Compression: Meeting the Challenges of Sustainability Through Vigorous Learning Enterprises

COMPRESSION: Meeting the Challenges of Sustainability Through Vigorous Learning Enterprises sounds a clarion that we cannot afford to ignore. Global crises are squeezing us from all directions. Mostly they have to do with not enough: not enough natural resources to maintain our standard of living, not enough carbon rich soil to grow crops enough to feed the world, not enough fresh clean water, nor air or ozone.

A founding member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, Robert "Doc" Hall has dedicated much of his career to redefining business practices in ways that are feasible and transferable. For lasting change to occur, we need to provide stakeholders with access to new tools and new paradigms that eschew outdated learning methods. While the book does elucidate the problem, the main emphasis of its pages is on what leaders can do to change the mindset of stakeholders at all levels. Specifically, Hall shows how the Toyota model, the most successful and enduring manufacturing system ever implemented, can be applied and adapted to help identify roots of problems, eliminate waste, and create a new vision along with the path to realizing that vision.



We must rethink our perpetual devotion to old ideals such as continual growth and more are always better


We need to recognize that we are quickly reaching the point of critical mass where the inequities of society will force the have-nots to take matters into their own hands


We need to learn to learn more effectively, in terms of individuals, organizations, and processes


We must embrace the paradigm culture shift required to implement lasting constructive change that we can live by


To implement the sort of changes that will allow civilization to prevail rather than merely endure requires a resourcefulness and ingenuity beyond any the world has ever employed. In this volume, Doc Hall shows us how to learn to learn more effectively both as individuals and organizations, and in terms of processes. He invites us to rethink our perpetual devotion to old ideals and welcome the shift in thinking that must be our first and immediate step.

Stay current and become active in helping to Meet the Challenges of Sustainability Through Vigorous Learning Enterprises. You will find action steps and discussion at compression.org

A founding member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, Robert W. Hall, Ph.D., is the Professor Emeritus of Operations Management at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and the Editor-in Chief of Target Magazine.

Introduction
Chapter 1 Understanding the Challenges of Compression
Challenge #1: Resource Shortages
Fossil Energy
Fresh Water
Challenge #2: A Precarious Environment
Honeybees
Freon and the Ozone Hole
Oceanic Plankton
Challenge #3: Excessive Consumption
Challenge #4: Pushback from the Have-Nots
Challenge #5: Self-Learning Work Organizations
Meeting the Challenges
Vigorous Learning Organizations
Health Care as an Example
Rethinking Expansionary Assumptions
Taking on the Challenges of Compression Endnotes
Chapter 2 Learning from Toyota
The Toyota Way
The Toyota Production System
TPS Techniques
Objective of TPS: Eliminate Waste
Creating a TPS Learning System
The Role of Standard Work in Kaizen
The Seedbed: An Economic Microcosm
Ohno’s Method
Toyota’s Supplier Association
The Toyota Product Development System
Expert Engineering Workforce
Responsibility-Based System
Set-Based Engineering
The Chief Engineer
Ethnic Culture and The Toyota Way
Lean Manufacturing
Learning and Work Culture
Lessons from Toyota Today Endnotes
Chapter 3 Learning to Learn
Improving Your Learning Processes
Part 1: Individual Learning
Neural Learning Mechanisms
“Natural” Learning
The Limits of Rationality
Integrative Learning
Absolutism and Denial
Part 2: Compression of Process Learning
A Broader Definition of Waste
Big-Step Innovative Learning
The Implications of Learning Curves
Compression and Increasing Complexity
Energy, Information, and Process Learning
A Tree Doesn’t Grow to the Moon
Scientific Learning
Self-Similar Scientific Process Learning at Work
Broadening Your View of Waste
Mapping Your Opportunities
Life-Cycle Analysis
Practicalities of Measurement
Action Steps to Start Learning
Part 3: Organizational Learning
Creating a Learning Language
Innovative Learning
Forming Bonds of Trust
Higher Context Learning
Endnotes
Chapter 4 Dispelling Our Expansionary Habits
Compressed in the Cosmos
The Blinding Mind-Set
Dysfunctional Assumptions
Unlimited Growth
Economy of Scale
Short-Term Bias
Results Bias
Specialization and Inflexibility
Fragmentation and Tribalism
Inability to Simplify Complexity
Complacency and Panic
Commodity Traps
Market Rationality
Model Fixation
Ownership Dominance
Money as the Common Language
Inability to Simplify Complexity
Commercial Competition; Commercial Reciprocity
Health Care and Bioscience
Commercial Journalism
Spin Doctoring
Commercial Conflict and Reciprocity
Questioning the System
Endnotes
Chapter 5 Creating Vigorous Learning Enterprises Vigorous Learning Enterprise Overview
Common Mission and Goals
Behavioral Skill Building
Change the Environment, Change the Behavior
On Becoming Professional
An Integrated Learning System
Metaperception
Roles of Core Leadership
External Leadership
Leadership: Sustaining Trust
Leadership: Developing Others
Leadership: Defending a Learning Culture
Performance Measurement
Compressing Your Learning Processes Endnotes
Chapter 6 Developing the Constitution for Vigorous Learning
Deep Challenges
Toward a Stronger Constitution
Why This Approach?
A Global Tribe
Implications of Tribalism at Work
Trust and Tribal Bonding
A Process Theory of Value
Problems with Existing Theories of Value
Attempts to Overcome Weaknesses
What a Process Theory of Value Must Do
Process Evaluation
New Considerations
New Consideration: Accumulations
New Consideration: Life-Cycle Energy
New Consideration: Life-Cycle Operations
New Consideration: Thermodynamic Currency
Implications of a Process Theory of Value
Thermodynamic Efficiency
Financing Missions
Rapid Adaptability
Allocation of Commodities or Permits
Flat Age Demographic Profile
Employment and Unemployment
Little Distinction between Profit, Nonprofit, and Government Work Organizations
An End to Hot Wars Using Resource-Intensive Weaponry
Auditing Vigorous Learning
Committing to the Learning Constitution
Endnote
About the Author
Index