Lean Communications Principles: Need To Know

“The first myth of communication is that it occurred.” I don’t know who said this or why, but it certainly has relevance to the world of product development. In my last column, we looked at how knowledge is the inventory of product developers. This inventory is expressed as documents, drawings, spreadsheets, requirements lists, test results, and in many other forms. We email it, print it out, save it to servers, post it on Facebook, Tweet it, and so on. But if you think communication ends with pressing the “send” button, then you, my friend, are part of the problem whether you know it or not. Your lack of communication skill might have killed your last project and cost your company a lot of money.

Poor communication happens all the time and is anything but exceptional. Just look at your email sent box or phone text log. If you scan your messages to friends and family, you can probably find many instances where you said something confusing, misleading, or just plain incorrect. You may have given the wrong date or time of a party, or gotten the digits of a phone number transposed. These aren’t life-threatening problems, but too many people transfer this casual communication style to their professional communications. I’ve heard managers complain about new hires who demand to use IM or SMS and their respective rough style and abbreviated vernacular as a principal platform. This is dangerous.

If you look at Lean Manufacturing principles, it is perhaps more subtle than explicit, but lean tools are embedded with good communication values. The world’s best lean shop floors are loaded with visual and written communications designed to keep cycle times down and quality up. From color-coded workspaces and takt time displays to heijunka boxes and transparent parts bins, a lean environment is predicated on concise and intuitive communications. The challenge for companies transferring lean practices from manufacturing to engineering and R&D is to transfer not only the tools, but the communications practices, as well.

Here are some of the tools that should be considered during a product development process:
Poka Yoke. This is a lean design principle that roughly translates as “mistake proofing.” So assemblies are designed so that two parts can only be put together in one way, or they are color-coded or otherwise designed to guide the assembler. The ink cartridge in your printer may be designed with poka yoke. The analogue to communication would be to write and structure what you are communicating so that it is impossible to misunderstand. This can be extra work, but can go a long way toward reducing costly information defects from your process. Re-read your communications, put yourself in the shoes of the recipient, and try to see if what you are sending is clear and specific enough for them to do their job. This may require you to add meta-data, reduce the signal-to-noise ratio, or create a “message summary.”

Metadata. Literally: “information about information”. Consider sending an email that references something, like a schematic for the engineer you are collaborating with. Rather than just typing, “It’s on the server now,” you should include a hyperlink or a specific drive path to the correct directory. This small bit of effort can save valuable time and prevent a costly defect. Version control is a tremendous demon that feeds off of poor communication. But you do have to be careful. Too much metadata can be as bad as none at all.
 

Signal to Noise. Communications in product development means sticking to the pertinent data and minimizing the irrelevant. Avoid the temptation to editorialize or wax poetic with background info or unrelated sidebars. For emails, rather than cramming every issue into a single one, it can be better to break things up into individual emails dedicated to each issue. This is of great help later if you need to find specific info quickly or parse items out to others who may find the extra items distracting. Similarly, when forwarding info, take a moment to strip out the irrelevant parts for the recipient so they won’t have to sort through it themselves.
 

Summarize Key Points—It’s important to face the reality that everyone suffers from at least a mild case of Attention Deficit Disorder. If you are forced to send out a long communication and want to make sure the most important points are noticed, write a bulleted sidebar that condenses key points. A great example of this is news stories on the Internet. You may notice when reading CNN.com that in the top corner of a piece there are talking points listed. The danger, of course, is people might skip the full text. But the exercise of doing it can help you think about the priorities of your message.
 

Just-in-Time Communication. You can get information too early as well as too late. Emails that come in too early can get lost in the inbox; emails that arrive too late can result in costly scrap and rework. Time your communications so they reach the recipient as close to their actionable time window as possible.
A steadfast approach to lean information can have direct benefits on cycle time and defect reduction. Information is the lifeblood of product development and should be given greater attention than it currently receives. I hope I was able to get that message across.