Custom Visual Work Instructions and Graphic Procedures

Tips and Insights

Over our 28 years of explaining, we've accumulated a wealth of valuable information that doesn't fit neatly under our web site tabs. This body of knowledge includes some tools we have developed, approaches that have worked well, other approaches that failed, and a large amount of miscellany that could be called "accumulated wisdom" or perhaps more accurately "battle scars"

We organized this section as topic threads that invite further insights and comments. We welcome your additions.

We also welcome questions and suggestions for new topics.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Should Blog Topics Cover the Specific or the General?

I've read lots of Lean blogs and most keep their focus on Lean issues, rarely straying from the topic. Mark Graban from Lean Blog writes a strong one; Mike Wroblewski at Got Boondoggle chimes in regularly; and Jon Miller with Gemba Panta Rei keeps kaizen, 5S and standardized work at the forefront.

On the other hand, I write about lots of things: PowerPoint, word nerdiness, our idiosyncratic illustrators . . . Boggle for goodness sakes. Oh sure, most postings have something to do with words, several address quality and standards, and some touch on aliteracy. But these entries don't focus exclusively on work instructions or explaining or training-the things we do in the office every day, which, in all honesty, is totally Lean. (Lean people, by the way, love what we do because our ideologies match and we fill a niche. No one understands and explains exactly the way we do it, and oftentimes, people charged with quality initiatives don't even know they're looking for us until they find us.)

Some people in the office believe that the postings in News and Views should focus solely on our work and what we can do for our clients. But others think that for the blog to sound like me, the postings have to stray a bit.

My question to you is, should they? Should I talk about work instructions and shut up about Scrabble? Or should I include the bits about e-mail or organization or my own peaceable kingdom along with the effectiveness of illustrations?

Do you have a preference? What would you say to my colleagues who think in absolutes? Or to me, who clearly does not?

Labels: Lean blogs, topics