Over the last week or so, I was fortunate enough to attend a course at work. Before going on the training, I aimed to see what parallels I could find between the topic and my lean knowledge.
The course centered around MTM, or Methods-Time Measurement. Primarily, MTM seeks to explore a process by breaking it down into its building blocks. Each of these building blocks, e.g., reach, grasp, move, position, and release, is given a standard time. This analysis allows for processes to be accurately planned prior to real-life deployment.
Each building block is designated a different code and a different time, which is dependent on distance class. For example, a reach of 80cm is given more time than a reach of 20cm. This seemed to make sense.
During the training, we were given different scenarios to analyze by using the appropriate code. I did not always do too well at these exercises and found some of them very difficult.
I reflected on this difficulty. Although I work primarily in lean, it had been a long time since I had had to think about quick, repeatable processes with such a degree of granularity. But it was in this reflection that the learning happened.
The course materials were deeply rooted in my mind. It was a weird experience, but I felt that I could actually feel my brain processing the new data as I slept. Indeed, on the last day of the training, we were given a video to watch and analyze.
Given some of my less spectacular efforts on previous days, there was every possibility that I would not do particularly well. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I began to perform with clarity and precision during the test.
Again, I reflected. Perhaps I had run out of ways to get it wrong? Maybe the strongest learning had come from the errors I had made?
I had started the course looking for lean parallels. It did not take me long to realize that I needed to put this thinking aside and concentrate fully on the information I was being given.
Yet, here, I was, on the final day of a fairly intense course, reflecting on PDCA and Coaching cycles. After all, I had gradually improved my MTM analyzing skills through a series of mistakes. Similarly, I felt my learning had not exclusively happened in the classroom. It had happened in the quiet times when I was reflecting at home. It had happened when I was moving around, observing the shop floor before the training day had even begun.
When we talk about the “learning enterprise,” we are not talking about sending everybody on courses. We are talking about the learning that happens when we are gently coached through our mistakes.
“What did you expect to happen?”
“What did happen?”
“What did you learn?”
“What are you going to do next?”
The role of the leader is to coach her people to do the things that they currently feel are impossible. This is the learning enterprise – a place where people learn in the moments of space and reflection.
As we have seen in previous articles, this constant re-examination takes a good deal of discipline, both on behalf of the coach and coachee. But the outcome, well, that can be spectacular.