ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Use Social Media to Support Your CI Journey
By Karen Wilhelm
LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Do they support your continuous improvement (CI) journey? Are you taking advantage of them? Training and learning leaders see the potential for gaining knowledge through social networks. More than 80 percent of respondents to CARA Group survey said they use social media for their own professional learning and believe it offers valuable learning opportunities for their companies’ employees.
To support learning and networking, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) volunteers started up communities on LinkedIn and Facebook, and information-sharing channels on Twitter, YouTube, and SlideShare. All of the AME social sites are open to anyone, not just AME members.
Most professionals know LinkedIn as a networking and resume site. Fewer have discovered the learning and collaboration possibilities of LinkedIn Groups. These groups focus on IT, project management, clean technology, supply chain, and automation, to name just a few interests. There is a plethora of groups related to lean, six sigma, kaizen, innovation, and other facets of enterprise excellence.
A visit to the AME LinkedIn Group discussion page shows questions from people new to lean, stuck behind a barrier, or just bringing up a provocative issue such as managers who “think their employees are stupid” or whether brainstorming with teams is worthless compared to rigorous statistical analysis by experts.
Participating in these discussions are directors of manufacturing, lean champions, CEOs of mid-size manufacturing companies, and operations managers. They come from the manufacturing, mining, healthcare, banking, and insurance industries, and companies such as Barry-Wehmiller, DJO, ESCO, Genie Industries, Honda, Starbucks, and Toyota, and from every continent but Antarctica.
As an example of the group’s resource-sharing potential, Ricardo Castillo recently asked if anyone had a communication plan template to show a department’s results and focus. Greg Bruns, AME Great Lakes region president, offered the template used at Crown Equipment Corporation, eventually sharing it with all 26 group members who requested it. (Contact Greg at Greg.Bruns@crown.com if you’d like a copy.)
Priscilla Cuddy of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services asked the group how to leverage lean apprentice and mentor relationships. Advice and encouragement followed.
“I'm working in government to implement lean thinking and practice. It is affirming and catalyzing to be able to have direct online conversation with those who have been working with lean much longer in manufacturing,” Cuddy said. “I've found it extremely valuable to have access to helpful, experienced practitioners and visionaries. I'm grateful for the AME LinkedIn group.” Continuous improvement and lean resources also abound on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and SlideShare. On the AMEConnect Facebook page, “fans” share conversations, videos, and photos. The AMEConnect Twitter stream informs followers about educational events and lean-related news stories. The AMECONFERENCE YouTube channel features comments from last fall’s conference attendees. Recognized lean experts publicly share presentations in the AMEConnect SlideShare space.
I’ve learned a lot by getting involved in the conversations and have connected with new online contacts. The coolest part was meeting some of them in person at the AME conference – that makes it easier to ask what’s going on in the innovative, lean companies where they work.
Wilhelm is chair of AME’s Social Networking Council.
