February 2002 Flash Points

Carol Ross Barney and her architecture firm are looking to combine visual aesthetics with function al safety in buildings. How safe do you feel in your office building since Sept. 11? Compare building security measures within your group and which elements of your building's architecture make you feel safe. Which make you feel unsafe?
How does one reconcile building aesthetics with safety, assuming we want safer buildings that aren't bunkers. What is the highest floor you would want to work on, or whatever new demands do you have? Using group input design the ideal post Sept. 11 office building, and invite a local architect in to critique it.

The Lean Learning Center helps auto companies trim down by making them run simulations as if they worked in hospitals. What other industries could benefit from this type of comparison? What industries offer good parallels to your own and members in your group? Write up a list of similarities and differences, and discuss what techniques in the parallel industry could benefit your own business?
Go through the Lean Rules (p. 42) and apply the abstract suggestions into concrete ideas. How can you structure your daily activity to get lean. Analyze where most of the experimenting in your company is done and think up ideas of how you might be able to include people at the lowest and highest levels in these experiments? Generally, discuss how your group members can get lean, and what ideas they would bring if they went on a retreat to the Lean Learning Center.

What mistakes do you think your company or comeptitors made in the current downturn? Find a person in your group whose company made marketing cuts, and one who cut R&D and compare the stability in those two examples. Do the same for companies who had layoffs and those who cut costs and maintained manpower. Survey corporate morale in your group and examine which elements relate to the politics of recession.
Discuss Kevin Krone's idea where employees actually give money to their company during tough times. Are any group members part of a similar activity? What conditions have to be in place for employees to be willing to participate, and what are the implications and potential complications of a company using its employees to help ward off debt? Imagine potential scenarios once recovery kicks in.
Now that the economic and political climate have changed, how do you make sense of it all? Does stability now trump growth? If you had full control, where would you place your eggs right now, what's the next step for you?

Daniel H. Pink writes that fast companies will be the key to the next wave of security in a crisis time. What link will your company have in a crisis? Brainstorm scenarios that might occur and where your skills could come in useful, or what supplies you could provide to help relief efforts. Which other companies might you try to establish closer ties to now in order to maximize efficiency during an emergency?
General Richard D. Hearney says BENS is not a think tank, it's a 'do' tank. How do you make the transition from 'think' to 'do,' or what ingredients are necessary to execute a solid game plan. What elements might get lost in translation?
'Maybe war is business.' Contrast business to war and its converse. Is business intense, or is war now considered run-of-the-mill? Where does the new Gray War fall ?How do the rules change when the enemy is less- or un-defined, and what can your business do to help out in these situations?

Daniel Richards contributed this month's Flash Points.

February 2002 Connexus | Flash Points | Next Steps