2010 Resolutions: Q1 Retrospective

If you created New Year’s resolutions, in hungover remorse for your 2009 debauchery, it’s a good time to assess your rehabilitation. By examining last quarter’s progress, you can make early course corrections and get on track for a successful 2010.

Take a tip from the productivity experts and host your own personal retrospective. Here’s how:

  1. Pull out your resolutions and review. (Or at least try to remember what they were.)
  2. Try to reconstruct the hopes and frustrations you felt three months ago.
  3. Write this down: Revel in what went well in your quest for improvement.
  4. Regret what went badly.
  5. Reengage by picking one or two things you will do differently in Q2. Continue reading

The Demise of NUMMI

NUMMI End of the Line

A colleague of mine, Kris Niles, sent me this long (59 minute), but compelling audio from “This American Life”, on the demise of the Fremont NUMMI auto plant. The GM Fremont plant was shutdown in 1982, restarted as GM/Toyota NUMMI in 1984, adopted the agile “Toyota Production System” through a massive education program (they flew all NUMMI plant personnel to Japan, where Toyota trained them), and almost immediately started producing high quality cars. Continue reading