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....
Office of the Arizona Governor Doug Ducey
Suggested Reading
Process Improvement and Performance Related Literature
For All Employees
We Don’t Make Widgets - Ken Miller
A foundational “must read” for any government worker trapped in dysfunctional systems and looking for a better way to get the work done. Author Ken Miller, a former state employee himself, explains in easily understood ways that government can radically improve when we free ourselves from a few long-held myths:
• We don’t make widgets. We do! We provide products and services using processes that can easily be measured, managed and improved.
• We don’t have customers. We do! And they are not who we think they are. They are the people who actually use what we produce and their satisfaction is critical to our success.
• We’re not here to make a profit. Yes, we are! But it’s defined not in terms of dollars and cents but the return on investment we deliver in real mission outcomes for Arizonans.
Extreme Government Makeover - Ken Miller
If you only choose one book on our list of suggested reading, please make it this one. It’s written by a former state employee who knows firsthand that the house of government is broken and in need of a serious makeover. Author Ken Miller uses humor and compassion to explore the simple ways public sector employees can tear down all the twisted, broken ways government operates and rebuild it to deliver faster, better service for customers and citizens.
Government That Works, The Results Revolution in the States - John M. Bernard
You can’t win if you’re not keeping score. Arizona government is starting to keep score, and if you want to understand how we’re doing it, then you’ll want to read this book. Government That Works provides a detailed, practical blueprint to guide agencies on how to collect and analyze accurate data, set ambitious goals for improved performance, measure progress and deliver meaningful citizen outcomes.
The Lean Management System – Joe Murli
Arizona government is adopting an intentional management system so that we measure for results and continuously improve how the work gets done. Helping lead Arizona’s transformation is author Joe Murli, who brings a people-centered approach focused on front-line managers and staff to unleash their potential through active, disciplined problem solving. In about 160 pages, this book defines the system by which Arizona state agencies constantly look to improve how we do our vital mission work by creating a culture where everybody, every day and everywhere asks: how did we do yesterday, what got in our way, and how can we do it better today?
For Leaders and Managers
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t – Jim Collins
This seminal management book from 2001 describes how companies transition from being good to being truly exceptional, and how most companies fail to make the transition.
Built to Last – Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
Over six years of intensive research, the authors studied the founding, growth and development of 18 exceptional, long-lasting companies and describe what sets them apart from their competitors.
Lean for Dummies – Bruce Williams
Like any of the books in the “… for Dummies” series, this edition offers a friendly, plain-English overview of core Lean concepts, such as defining customer value and waste, how flow and value streams work, and basics on how to apply Lean in the workplace. It also takes a look at successes and failures of early Lean practitioners, including Toyota, and offers cases studies and hands-on advice.
Creating a Lean Culture (3rd edition) – David Mann
Intended for leaders at all levels of the organization, this hands-on manual provides critical insights and approaches to make a Lean transformation an ongoing success by developing a culture that engages employees and gets them involved and invested in the outcome. Includes a useful glossary of Lean terminology.
The Toyota Way - Jeffrey K. Liker
The Toyota Way explains the management principles and business philosophy behind Toyota’s worldwide reputation for quality and reliability. It’s a bit denser than some of our other suggested reading, but it is foundational for managers and executives looking to improve business processes by:
• Eliminating wasted time and resources
• Building quality into workplace systems
• Finding low-cost but reliable alternatives to expensive new technology
• Ensuring every employee is responsible for quality control
The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) – Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling
Intended for leaders seeking to produce breakthrough results, 4DX is a simple, repeatable and proven formula for translating strategy into action by tapping people’s natural desire to win. The four disciplines are:
• Focusing on the wildly important, the one or two things that matter most
• Acting on lead measures to leverage limited time and resources to accomplish more
• Keeping a compelling scoreboard, one that’s designed for the players that gets their heads and their hearts in the game
• Keeping a cadence of accountability, where everyone on the team is accountable to each other
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:
- What do we make? (our widget)
- How do we make it? (our process)
- Who do we make it for? (our customer/enduser)
- Why do we make it? (our desired...
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...
| 5 Principles of Lean Thinking |
Five principles of Lean thinking that can benefit the workflow of your agency. |
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| LEI Resources | ||
| BMGI Training | ||
| The Fable of Complexity |
Do you ever get the feeling that everything we try to do to help us get the work done, only adds to the work we have to do? Do you ever get the feeling you're not the only one thinking this? Do you ever get the feeling that everything we try to do to help us get the work done, only adds to the work we have to do? Do you ever get the feeling you're not the only one thinking this? |
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