What I love about the Lean Product and Process Development Exchange is that it is a true exchange and opportunity to work with likeminded people facing similar problems with perhaps a different perspective and definitely different contexts. I really like the wide range of ways the different speakers shared their challenges, stores and solutions. All unique all from their point of view. This makes for interesting discussions and unique opportunities to learn and learn differently. Here are my favourites(I am Canadian) and what I took away.
Key note: Culture Performance and continuous improvement by Terry Barnhart
Terry's analogies and data backed evidence that Great Culture is the how we get the "outcomes" every business dreams of. I especially like the visual analogy of an Culture of continuous improvement as a Pearl. Terry was very convincing that all great companies start with and continuously improvement culture. I also got to meet with him after the event to make sure I understood his primary message and where his data came from. This is what makes the "Exchange" GRREAT!
Breakout: Using Visual Management to accelerate your Product Development by Matt Albin
Matt held a break an interactive breakout session where he lead us through how we can use "Visual Management" and "Huddles" to break through some of the old habits and meeting norms that make innovation and product development stale and stall. I really appreciated the real life examples of visual management and his "Do this" and "Not that" hints. My favourites are the Problem Solving and intentional learning cycles. See the pictures above.
The meta-patterns of Innovation by Mark Rosenthal
Mark shared a little piece of history which was not only entertaining but also very informative. He masterfully dissected the work of the wright brothers and and shared how their success revolved around their ability to keep their meta pattern in mind. The detailed examples of the wright brothers work and how they were relentless and focused on trying to solve their problem using a meta pattern was really inspiring. The key take away from me was a little different. Mark during is talk shared a technique the wright brothers used to solve complex problems I found fascinating. The brothers actually would get into heated arguments and would be ruthless towards each other then they would switch sides and argue the other's point. This was so fascinating as having tried to do this myself I learned a lot about myself. It is really hard to get over my attachment to my position (Get over myself) to be able to see someone else's perspective.ngs.