As usual, Dr. Shigeo Shingo uses the most colorful and forceful examples to drive home a point.
In this case, about the kinds of people and approaches you need to bring about change in organizations.
Lean efforts or Six Sigma talk about preparing organizations for change or as in the case of Continuous Process Improvement efforts. Whether they are in Business Process Improvement or Software Development, sometimes you need people and projects who are like dynamite sticks in a mineral mine.
Usually a huge circular mineral drilling wheel is used for mining ore for minerals.
However sometimes they drill a small hole, insert a stick of dynamite and blow the
rock apart.
Sometimes you need to crack the toughest or the most visible and impactful problems quite forcefully. You may need to demonstrate how useful the change brought about by the first few improvement efforts are.
In highly visible projects.
The sticks of dynamite also sometimes represent people who are exceptional and bold. Getting consensus among people across the organization is necessary but sometimes you may need to pick bold and forceful people to lead the change and show by example.
Excellent way to remember what projects may be the most impactful and who are the best people to lead them.
It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.
— Anoynmous
