Why Offense and Defense Scoring Rankings are Horrible Metrics for the NFL

I am an avid fan of the NFL. I love looking over the stats almost as much as watching games. The numbers tell you a lot about the flow of the game.

The stats, though, are can be misleading. Take scoring offense and scoring defense, for example. Let’s say that a team gives up few points. This can happen because the defense is stout or because the offense is great and controls the ball. With a few less possessions in a game, you’d expect to see fewer points.

Think Like Your Competitor to Beat Your Competitor

While continuous improvement is a great and wonderful thing, it has one glaring weakness. You have to be right when you define what improvement actually is. If you missed the mark, you’ll just get more effective at doing the wrong thing.

One trick that you can use to make sure that your definition of improvement is correct is to look at yourself through the eyes of your competitor. Imagine that you are a marketing manager for the business you most frequently go head-to-head against. What weaknesses would you try to exploit? Which of your own strengths would you try to emphasize? What are your advantages from the customer perspective?

Weekly Update (May 3, 2013)

Notable News

I had a glimmer of hope for common sense in the government this week. It turns out that a bill to get the FAA operating at pre-sequester levels had a typo in it. Apparently it was missing an ‘s’ to make ‘accounts’ plural, which would have limited funding. While this bill was needed in the first place due to an inability to effectively solve problems, it was a welcomed surprise that common sense dictated in this case. The actions the bill called for were taken before the bill had to weave its way back through the approval process.

The Art of Saying “No”

It is a simple word. Just two little letters. Yet, it can be very challenging to say.

Why? Because we’ve trained each other to believe that saying ‘No’ is wrong. Say it to a peer, and you are not a team player. Say it to a boss and you are not willing to go the extra mile. Say it to your subordinate, and you might be thought of by any number of less than flattering names.

Weekly Update (April 26, 2013)

Notable News

I just finished recording a new DVD: Managing with Metrics. It still needs to be processed and edited, but it is a step closer. It should be done this weekend or early next week. This isn’t just a product announcement, though. The notable part is that the development process reinforced my belief that learning and improvement never ends. This is my 19th DVD, and every time I go through the process, I find new ways to improve it. Even with all my experience developing processes, I still find new ways to make things better. Just goes to show …

Poll: What Are the Most Important Lean Leadership Traits?

POLL QUESTION: What Are the Most Important Lean Leadership Traits?

Leadership makes or breaks a Lean effort. Much of the gain comes from frontline effort, but that only happens when leaders set the right conditions for success.

This week’s question focuses on Lean leadership. We’d like to know what you see as the most important leadership traits for individuals guiding a team in a continuous improvement environment. This list comes from our 11 “C’s” of Lean Leadership.

A Better Way to Save Lives

As budget constraints and sequestration put the squeeze on fire departments, there is a substantial risk that response times will creep up. In many cases, that can lead to more serious injuries, complications, or even death.

So how do you go about getting the response time down when there are some very real constraints? Well, in Israel, a group called United Hatzalah (meaning ‘rescue’ in Hebrew) cut the time for a first responder to arrive on scene from 12-15 minutes down to about 3. That’s a 75-80% reduction.