INROADS

Learning Points

The following learning points can often be extracted from the events of the Simulation. Because group behavior varies, some of these points may not be seen in any single Simulation. The Reflection at the end of the Simulation is structured around these five categories.

Leadership

Organizing is as essential as doing. Coordination is essential to working together. Leading a process of interaction is not the same as telling people what to do. A time-pressured, goal-oriented situation is not conducive to consensus decision making and participation. (Why the military "takes orders.") It can lead to abruptness. Leadership earned by personality, intellect, or effort can be effective. Leadership conveyed by default (no one wants it) is often ineffective.

Communication

Communication underlies all activities. Locating related operations together improves communication and efficiency. Communication requires time to express thoughts and to listen. Desire to express your own point of view contributes to less listening to others' ideas. Failure to clarify what someone says can lead to misunderstanding. Anger, defensiveness, and rejection interfere with communication. People doing the work have good insights. People watching the work have good insights. The most knowledgeable people are not necessarily the most vocal.

Group Interaction

Working on a "task" (making NND's) is easier than working on the group's process. Working in smaller groups is easier than working as a large group. Positions and roles affect individual views of a situation and ideas on what to do. Individual styles may work in harmony or conflict. Working together requires understanding oneself. Working together requires understanding others and accommodating differences. More heads are better than one only if they know what they are talking about and have an effective process to interact with each other. Ignored ideas are repeated until noticed. Input from "outsiders" is more likely to be ignored or rejected by a group. Use of visual aids (e.g., flip chart) helps focus group attention and capture info.

Motivation

Goals help measure progress and contribute to feelings of success or failure. Motivated and creative people find ways to improvise. Rejected ideas may lead to apathy or opposition (direct or indirect). Success increases the willingness to pursue a goal. Failure can be motivational if a means to overcome it is visible. Greater control / influence over tasks and discussions leads to greater effort Work affects your feelings and vice versa.

Productivity

It is easy to create waste: idle time, excessive motion, bad product, rework. Balancing workloads improves work flow. Having enough of the right tools is crucial. The supply of tools is always limited. Restrictive work rules can cause inefficiency. Consistent work practices improve quality. Workers require instruction, practice, and feedback to develop skills. Cross-trained workers moving to the work bottlenecks can help solve problems. Improvision must be tested and standardized for consistent quality results. Inspection at the end of a total process permits in-process errors and scrap. Production speed is limited to that of the slowest operation (bottleneck). Accumulations of inventory in-process are often clues to bottlenecks. Including different tasks and skills in a group improves its self-sufficiency. Creating small work cells responsible for all production steps is often more effective than trying to coordinate large, separate, specialized departments. Improvement is continuous and on-going as changes reveal new opportunities.

Other

We can learn from our work if we study it. We need to take time to observe and discuss our work activities as well as do them.