Posted by Steve Wilcox on Thu, Apr 16, 2009 @ 12:42 PM
Last year, 3M ran a contest called "One Million Uses and Counting" for the most unique and creative uses for those sticky notes.
Some of the ideas were certainly unique!
... decorate a car or truck ...
... a fashion statement ...
... wall art ...
... a prank on a co-worker ...
Now, I will admit that all of these ideas were creative if not ... how should I put it ... lacking usefulness.
On the other hand, putting little stickies on a wall as part of a process mapping exercise is probably one the best process improvement tools known today! According to Penny Weller from The Hackett Group, just laying out the process and looking for bottlenecks or places where people differ on how the process should be done is incredibly helpful. Each step of the process can be more easily rationalized.
If the reason for a process step is "it's always been done that way!" then you have probably identified an opportunity for improvement!
-Rakesh