Thread by @ericries

I went many places doing research for my new book including factories. I want to tell you what I learned on one of these visits.1/22

It was a consumer products factory going through a lean transformation. It was going well, but they still had a problem to solve.2/22

Demand for their products was fading not because they were poorly made but because they weren’t updated to keep up with changing tastes.3/22

The foreman told me the employees on the floor couldn’t do anything about it because they didn’t control product specifications.4/22

Earlier that day, I’d had a meeting with the product managers. They told me the manufacturing process was the thing preventing change.5/22

“Our production is so inflexible that we can’t run experiments,” they explained.6/22

“Every experiment is so expensive because we have to reconfigure the whole factory.”7/22

The result was that they were saving money in one area, but losing it elsewhere since no one wanted their products.8/22

That’s when I suggested a tiny experiment. What if they made just 100 units of a product in a new color. Fuschia! Or Green! Or Yellow!9/22

Instead of reconfiguring the whole factory, they could dedicate one painting station and fill it with paint from a local dealer.10/22

For 1 day, the person at that station would use this color. They’d run an experiment. Employees would be invested in their work again.11/22

This idea was no big deal to the floor workers. They just hadn’t done it because there was no mechanism for it in existing systems.12/22

When I went back to the managers and told them it could be done, they were surprised. Everyone thought the issue was someone else’s.13/22

With this new protocol established, the factory ran some experiments and made progress. Now imagine if I hadn’t had to suggest it?14/22

Imagine if a product manager and a floor worker at that factory had been on the same team from the start?15/22

Years of misunderstanding about whose rules were at fault could’ve been years of experimentation, innovation, profit, meaningful work.16/22

This visit was an eye-opener for me. I saw that buried inside even the most traditional mass production system is a hidden capability.17/22

That capability is for experimentation. All it needs is the right system and management tools to bring it out.18/22

Not everyone has someone like me negotiating between the stakeholders, but we can eliminate that need by building the right structures.19/22

Those structures are what make up my new book, The Startup Way. I’ve seen them work in so many kinds and sizes of organizations.20/22

Stories from all of them are also in the book, including government, non-profits, successful startups, corporations, and new startups.21/22

Please buy a copy and help spread the word! The more entrepreneurial we become as a country, the better the future will be for everyone./end

PS. Perhaps you’d like to learn more about the book? thestartupway.com