Credibility vs Data – Kanban for the Plant

My mentor is retiring on the 20th. We may have one more project where we may see each other again. The project is : Kanban for the plant. But it has one serious drawback. No one checks my data, no one above me can check if I did something right or wrong.

So – a mark of an Old Traditional Company is that its not Data-Driven or Evidence-based decision making. What people do is decide based on my Credibility – how often I get things wrong (since people remember the wrong more than the right).

If no one checks the data, then we have a serious problem. there is only a few people thinking in the room and finding a solution. Instead of admitting to the Ambiguity and Uncertainty tacking on Success or Failure on the Credibility of someone has some drawbacks:

Strengths of Depending on the Credibility of the Delegate.

Low Mental Cost. You don’t have to spend any mental bandwidth. Why take on other people’s problems when you’re already full of problems.
Saves your Credibility. In the end, if there was a mistake – its Someone else’s mistakes. They’re credibility and social standing are more disposable than my own.

Drawbacks of Depending on the Credibility of the Delegate.

Inaccurate. It’s not representative of what risks, challenges, and factors are in a complex situation. “So what? Why do I have to care about inaccurate data?” Because if you care about efficiency then you want Accurate Data to only spend on solutions and resources you need.

Too much is a waste.
Too little is a waste of All or some of the effort.

Shared Problem. The Inaccuracy or Uncertainty is His Problem! No, it isn’t its OUR problem. That’s the thing about a TEAM or Organization – there are systems in place that make MY problem everyone’s problem. Failure means the problem doesn’t go away and what we spent may have been adding to the waste.
More but it boils down to – Never Acting on the RIGHT data just leads to problems. Separating the Person from the Conditions and Factors helps give corrective feedback, shared understanding, and camaraderie.

Our Over-Time Problem.

Our Overtime reached levels of 60% relative to basic pay. The entire Division had about 40% cost they could not Quantify as Necessary. Everyone knew it was a problem but no one could act. There was no data. Now that the New Payroll IT system is up – people are giving me the “Of course it was a Problem” explanation when I point out the DATA of the new analysis (Hindight Bias). Everyone knew there was uncontrolled OT but no one knew how to create a solution that would recover the cost of the Uncontrolled OT.

Yet for all our Other Problems: Like Plant Efficiency – I cannot explain other Practices in books, Other practices in youtube, the Theory and Practices based on the experience of Other employees who came from different companies. In the end its My Credibility – and not the strength of my data or solution.

I end up have to Figure out a 8-12 week plan for the Plant of how it will try to Learn KANBAN and how we will have a proof of concept. No one will check the nuance of my plan or the implications of my systemic changes – Its all my credibility and not the data or the solution.

Its lonely when there is no buy in.

Game in the Brain