AMS In Focus is a bi-weekly newsletter, intended primarily for Arizona state employees, that explains what the Arizona Management System is, how it is being implemented, and why it is needed to streamline and modernize Arizona government. Most recent articles appear at the top of the page.
Gemba walks are the intentional opportunities that leaders must take to go and see how the work is done by employees using their standard processes and to humbly ask them questions to better understand why things are done as they are.*
From these opportunities, leaders...
Gemba walks are an essential Lean leader tool within the design and construct of the Arizona Management System. Gemba is a Japanese term that means “the real place,” and within the language of Lean, gemba is where the value-adding work takes place.*
Gemba refers to the...
One-on-one (1:1) coaching is a component of performance management that leaders at all levels - frontline supervisors, managers of managers, and agency executives - use to grow and mentor their staff. As the name implies, 1:1 coaching occurs individually between a leader and team member. Though...
We’ve been talking about the role of leadership within the Arizona Management System. Let’s now shift from what leadership is and examine some practical ways it is embodied in agencies where AMS is being deployed.
But before we do, we should pause to reassure ourselves that in...
The Arizona Management System, our intentional, results-driven approach to performance, sustainable progress and continuous improvement, is based on principles of Lean management. Lean’s principles of continuous improvement date back more than a century and have proven effective in reducing...
Within the discipline of the Arizona Management System - our intentional, results-driven approach to performance, sustainable progress and continuous improvement - the role of leadership looks different than it might be viewed in traditional organizational settings.
In...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is an intentional, results-driven approach where every state employee reflects daily on performance, reduces waste and commits to continuous improvement with sustainable progress.
Because AMS is a system, its interrelated, interacting parts...
Intermediate-level problem solving uses relatively sophisticated problem solving techniques to resolve complex problems and manage projects. Within the context of the Arizona Management System (AMS,) teams use a standard, single-page, 11x17-inch (A3) template to manage and document their work....
Intermediate-level problem solving uses relatively sophisticated problem solving techniques to resolve complex problems and manage projects. Within the context of the Arizona Management System (AMS,) teams use a standard, single-page, I lxl7-inch (A3) template to manage and document their work....
Most of the problems that Arizona state employees are asked to solve are “Just Do It” types of problems or ones that require basic problem solving skills and tools. But agencies should develop a pool of employees who have mastered more sophisticated problem solving techniques for resolving...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is transforming how our state government thinks and does business by enabling employees to track performance and surface problems so they can be fixed with discipline by deploying countermeasures for sustainable progress.
When there are many...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is transforming how our state government thinks and does business by enabling employees to track performance and surface problems so they can be fixed with discipline by deploying countermeasures for sustainable progress.
When there are many...
A key step in basic problem solving is to identify the root cause of the problem - i.e., the fundamental reason why the problem exists. Numerous tools are available to help teams determine a problem’s underlying root cause.
The “Five Why Analysis” is a simple yet powerful tool...
Arizona’s state workforce of more than 33,000 skilled problem solvers will achieve far greater results and increase value and efficiency more than what can be achieved if only leaders and managers solve problems. Through the Arizona Management System (AMS), employees are learning standard work...
Through the Arizona Management System (AMS), it is expected that every state employee becomes good at identifying and solving problems. A workforce of more than 33,000 skilled problem solvers will achieve far greater results and increase value and efficiency more than what can be achieved if...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is the catalyst transforming how Arizona government thinks and does business. AMS is an intentional, results-driven approach for doing the work of state government so that every employee reflects on performance, reduces waste, and commits to continuous...
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Arizona Management System is a system, a combination of interrelated, interacting elements that form a collective whole. Just as your body’s circulatory system, for example, cannot function without the heart, veins and arteries each doing its job in unison...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is an intentional, results-driven approach for doing the work of state government so that every employee reflects on performance, reduces waste, and commits to continuous improvement with sustainable progress.
Operating within AMS, all agencies...
The annual statewide Employee Engagement Survey begins April 2, and Arizona state employees can once again take the opportunity to provide state leaders insight into how engaged we are in our work.
The Department of Administration has been doing the survey since 2014, and each...
Workplace organization means more than keeping our office space tidy and clean. When done effectively, it is a powerful visual performance management tool that lends order, safety and standardization to work flow, which in turn helps reduce waste and lower costs.
A means to...
As noted in our previous newsletter, team huddles offer numerous benefits to employees and agencies alike. Chief among them may be the informed, two-way communication up and down the management chain that occurs when management can readily see and gauge staff performance, and employees...
Agencies deploying the full Arizona Management System (AMS) effectively use team huddles at all levels to drive performance, identify problems and continuously improve their business processes.
Team huddles are intentionally designed to be brief, structured check-ins conducted at...
Visual process adherence (VPA) is a way to quickly see if the people doing the work are following standard work, which is defined as the documented, current one best way to perform a process. When done correctly, VPA should indicate if a given process flows
as expected by quickly and...
Standard work may be defined as the documented current one best way to perform a process. It is the foundation for the Plan-DoCheck-Act cycle of continuous improvement and ensures that we sustain our gains over time. Without a standard, teams have no way to know if they are backsliding. There...
Problem tracking and success tracking are vital visual management elements of the Arizona Management System. In agencies that are deploying the full AMS, it's expected that they have standard work for actively tracking problems and successes at every level of the organization.
...
Walk into any agency that is deploying the full Arizona Management System and you will see something that just two years could not have been imagined. In these agencies, representing about half of the Governor’s cabinet and more than 75 percent of the state workforce, you will see visual...
Arizona is transforming the way our state government thinks and does business through the deployment of the Arizona Management System (AMS). AMS is an intentional, results-driven approach for doing the work of state government so that every employee, at every level, with discipline,...
We have already devoted considerable attention to the importance of selecting metrics and targets that matter (see https://ams.az.gov/about/ams-focus ). But we're going to return to this topic because choosing good metrics may be the most...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is an intentional, results-driven approach for doing the work of state government so that every employee, at every level, with discipline, reflects daily on how they did, finds the waste, and decides how to do better going forward with sustainable progress....
Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company and a pioneer of integrating principles of continuous improvement into his business operations, understood the power of discontent. He once said, “Our own attitude is that we are charged with the discovering the best way of doing everything and...
Since late May, editions of AMS In Focus have addressed what we as state employees produce (our “widgets”), who we make our products for (our customers), and why we do it (our vital mission outcomes.) Let’s now shift attention to how the work gets done in our agencies – our processes – using the...
Agencies are finalizing strategic plans that will be submitted to the Governor by September 1. The annual planning process is always a vital exercise for determining agencies’ priority goals and objectives and setting course for what staff will work on in the months ahead.
With...
As public servants, state employees sometimes think of the “public” as the customer but in fact that is not usually the case because they don’t directly use our products or services. A better way to view the public is to see them as investors, i.e., taxpayers who demand a reasonable return on...
The Arizona Management System (AMS) is based in part on principles of Lean management. Fundamental to understanding Lean is knowing who our customer is.
If we’re not careful about correctly defining who the customer is, we can accidentally design waste into our processes...
As previously discussed, choosing metrics that matter is critical to the successful deployment of the Arizona Management System (see https://ams.az.gov/about/ams-focus for details.) It is important to recognize that as Arizona state employees, we...
Choosing measures that matter should be important to us as state employees because the Arizona Management System is how we approach our work today and visual performance management is fundamental to AMS. As employees who work in a smaller, more cost-conscious government, we need AMS for the...
When it comes to choosing metrics that matter, a good place to start is by thinking carefully about:
Visual performance management is one of three core components of the Arizona Management System (the others are problem solving and leader standard behaviors.) Good visual management allows us to:
• Quickly communicate standards and status so teams and management in near real time...
What exactly is a “management system,” and how does the Arizona Management System differ from all the ones that have come before it? The concept of a management system probably originated with cave men, once they figured out they needed to work together in order to survive. As the size of the...
As agencies proceed in rolling out the Arizona Management System, don’t be surprised if you hear occasional objections like this:
“That Lean stuff may work in industry, but we’re government, not some factory that churns out cars or computers. We’re here to make a difference in people’s...
Every organization has a culture, and it exists whether we want it to or not. Culture is the shared beliefs, values and practices that both define and distinguish an organization. Unplanned and left to evolve freely over time, organizational culture can become an odd mix of both good and bad...
Because every state agency has a vital mission, it’s our responsibility as state employees to continuously improve our ability to deliver mission outcomes for the citizens we serve. We maximize this long-term mission benefit for Arizona by delivering value to customers, and by engaging employees...
As an Arizona state employee, how engaged are you in achieving your agency’s mission? It’s an important question to ask ourselves as we are deploying the Arizona Management System, and it’s also timely because the annual statewide Employee Engagement Survey is coming soon.
...
Every Arizona state agency has a vital mission that gives urgency, direction and purpose to all that we do as state employees. Because our missions are vital and continue to expand with each passing year, we have a responsibility to get faster and better at doing the vital mission work that...
