There is a balance that exists in root cause analysis that is Yin and Yang. In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang represents the harmonious balance between seemingly contradictory forces. Light is Yang, darkness is Yin. Hot is Yang, cold is Yin. Top of a hill is Yang, valley of the hill is Yin. The typical representation of Yin and Yang has the white section as Yang and the black section as Yin.

The root cause analysis process can be represented by the simple schematic below:

Once the problem statement is made, one should use divergent thinking to gather more data/information and identify the potential sources of a problem. This should be followed by convergent thinking where one focuses on the true root cause(s). One might use Fishbone diagram as the form of divergent thinking, and five why as the convergent thinking.

Divergent thinking is expansive in nature and lacks focus, thus it is Yin. Convergent thinking, on the other hand is zooming in and direct in nature, thus it is Yang. As with anything else in nature, a good root cause analysis process should have at least one cycle of divergent thinking and convergent thinking. The approach of Yin and Yang creates a complete/whole root cause analysis.

Jumping to conclusions is just Yang. The absence of Yin makes this an imbalanced and wrong approach. As noted above, one may use multiple cycles of divergent thinking followed by convergent thinking. Think of this as a rinse process, purifying your thinking process with each cycle. This will provide clarity in your investigation, and prevent biases that water down your efforts to fix the problem.

As you may have noted, each half (Yin or Yang) also has a dot corresponding to the opposite color. This indicates that within each section, nothing is complete. In my humble opinion, this is similar to the Japanese thinking of wabi-sabi. That is, even within the Yin, it is not completely Yin. There is a dot of Yang in it. Even when we are doing divergent thinking, we are going in a certain direction. Even when we are doing convergent thinking, we are still remaining open.

Always keep on learning…

Having been immersed in TPS (Toyota Production System) or lean, I have been very interested in seeing how many lean practitioners talk about 5S and the importance of a clean and organized desk. It is almost as if, the clean and organized desk indicates a clean and organized mind – making you a more productive worker. As with everything else, generalization is not always a good thing.

The goal of 5S (or Go-Esu as our Japanese counterparts say) is not to clean and have a tidy work place. The goal of 5S is to ensure that any waste becomes immediately visible. I have delved philosophically about how this applies to an office environment, where the work does not always have routine, efficient and predictable attributes.

My own personal experience has been that having a less than tidy desk never hindered my productivity. Sometimes, the opposite was true. My desk may have piles, but the most important projects/documents are always on the top and close to me. Proximity and the order indicate the importance and timeliness requirement of the project.

My goal has been to have an organized mind first, and then an organized desk. It looks like there has been some research done about the cluttered desks, and this is not truly new news. The goal of this post is not to promote cluttered desks. The goal of this post is to promote organized minds through mindfulness.

Einstein is supposed to have asked, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” The cued answer is a tongue-in-cheek “Empty mind.”

A study conducted in 2013 by Kathleen D. Vohs, a behavioral scientist at the University of Minnesota, indicated that a cluttered desk might actually lead to outside the box thinking by allowing one to veer from the conventionally treaded paths. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/9/1860

It is true that many great minds have been found to have messy desks.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

STEVE JOBS

MARK TWAIN

But as I stated earlier, the goal of this post is not to promote a cluttered desk. 🙂

I have been trying to have a better organized mind through mindfulness practice. The goal of mindfulness practice is to be aware and to be present at the given moment. Surprisingly this has huge benefits in the hustled world that we live in. Check out this link. http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/three_benefits_to_mindfulness_at_work

Mindfulness helps in improving our emotional intelligence, and helps us being focused on the task at hand. It provides clarity to our minds.

So let us try to organize our minds, getting rid of clutter leading to clarity and focus. And then, have an organized desk. Maybe, a cluttered desk is not that bad after all.

Keep on learning…

I heard this story when I was a little kid. Now that I am older, I am not able to trace its source. I think it may have been a Zen story. Anyways, the way I remember it is as follows:

There was a famous teacher in a village. Two brothers came to be trained under him. Years went by, and the older brother was getting restless. In his mind, the teacher was partial to his younger brother, and he could not understand why. He is older and felt wiser than the younger brother. But the teacher never gave him any responsibilities.

One day, the older brother went to his teacher and asked him,

“Teacher, why is it that you do not give me any responsibilities? You always seem to be biased towards my younger brother. We came here at the same time, and learned everything together. Yet, you treat him better than you treat me. Why?”

The teacher smiled. He sipped his tea, and then said,

“Let’s do this; why don’t you run to the village center and go to the rice store. Ask the vendor, what is the price of rice? Come back when you are ready.”

The older brother thought this was an easy job. He ran to the village center and asked the vendor the price for rice, and ran back to his teacher.

“It is 10 rupees per kilo.” He said trying to catch his breath.

The teacher asked him. “Is this the price for brown rice?”

“Yes”. The older brother replied.

“What about the white rice?” The teacher asked.

“I do not know.” The older brother replied.

So he ran back again, and asked the vendor for the price of white rice, and ran back to his teacher.

“It is 12 rupees per kilo.” He replied again trying to catch his breath.

“Is there a price discount, if I buy 10 kilos?” The teacher asked.

“I do not know” was the answer again.

The student ran to the village center yet again to gather more information.

“The price is 8 rupees if we buy 10 kilos.” The student responded.

“What about the white rice?” was the next question from his teacher.

Now the student was too tired to run back again, so he sat down ashamed.

The teacher asked for the younger brother to come. He was unaware of any of the happenings.

“Why don’t you run to the village center and go to the rice store. Ask the vendor, what is the price of rice? Come back when you are ready.” The teacher asked the same thing to the younger brother.

“Sure thing, Teacher”, the younger brother replied.

He ran off and came back after a short while.

“The price of rice is 10 rupees per kilo for brown, and 12 rupees per kilo for white. If you buy 10 kilos, you will get a discount of 2 rupees for both brown and white. The new stock is coming in two days, so we might want to wait to get the fresh supply. The vendor also gave his regards to you.” The younger brother replied.

“Thank you, my son. You may go now”, the teacher said.

The teacher took another sip of his tea, and looked at the older brother, and said.

“When you are given a task, always try to see what the big picture is. Try to understand how your seemingly little task aligns with the big task at hand.”

“Do not be a small person caring about only small things and your own small world. Be a big person caring about both small and big things.” The teacher continued finishing his tea.

THE END.

Soon after joining the work force, I came to the realization that I have to move in and out of the big and small picture perspectives. A task or a project sometimes seems to live on even after you are done with it, and it is generally intertwined with multiple other projects. Thus I learned to keep my mind at the task at hand, while keeping my eyes on the big picture.

To me, the younger brother also ensured to maintain a personal interaction with the rice vendor. This is also an important thing to keep in mind.

Always keep on learning, and be ready when you are next asked what the price of rice is.

I am a big fan of Spock, a key character from the classic Star Trek show. He is a great inspiration for me, and I have already written a post about him here.

Recently, I came across another gem from him that I would like to share.

This is taken from the episode “That Which Survives.”

SPOCK: I note it, Mister Scott, without necessarily understanding it. I propose to run an analysis through the ship’s computers, comparing the present condition of the Enterprise with her ideal condition.

This in my eyes is a good example of Genchi Genbutsu via Grasping the Current Condition. Spock came across a potential problem on the star ship, and he is using the scientific approach to first understand the problem.

If you do not know the ideal state, how will you know what the scope of the problem is?

One should always know the ideal state. This is a form of calibration, a way to know if there is indeed a problem or if it is a false alarm. Humans tend to exaggerate when they try to approximate. When the entirety of data is lacking, one has to approximate, and this can lead him/her to underestimate a threat or overestimate a gain.

Do you know your ideal state at work? At home?

Always keep on learning…

There is a great Greek paradox/puzzle called the Ship of Theseus. There are multiple versions and derivations to it. My favorite version is as follows (highly watered down);

Theseus bought a new ship. Each day he replaced one part of the ship. Plank by plank, and sail by sail and finally oar by oar. Finally no part of the original ship remained. Now the paradox is this – is the ship same as the original ship now that every part has been replaced? This is a great thought experiment about identity and understanding of self. If we go one step further and build a new ship with all the parts that were replaced from the original ship, is the new ship the same as the original ship?

When I read about this great paradox, somehow my mind started thinking about process validation. We get a new piece of equipment, say a pouch sealer, and during the course of multiple years, the equipment gets many of the parts replaced and many of the parts get worn down. Is the sealer the same as the original sealer? Is the original validation still valid?

This is where two main aspects of the process validation are important.

1) Maintaining the validated state; and 2) Revalidation Criteria.

Maintaining the validation state includes proper monitoring of the process, once it is qualified, to ensure that the process is in a state of control. For example, for a sealer validation, we might perform seal strength testing and visual inspection based on a frequency and defined criteria. Any adverse results shall be reviewed and rectified.

The revalidation criteria can be based on predetermined criteria as well. Some examples are below.

1) Major parts of the equipment replaced.

2) Equipment relocated to a new facility.

3) Equipment not in use for more than a year.

4) Significant changes to the process like raw material change.

5) Negative trends in Quality.

Both maintaining the validated state and revalidation requirements must be part of a process validation protocol.

Keep on learning…