Creating a Lean R&D System

xix

Acknowledgments

I have far too many people to thank than I can list here. ere are literally

thousands of Pzer colleagues whose work, experiments, and improve-

ments have led to the thoughts embodied in this text (and none of them,

by the way, are to blame). e number of colleagues who have directly

redesigned their work as a result of projects I have supported is signi-

cantly more than 2,000. e number of colleagues who have implemented

at least some of those changes in the wider organization must be close to

5,000. Each of you has my respect and thanks. It has been a joy to work

with you every day.

Beyond the wisdom of my colleagues, I have been inuenced by sev-

eral individuals over the course of my time in Lean. Jim Luckman got me

started on my journey with his excellent course in Lean product develop-

ment. His subsequent coaching and thought partnership led to many of

the “discoveries” that we developed into our own Lean practice at Pzer.

His colleague, Beau Keyte, provided the most breathtakingly important

coaching moment of my Lean career when he mentored me to bring my

rst workshop back on the rails. We have continued to collaborate and to

share methods and experiments as well as our lifelong love of Michigan

football.

Jim introduced me to Bob Burdick, a former Lexmark/IBM engineer,

whose research into physics, Taoism, Buddhism, and his dialogues about

“have-do-be” (and nearly everything under the sun) created within me

the ability to explore thinking in a way I’d never have imagined possible.

Monica Schroder worked with me in Agile R&D (Lean) and opened

new pathways in thinking on an almost constant basis. Not just small

diversions, these paths were big, wide highways of thought. She intro-

duced me to Gary Hamel’s work on radically dierent paradigms in

business management. Not to be outdone, Adrienne Motion brought the

personal touch to Agile R&D, creating a warm approach that negated

the cold, calculated, tool-centric thought process that characterized its

beginning. Similarly, Diana Galer introduced ideas like Nancy Kline’s

“time to think,” which enabled us to build deeper reection into our facil-

itation work, and thereby led us to much, much greater improvements.

xx • Acknowledgments

Finally, Andrew Seddon was a part of nearly every project, every strategy

session, every emerging development and experiment; and he had a spe-

cial love and talent for creating, supporting, and engaging improvement

in the most basic research in the company. Adrienne, Monica, Diana,

and Andrew were a breathtaking group to behold in action, and I both

honor and revere their capabilities and contributions.

I owe a large debt to the “Boyd” community and to the U.S. Marine

Corps for supporting and nurturing that community. John R. Boyd

was a ghter pilot, engineer, aircra designer, and, most important,

researcher into strategy, learning, community, innovation, and winning

and losing. Although he purposely refrained from writing a text, his

slide decks and briengs (many thanks to Chet Richards for present-

ing and explaining these and for being a mentor and friend for several

years now) provide tremendous and unfolding insight. Jim Luckman’s

slide on learning loops led me to Robert Coram’s biography of Boyd,

which led me to Boyd’s “Disciples.” Chet Richards, who gives the autho-

rized version of Boyd’s briengs live, deepened and expanded my view

of Boyd and his work and gave me direction. Frans Osinga’s work gave

me so much more depth and background into Boyd’s thinking. e

entire Boyd community continues to populate new ideas and insights.

Boyd’s work inspired much of the experimentation in community and

fast learning, and provided early thought into what became the “wild-

re” strategy. Within this community, several people stand out as men-

tors, co-creators, and inspirations, including Stan Coerr, its host; Scott

Shipman, my friend and intellectual mentor; Michael Moore, a uniquely

creative light; Marcus Mainz, the next generation; and Fred Leland, the

relentless Lieutenant of Walpole, who tries and succeeds at delivering

fast learning to communities near you.

In addition to the great colleagues across Pzer, special kudos go to

Pzer’s Strategic Management Group, which gave me the space not only

to create thought pieces in Lean, but to actually test them in the real world

of pharma R&D, and then to grow those experiments into a fully operat-

ing Lean R&D transformation group (Agile R&D).

Finally, I want to thank my family for their support through the always

turbulent waters of personal and professional growth.