And now for something completely different

Last week if you recall we spoke about how the eco-mentalists and Green Gestapo had taken to producing their own dodgy dossier of scientific tosh and made up data to try to explain wonky weather. It was interesting to note that in relation to other choleric spleen splitting diatribes you might find here from time to time, that the eco-mentalists and the rest of the interfering Greens have stayed very quiet. A reaction was expected. None came. Perhaps these people have been shamed by their antics and have decided to lie low until the furore has died down. Perhaps.

Is it too much to ask that they will go away and admit they were wrong? Doubt it.

And news from the TSSB. Two lifts down last week but fortunately one continued to work. Otherwise it would have been hell. You cannot expect state employees to strain every sinew to maintain and protect you without a lift.

And now for something completely different….quite literally.

The need to innovate and be creative in these dark times is stronger than ever. And creativity and innovation can be about new products and services to grow income or to improve delivery or to better manage costs. All can play this game even those of Cicero’s friends whose job it is to help those who help others to maintain systems and things for those who provide back room support to doctors and nurses to look after us better. And surely an organisation like this could do with some lean thinking.

But how to do creativity?

The danger with traditional creativity is that it looks for interesting solutions which require new assets or long term investment; that it arises from blue sky thinking with no constraints; that it develops wide ranging and radical ideas based on complex solutions.

What is needed now is Lean Creativity. Lean Creativity, and Cicero is going to trademark this term, keeps one eye on time, cost and quality. It sweats existing assets to their maximum potential. And most crucially Lean Creativity is about being quick to market with little and clever ideas and solutions.

Cicero has been thinking long and hard about Lean Creativity and how it might be introduced, even in the TSSB where lack of investment makes thinking lean a pre-requisite.

And in applying Lean Creativity here are 8 questions to think about to get started.

• How can you re-build the core elements of your product or service to make it perfect for your customer’s right now?
• Can you make the real value of your product and service stand out from the crowd?
• Is it as easy as possible for your new customers to do business with you and then come back again and again?
• Have you ensured that each and every touch point helps your customer access your product or service?
• How can you create and recommend options for customers to help them focus their decisions and simplify your operation?
• Can you get your customers to help you deliver the offer and ensure they love the experience?
• How can you capitalise on your partnerships to leverage a better offer and experience for your customers?
• What can you do for free which will have a lasting effect on your customers by giving away what incurs little or no cost to you but provides great value to your customers?

You don’t need to be able to answer all 8 but at least some of them will be a start. And even those helping improve the nation’s health should be able to apply the principles of Lean Creativity to come up with something completely different.

Surely even our health professionals so fond of preaching to us about our heating habits cannot object to something lean.

Please share how you get on.

Is it only me….who thinks that this is a blatant example of child cruelty?

As you will know Cicero gets up in middle of night to rush to his TSSB to toil for another day to maintain your personal security and protection. Every day Cicero is part of the great salatariat that pours into our great metropolises like wildebeest traversing the Serengeti in search of food and water. And Cicero is struck by the not inconsiderable number of very young children forced to join this daily route march wrapped in swaddling clothes and wheeled in their buggies through the throng in the winter gloom and seasonal chill.

Cicero does not think this is right and is amazed that mums and dads and even society at large is prepared to accept such wholesale cruelty and neglect.

Sure these kids are not being beaten or neglected or abused in the same way as many other kids might be. Sure their every material need is being catered for and hopefully they are being watered and fed as the manual requires. And sure they will be loved as much as children are supposed to be loved. But is it only me who thinks that disturbing the sweet slumbers of infants and then transporting them across town when the sun is barely up through a crowd of morose and uncommunicative giants, which is how the commute herd must appear to them, is a kind of acceptable middle class neglect and abuse?

No doubt these infant commuters are being taken to nursery or pre-school dumps in our town centres so that the materialistic middle class aspirations, ambitions and lifestyles of their striving parents can be maintained. These days no one is prepared to make a sacrifice unless of course you are a toddling tot forced without your consent or engagement to sacrifice your sleep and time finger painting at home with either or both of your parents so you can learn how to commute with the best of us. Admittedly you learn more in your first three years of line than you will do for the rest of your life, Cicero excepted of course, but do we really think it’s ok to use this development period to teach our children how to commute, how to squeeze into the tiniest of space, how to endure 30 minutes with your face stuck hard up against a smelly oxter? Surely there is far more to life than this. Do you think this is an acceptable way to treat kids?

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.