TETRIS teaches Daily Accountability
Posted: September 5, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Book, Daily Accountability, Decisions, Game, Lean Leave a commentPlay Tetris to Set-up your mind for Daily Check-in Meetings
We cannot say which is more dreaded, anxiety caused by the relentless nature of the block-stacker Tetris or the anxiety felt when peppered with unanticipated questions at the daily huddle meeting. Consider using Tetris as a training ground “to think on your feet” and “to deal with what you can do.”
When Tetris debuted, rules were not yet written for this game.
Tetris presents a piece and you have to fit it into your tableau that is already succumbing to the forces of entropy. When you have a “left hand z” and you really need “right hand L”, those are the times that you decide: “find a spot for it and use the next piece to deal with it.”
This is a situation not unlike project management. For every evening when you go home with a clear desk and the hope that the project is finally “on track”, there is a morning where the project presents a new problem “we have never seen before.” Having a mind that quickly explores options can help.
- Put the Piece to the side: What can we do right away to contain this problem?
- Find a less problematic placement: What can we do to make things better?
- Identify a future piece: What can we do in the future?
When you don’t Win at Tetris, Tetris gets you into Winning shape.
Tetris is like the Terminator:
- It never gives up.
- It never gets tired.
- It will always win.
The relentless nature of the game purifies the mind as it is stressed to its limits.
I had always thought that the game was some sort of subversive reminder of the defeatist attitude from the old USSR. Three decades later, I understand the game to represent Hope.
Every time the game defeated me, I had hope that I could win the next round because:
- “I know more now.”
- “I will be smarter next time.”
- “I won’t let that happen again.”
Rule book
Read the Graphic Novel cum biography by Box Brown, Tetris.
Use “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” to Defend Against the Whirlwind of Distractions.
Posted: August 12, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Book, Daily Accountability, Lean, Organizational Behaviors Leave a commentSet Up your Storm Shelter.
I received this book from a manager who does not like to read books. He said, “I am too busy to read this. Let me know if there is anything good in there.” This turns out to be my Go-To book for Project Management. I believe the theme of this book can be defined as, “Defend yourself from the Whirlwind of activity.” Read the rest of this entry »
AI Collaborator
Posted: August 1, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Game, Lean Leave a comment
What’s link between The Twilight Zone and Garry Kasparov? Artificial Intelligence.
Image from Patrick McCabe Makes
Set-up
On early morning television, I watched the classic Twilight Zone episode The Brain Center at Mr. Whipple’s (Season 5, Episode 33). The short IMDB description is:
A heartless CEO completely automates his factory and lays off almost all of his workers over the objections of his employees.
The episode presents a depressing view where improvement means elimination of jobs. I am sometimes mistaken for this guy because help people improve their workplace.
Immediately after I listened to this podcast from Harvard Business Review, How AI Is Already Changing Business, (HBR IdeaCast: 586). This interview discusses all of the good things that are happening with AI, and helps us put the technology in perspective by highlighting what it cannot do — that is, create.
Interestingly, both sources come to the same conclusion, as Mr. Serling says:
The point is that, too often, Man becomes clever instead of becoming wise; he becomes inventive and not thoughtful; and sometimes, as in the case of Mr. Whipple, he can create himself right out of existence.
Game Rules
While Mr. Whipple was trying to integrate automation into his factory, what you really see is ersatz Artificial Intelligence over 50 years before the current conversation. We have been worrying about the machines taking over for a while now, yet we continue to persevere.
On the one hand, we wish that AI would take over some forms of information management, like SIRI or ALEXA. On the other hand, we do not want to become obsolete machines in the next industrial revolution. It seems that we are trying to strike a balance between freeing AI and properly subjugating it to our will.
Win Condition
A colleague of mine is working to create a knowledge base that helps machine operators make associations regarding what the machine is telling us, what I call the telemetry (he calls it by a corporate acronym). The system that we are working to implement is more like that described by Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in his TED Talk, Don’t Fear Intelligent Machines. Work with Them. Kasparov is probably known more for his losses to the machine Deep Blue than for his wins against Anatoly Karpov to become World Champion at the age of 22.
In his TED talk, Kasparov contends that the greatest innovations to come are from a collaboration between people and computers where the collaboration is more or less equal with humans providing the creativity and machines providing the raw processing power.
This is how I expect to win with computers:
I don’t try to automate anything that I cannot already do. I try to automate things that I can do and a computer can do better.
Escalation–The Work Game
Posted: October 29, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Lean, Work Leave a comment
I am currently working to design a formal process to “bump problems up to the flag pole”. We call it, Escalation. This is a Lean Thinking tool where “Everybody Solve Problems Using Simple Methods”, and the simple method is to get the right expert to make the fix.
Initially, ESCALATION (the game part) came about because I wanted to model how we tell people to handle their problems at the Floor. We usually want people to try a few ideas before calling in the next level of expert. The current system has certain time triggers and requires people to do things on a schedule. The new system requires some problem solving and planning skills. Those are the skills I wanted to highlight with ESCALATION.
The Game
For me, the game was designing the game to fit what we wanted to teach: cooperation, planning, using your limited resources.
![clip_image006[6]](https://whatsthegame.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clip_image0066.png "clip_image006[6]")
ESCALATION is a cooperative game where each player has a chance to get a role. They are specific to my work area, but you can see the progression – Operator, Core Leader, Maintenance, Maintenance Shift Leader, and Expert.
The game has an Idea Deck – things that you can do – but some ideas can only be played by certain roles. This is where it is important to give away roles to other players.
The machine is modeled by the bucket of RED chips or tokens. There are 10 to start the game. The goal is to pull three GREEN tokens from the machine. Some ideas put GREEN tokens into the machine – these are the things that make the machine run better. Other ideas pull tokens randomly from the machine – these are the things that get the machine “running green”.
Win Condition
![clip_image001[4]](https://whatsthegame.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/clip_image0014.png "clip_image001[4]")
For me, I accomplished the minimum objective, which was to create an abstraction of the work escalation so that we can talk about some important elements without getting into fault-finding, which is often the case with real examples.
Unfortunately, I made the game too complicated. It relies on a little more gamer knowledge than I anticipated. Some players found it new and difficult to understand two decks. The solution is to make the roles static and the mechanic of “escalation”, giving the idea to the right person.
The Files
This is a Publisher file of the ESCALATION Playmat. This is the PDF of the ESCALATION Playmat. The rules are included on the 11 x 17 page.
This is a Publisher file of the ESCALATION Idea Deck. This is the PDF of the ESCALATION Idea Deck. Print these double-sided on Avery 5389 (4 x 6 perforated postcards). Many of these ideas are obscure science fiction references. There is some flavor text, but I have yet to run into anyone who thought these were really funny.
This is a Publisher file of the ESCALATION Role Deck. This is the PDF of the ESCALATION Role Deck. Print these double-sided on Avery 5389 (4 x 6 perforated postcards). The role names can be changed. They should be coordinated with the Idea Cards. There are five for the game, but there are six because it works better for printing.
What's the Game? 