: If you don’t listen to your customers you will fail. But if you only listen to your customers you will also fail.
Bias for Action: We live in a time of unheralded revolution and insurmountable opportunity – provided we make every minute count.
Ownership: Ownership matters when you’re building a great company. Owners think long-term, plead passionately for their projects and ideas, and are empowered to respectfully challenge decisions.
High Hiring Bar: When making a hiring decision we ask ourselves: “Will I admire this person? Will I learn from this person? Is this person a superstar?”
Frugality: We spend money on things that really matter and believe that frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention!

Indeed, Customer Obsession — we see it and hear about it, over and over again. It’s true: getting the basics perfect can lead to customer loyalty.

disclosure: I was previously employed by Amazon.com and am still a shareholder in the company. To this day, I remain a fanboy of Amazon but also know about its warts and issues.

Utah Open Source Planet

Traceability and Visibility

Diagramming Traceability and Visibility

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The Amazon.com Core Values

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