Customer Reviews

Getting the Right Things Done: A Leader's Guide to Planning and Execution

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the 3rd hoshin kanri (strategy deployment) text I've read (on top of other readings). It's also the 2nd book by this author I've now read too. Having loved his "Lean Production Simplified" book, so much, I was somewhat disappointed by this book.

Pro:
+ Simple and easy to read
+ I liked his use of A3s, a topic that I have relatively little experience
+ There are interesting Socratic Method-style chapter summaries, phrased in the form of questions... nice touch
+ Good linkage to PDCA
+ Shingo Prize Winner (2008)

Con:
- No index at the back of the book (please add in next edition)
- Out of print
- A narrative, a style that while easy to read tends to be less informationally dense (contrast to Jackson's, "Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise").
- Limits topics to planning of goal execution like Bechtel did in "Management Compass"
- "True North" examples could be greatly improved in my view... all compasses point to magnetic North. If compass is an analogy for intuition then hoshin kanri methods help us find our way in spite of this strong, traditional/common pull to a similar, but ultimately divergent path.
- For me, offered too little on how the system might work

Bottom line: Strengths of this book may also be its weaknesses. Might be good as an introduction to hoshin kanri, but seems overly simplified to me and not to my taste. Perhaps expectations were set unrealistically high on my part given his brilliant text, "Lean Production Simplified." Hoshin is a tough topic to write about, and it still suprises me how deep this topic really is.

Pascal Dennis covers the basics of strategy deployment extremely well. He explains the concepts, methods and tactics used by Toyota to maximize improvement. His extremely practical description of strategies "as stories that engage" and his clear explanations of similar concepts make the complex subject matter accessible to everyone. The book is easy to read and the words he uses are very effective. For example, when he explains how "translation" makes strategies "real" to employees at every level of an organization or when he describes the "Catchball" process as a "scrubbing" process where teams "toss ideas back and forth" to create plans that are realistic and acheivable. Mr. Dennis is a former Toyota employee and accomplished author. I find his advice highly credible and recommended his book.

In "Getting the Right Things Done" Pascal Dennis offers an introduction to Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri). The book is written as a "novel" with plenty of information sidebars. It is clear and easy to read (a feature of Mr Dennis' books) - a brilliant introduction for the beginner. What is more, the book is packed with example "A3" strategy and action plans to give you a real feel for the system (with blank copies available to download). Interestingly, and in contrast to a number of lean consultants I know, Dennis suggests leaving organising into Value Streams until after the framework of Strategy Deployment is successfully implemented. This is to get people used to the PDCA structure before the upheaval of reorganisation, I guess. Not a bad approach, though, to my mind, Value Stream mapping and other tools will also provide lots of valuable input to the Strategy Deployment process, even if people aren't yet formally grouped into Value Streams.

Nevertheless, this book provides the ideal introduction to Hoshin Kanri in a clear, straightforward and readable manner. It is suitable for beginners at all levels in the organisation.

After reading this book I got a lot of great ideas to plan next year's goals & also improve my overall department's effectiveness.

This book is full of good ideas on how to implement and develop a business strategy (or for that matter, any group project's strategy). It has many graphics that help push that idea. It presents the majority of the information as a story of a struggling company who hires a new manager that becomes the hero by changing the management climate (by refocusing priorities). The downside to it is that there is a lot of 'fluff' in the story and the story is idealized (all the workers seem too patient and open minded, the 'hero' that brings all these ideas to the business is 'too good' at his job, etc). The story, although it does provide a good example of how to use all the information in the book, really just acts as filler between the real nuggets of gold. The information is very good, the story is a little too much.

Written on a fictional company, but a good directive for implementing CI. Good examples of A3s and strategic direction. I'm becoming a big fan of Pascal's knowledge and writing.

"Why are we doing this lean stuff?" "This is just another program of the month." By now you have heard all of the complaints associated with the idea that we need to change the way we do business. You have read some books about the tools,and are getting good at kaizen, but what is your overall strategy for delivering your business objectives? This book is about strategic deployment, using lean to deliver the business objectives. This is an excellent resource, and I refer back to it time after time. It is not for the faint of heart, and before getting this book you should have a good fundamental knowledge of what lean is all about.

A good book and reference tool for understanding Strategy Deployment/Hoshin and the tools used within this CI philosophy. Written in a similiar style to other popular Lean/CI books in that it has a story, it is not purely a reference book. Includes the PDCA cycle and explains the various levels of A3's. Plenty of real life examples to help in understanding how to populate A3 documents are included within the book.

This is mainly a strategy deployment book written in a novel format. With regards to management books written in novel format I prefer The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement and The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround, both are more interesting, provide more insights, get to the core of the business and show you other ways to look at things. Although nowhere in the title "lean manufacturing" is mentioned, I thought it would be related to lean practises because it was published by The Lean Enterprise Institute with a foreword by James Womack. In fact, it is more on strategy with little connection to other lean concepts except for the word "hoshin kanri" that stands for something like management by objectives, leadership and/or strategy.

As a management guide I strongly recommend Practical Lean Accounting: A Proven System for Measuring and Managing the Lean Enterprise, which gives you excellent tools for measuring and leading progress, as well as good insights into lean thinking. Finally, concerning strategic planning, books by Mintzberg or Porter have probably more to offer.

What was new to me was the use of the "A3", which in fact is just the name given in Europe and probably Asia to a paper of aprox. "legal" size. This paper is used horizontally to convey the full picture of a situation, action plan and expected results. This A3 is used in Toyota as a planning deployment tool; it is surely useful, but probably as useful as any other carefully and consistently applied method of strategy deployment.

Concerning "the right things to be done", the book keeps silent, since the right things are different for each company, so in fact the whole book is about how to use the A3 method to discover these right things in your organization and get them done.

This book increased my knowledge of Six Sigma and A3 processes. I have attended a Six Sigma certification course as well as reading Lean Six Sigma That Works. Getting the Right Things Done uses a fictional company that was once very successful but now struggling. The book goes through the transformation of the company into lean techniques and processes which starts with the buy in from the management team. The fictional company is based on manufacturing air conditioner parts but the examples are easily transferable to other industries and services. The book is an easy read with lots of good charts and drawings to help transfer the points. This book demonstrates A3 processes which improve project management processes.