Jidoka - How to Ensure Your Job is NOT Offshoreable

Do you ever worry that your job might be "offshoreable" in the future? If not, you should, there's a lot of "smart" people out there that are claiming it's the end-all-be-all cost-saving solution to every business process. If you have worried about it, I have the steps you need to make sure it never happens.

Jidoka is a Japanese word that translates to "Autonomation". It is used in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing techniques. It has been described as "intelligent automation" or "automation with a human touch." The concept of Jidoka is simple: Humans are flexible, they are good at adapting and making changes, but they are not very good at completing repetitive tasks. Machines (or computers) however, are not very flexible, but they do a very good job at completing repetitive tasks. Autonomation is about developing processes and systems that understand these key points and leverage human and machine resources accordingly.

This may trigger a "No duh." response. But one aspect of Lean manufacturing that we often do not implore, is the concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. That is, continually looking for opportunities to remove humans from completing repetitive tasks, and put them in positions of management and oversight where they can implement continuous improvement of the processes they are involved with.

Think about your life for a moment. How much of your day is spent completing repetitive tasks (on and off the job)? Whether it's plugging data into a spreadsheet for budget tracking, responding to the same type of email question/request over and over, or heck, even going to various websites to get your local, sports and social media news. How much time during your day do you spend doing the same thing, over and over?

On the personal level, there's a great book by Tim Ferris, "The 4 Hour Work Week", that offers some suggestions on how to Autonomate various aspects of your personal life. Some of them are far-fetched, but the concept is sound. Stop Wasting Time.

The same discipline can be applied to ALL of our jobs. We all have processes in place we're required to participate in as a part of doing our jobs. But how can we make those processes better? How can we remove ourselves and our colleagues from doing repetitive tasks and Autonomate them? Note, the word is not "Automate". We're not talking about replacing humans here, we're talking about increasing their efficiency and allowing them to focus on oversight and things that matter (continuous improvement), and not on the repetitive tasks.

Some people's answer to process improvement is by offshoring the task. Send it overseas to cheaper labor, and let them complete the repetitive tasks. This may seem to offer some cost savings in the short-term, but this often introduces other issues and inefficiencies, while still not addressing the core issue that humans (no matter where they live) are not very good at completing repetitive tasks. This is one of the major reasons there is so much attrition in offshore firms. Offshore employees are not going after more money somewhere else, the truth is, they get bored! Ultimately, the attrition you see requires more people that need to be trained, more offshore management and oversight needed to oversee new recruits, and the more the cost "savings" shrinks to the point that it negates the competitive advantage that was being explored. This result has been seen in offshoring everything from financial management, to call centers, to software development.

If you want to ensure your job doesn't get offshored, then you need to figure out ways to Autonomate your job. Figure out what aspects can be given to a machine. Let your stakeholders know that the more they can automate, the more responsibility you can take on, the more efficient you can be. You can get out of the role of being an "operator" and into the role of a true "knowledge worker", a differentiator, a competitive advantage.

Before you ever ask yourself the question, "Is my job offshoreable?", ask yourself the question, "Can the processes I'm a part of be Autonomated (Jidoka)?". I guarantee that if you're continuously doing the latter (Kaizen), the former will never be a question.

-J

What Facebook Is All About

OK, this isn't really in-line with the Technology Edge theme, but if you're a FB user, it is funny. . .

A Message for the Millenials: How to be Successful in Business

I have a few younger siblings that have recently entered the workforce. This blog is for them and their friends. It has nothing to do with technology. It contains a few very simple, tactical "habits" that I feel everyone needs to follow to be successful in business.

1) Never Answer Your Cell Phone in the Middle of a Conversation (if you answer it in a meeting, you could/should be shot).
This seems obvious but you'd be surprised by how many tenured people break this rule. This was taught to me by an old mentor of mine, Gautam Shah. He said, "Answering your cell phone in the middle of a conversation, even a water cooler conversation, is disrespectful and negates any goodness that could come from that conversation. At that moment in time, the person on the other end of the line is no where near as important as the person you are talking to." 15 years ago, before cell phones, this wasn't an issue, and it shouldn't be today. You should always be engaged with the person you are speaking with, it establishes report, respect and trust. And, God forbid, if you're in a meeting, and you answer your cell phone, you should be wrapped up in the projector screen and bludgeoned with whiteboard dry erasers, because you just made an ass of yourself.

2) Always Bring Something to Write With
My first day of work at Andersen Consulting, I was told by a very smart guy, "Whenever you get up from your desk, make sure you're carrying a piece of paper with you." I smiled and asked, "OK, why?" He said, "It doesn't matter if you're going to a meeting, walking across the room or going to the bathroom, if there is a piece of paper in your hand, you're busy, if you have nothing, you're wandering." I think this is an important lesson for anyone in business. Perception is reality. It's especially important if you're called into your client/bosses office. ALWAYS, bring something to write with. ALWAYS. Never go into a meeting (any meeting) empty handed. Being empty-handed totes an essence of disrespect and uncaring. Oh, and don't forget to WRITE STUFF DOWN. Taking brief notes, even trivial ones, demonstrates that you are engaged and that you care about the conversation.

3) Don't Cross Your Arms When Someone Is Talking to You
This is a funny one that I was guilty of for a number of years until I took an Improvisational Acting class a few years ago (which I recommend to anyone in business). The teacher of the class, Steve Roath, would always point people out who were crossing their arms, before making them put them down. He said, "Crossing your arms creates a barrier between your mind and the knowledge or opinions being shared by others." As subconscious as this reflex may be, I believe he's absolutely right. I've made it a point to acknowledge my arms in conversations and in meetings and I find that when I do cross them, subconsciously, it's typically (for me) a defense mechanism. By lowering them I instinctively open my mind to listen to the information being conveyed to me, and I'm much more apt to listen more fully and to either learn from that information, or craft a much more intelligent response. In summary, don't ever cross your arms. It's a terrible defense mechanism. If necessary, put your dukes up!

4) Make a Real Difference by Creating a Job for Someone Else
This was the most impactful lesson I learned, and it came from Robert Blackwell. Robert and I were at lunch a number of years ago, talking about my then-career as an independent consultant. He asked, "J, do you think doctors are successful?" I replied, "Yes, I think doctors are very successful." He responded, "I think doctors do great things, but it's the guys that build hospitals that are successful, because they create jobs for doctors." That statement always stuck with me. It should be our goal to not just fill a role for ourselves, but to create roles and jobs for others. You don't have to be an entrepreneur or a financier to do this, you just have to figure out ways to save your company money or increase it's revenue. So whether your helping a business operate or helping a business develop and grow, you have the opportunity to make a difference, and ultimately, if you do a kick ass job, you will create a job for someone else. That's what makes America great, and how you can be a contributor to it's continued success.

These are a few tips, there are a gabillion others, and that's what blog comments are for. So tell the Millenials, what are your "habits" that you'd like to share with our future leaders?

-J

What is a Solstice Consultant?

One of the places Solstice derives great talent is through it's highly acclaimed, paid internship program, focused on giving college students the opportunity to build experience delivering projects across IT, business process optimization and marketing/change management. Each intern is required to complete projects across all of these domains, in the Solstice spirit of building cross-functional teams. The YouTube video below is a recruiting video a few of our interns have put together about what it means to be a Solstice Consultant.

How to Consolidate Twitter Feeds using Yahoo Pipes

Guest Writer: Kelly O'Regan - Solstice 2009 Summer Intern

We recently launched a Twitter account for Solstice. Our goal was to consolidate the twitter feeds from all of the thought leaders in our organization into a single feed for SolsticeLLC. We wanted to accomplish this utilizing purely SaaS and Cloud-Based Platforms. I was able to accomplish this in about 4 hours (including research). Here's how I did it:

In order to complete this process, you’ll need to have 2 accounts, a Yahoo! account and a Twitterfeed account

Start by logging into Yahoo! Pipes with your Yahoo! email address:

1. Click on the “Create a Pipe” link in the top toolbar.
2. To begin, we need to define the content to pull through the pipe. In our case, it will be the RSS feeds from several Twitter accounts.
3. To do this, under the “Sources” dropdown menu in the left hand toolbar, drag a “Fetch Feed” source into your workspace.
4. Here, you can add numerous Twitter RSS Feed URLs to the pipe. To find that URL, go to the Twitter page for whom you’d like to use, and click the “RSS” button in the address bar.
5. Copy the web address once the RSS feed shows up.
6. Paste as many RSS feeds into the Fetch Feed URL boxes. To add more boxes, simply click on the “+” next to the URL.
7. Connect the Fetch Feed module to the Pipe Output (See NOTE below for additions to this Pipe).
8. Click “Save” in the top toolbar.
9. Once you’ve saved your new pipe, click on the “Back to My Pipes.”
10. Click on your newly saved pipe. As you and your colleagues start tweeting, the content will show up under the “List” section of this page. To get this, click on the “Get as RSS.”
11. Copy the link in the address bar, and open a new window.

Next, log into twitterfeed.com:

1. On the Dashboard, click “Create New Feed.”
2. Twitterfeed connect to your Twitter Account- Make sure the one it’s logging into is the one you want other accounts to streamline into.
3. your Feed (Does not show up in any way on your Twitter Account)
4. in the Yahoo! pipes RSS feed.
5. Click the Advanced Settings link, and choose the update frequency and any other additions you’d like to make.
6. IMPORTANT: Be sure to uncheck the “Post Link” box so that your urls aren’t repeated.
7. Click “Create Feed.”

NOTE: Connecting this module to the Pipe Output is the basic form of funneling your tweets into one account. However, there are a few additions to the pipe that might make your Twitter page look a little more polished.

For example, the feeds come through prefaced with the username of the person who originally submitted the tweet. To delete the username associated with each Tweet:

1. Under the “Operators” drop down menu, there is a module called “Regex.” Move that module onto your workspace. The idea of this module is to take out the name of the user who makes the post (ie. “johndoe:” will be removed.)
2. The pattern should read like this: In “item.title” replace “username:” with “______________.” (Do not insert any content.)
3. One of these lines should be added for every Twitter account linked to this Pipe.
4. Connect the Fetch Feed to the Regex, and then the Regex to the Pipe Output.

To Filter out Retweets from being Retweeted:

1. Under the same dropdown menu, “Operators” drag a “Filter” module over to onto your workspace. Here, we will be blocking out anything in the Tweet that would be retweeting an already retweeted piece of information.
2. Within the Filter module, the block should read like the following:
3. “Block” items that match “any” of the following:
4. “item.title” “contains” “RT.*RT”
5. Connect the Fetch Feed module, to the Filter, and finally to the Pipe Output.

That's about it! If you have any additional suggestions or questions, please post them in the comments below. Happy Tweeting!

-Kelly O'Regan