Hello again,
Welcome to this the second blog on the Lean FSL website. I hope everybody’s summers are going well? Its been great to enjoy some sunshine over the past few weeks. Those of us based in the UK are grateful for small mercies!
I’ve recently returned from a short holiday in Scotland to take in some of the Commonwealth Games. I got the idea for this blog from my holiday reading, The Chimp Complex, by Dr Steve Peters. You may have heard of Dr Peters, he’s the consultant psychiatrist to many of our British Cycling Olympians, such as Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton, and many other sportsmen and women at the top of their profession. Its a fantastic read, and if you’ve an interest in human behaviour it is incredibly enlightening.
The central theme of the book, is that we all have three elements to our brains that help (or hinder) the way that we react to situations and problems. First, we all possess an emotional and instinctive reaction to situations (our Chimp), which is based on the primeval drivers that once helped us survive in the jungle. Secondly, we also possess a logical, factual and calm way of approaching situations (our Human). Finally, we all possess a Computer, the part of our brain that stores all of our learnings and experiences, both our Chimp and our Human reference the Computer to validate their actions based on the experiences from the past. As you may imagine, the Chimp always gets to react to a situation first, and this explains why many responses to problems never get beyond an emotional and intuitive reaction! Dr Peters explains that we each have to ‘manage our Chimp’ and to take ownership of its reactions, to reassure our Chimp that the situation is under control, and then to employ evidence and fact-based methods from our Human to deal with the issue in a calm and collected way.
As a lean practitioner I found this a revelation. Why not apply this clever interpretation of the way people’s brain works to Practical Problem Solving? How often do we find that people jump straight to the wrong answer in their problem solving efforts, by using the emotional or reactive behaviours of their inner Chimps? What we provide in structured Problem-solving (be it 8-Step, A3 or PDCA) is a way to help calm down the noisy Chimps and let the analytical and logical Human thinking help get to the Root Cause of the problem. You could even argue that the Containment step right at the front end of the Problem-solving activity is there to reassure the Chimp, whilst you allow time for the Human brain to solve the problem completely.
If we practice structured Problem-solving and we see that it works, our Computer builds a picture of success. And its this that helps us form a habit that eventually becomes second nature. The Chimps reaction is still there, but we have learned how to manage it. Amazing.
Just recently, whilst on a diagnostic visit to a great medium sized company, I was exploring why there were so many complaints from customers for paint damage. I was staggered to find out that the company was about to resurface the road between the factory and the warehouse without any evidence that this was the Root Cause of the problem! A pure ‘Chimp’ reaction. Never mind the consequences, let’s just get on and do something! Needless to say, some structured Problem-solving training is high on the agenda for the team now!
There’s so much more to the book than just this, and I recommend you get a copy for yourself. It may not help you be the next Steven Gerrard or Ronnie O’Sullivan, but I’m sure it’ll help you understand how we all react to things the way we do. Here’s a link – http://amzn.to/1ykssuW
If you want to find out more about how we at Lean FSL Associates can help you with your Problem Solving skills please click through to the web page – http://staging-leanfsl-com.stackstaging.com/problem-solving/ or contact me using the details in the sidebar.
Enjoy the rest of your Summer!
Graham