Comments on: The Sun Devil Suggestion System http://www.leanblog.org/2007/12/sun-devil-suggestion-system/ Mark Graban's leanblog.org - Lean Healthcare, Lean Thinking, Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:59:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Anonymous http://www.leanblog.org/2007/12/sun-devil-suggestion-system/#comment-2851 Anonymous Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:37:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/12/the-sun-devil-suggestion-system/#comment-2851 This is an interesting school of thought that plays in to a much bigger "Lean" principle than you probably originally thought. The concept of Long Term vs. Short Term thinking.<br/><br/>ASU is now coached by Dennis Erickson. The guy has won a National Championship, coached in the NFL, and, if he is fired or quits, could either retire or be coaching at another major college within a year while collecting his multi-million dollar buyout. His cost of failure is really low and it allows him the security to try to explore these opportunities. <br/><br/>Their previous coach was a supposed up and comer by the name of Dirk Koetter. His resume was less spectacular than Erickson's and therefore his price of failure was much higher. <br/><br/>Major college football is an environment where the coaches are paid millions of dollars and fired when they fail to meet (usually) unrealistic expectations. Unlike Toyota, it does not encourage people to think long term and develop a 500-year vision. Much like most manufacturing environments, football coaching is a profession that, by its very nomadic and unsteady nature, develops and attracts "control freak" or micro manager types. They are environments driven to meet the numbers at all costs or be the one to face the firing squad. This is an interesting school of thought that plays in to a much bigger “Lean” principle than you probably originally thought. The concept of Long Term vs. Short Term thinking.

ASU is now coached by Dennis Erickson. The guy has won a National Championship, coached in the NFL, and, if he is fired or quits, could either retire or be coaching at another major college within a year while collecting his multi-million dollar buyout. His cost of failure is really low and it allows him the security to try to explore these opportunities.

Their previous coach was a supposed up and comer by the name of Dirk Koetter. His resume was less spectacular than Erickson’s and therefore his price of failure was much higher.

Major college football is an environment where the coaches are paid millions of dollars and fired when they fail to meet (usually) unrealistic expectations. Unlike Toyota, it does not encourage people to think long term and develop a 500-year vision. Much like most manufacturing environments, football coaching is a profession that, by its very nomadic and unsteady nature, develops and attracts “control freak” or micro manager types. They are environments driven to meet the numbers at all costs or be the one to face the firing squad.

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]]> By: curiouscat http://www.leanblog.org/2007/12/sun-devil-suggestion-system/#comment-2847 curiouscat Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:58:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2007/12/the-sun-devil-suggestion-system/#comment-2847 My father was a professor at the University of Wisconsin. I remember one time we wanted the football coach to randomly select the play for certain situations. They would have say 4 plays for 3rd and 3. Instead of making the decision of which to run he thought they should just randomly pick from those 4. The idea was that would eliminate their bias which the defense could predict and plan for. The theory was being more unpredictable would lead to more success. They didn't go for it. My father was a professor at the University of Wisconsin. I remember one time we wanted the football coach to randomly select the play for certain situations. They would have say 4 plays for 3rd and 3. Instead of making the decision of which to run he thought they should just randomly pick from those 4. The idea was that would eliminate their bias which the defense could predict and plan for. The theory was being more unpredictable would lead to more success. They didn’t go for it.

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