My father-in-law always tells me that “one day we’ll all work for Steve Bezos.” First I remind him that it’s ‘Jeff Bezos’, and then we have a rambling conversation about all-things-Bezos. Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter if you are anti-Amazon or a Jeff Bezos fanboi, some [many] of his ideas and principles instituted are worth taking note of. In particular, the concept of ‘forcing functions’.
A forcing function is not something Amazon or Bezos invented, but it’s been popularized in some recent Amazon-related books. The origination traces back to the 1960’s and to Shigeo Shingo who used a ‘Poka-yoke’ in industrial processes designed to prevent human errors. It was formalized as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). “Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means “mistake-proofing” or “inadvertent error prevention”. A poka-yoke is any mechanism in any process that helps an equipment operator avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur”. In other words, a forcing function. It’s also referred to as a behavior-shaping constraint.
In our daily work, and lives, there are plenty of examples where forcing functions already exist, or where we should think about implementing behavior-shaping constraints to make the process less error-prone. Checklists are a simple example of a forcing function. This can be a daily to-do-list or something more complex like a pilot’s checklist before taking flight. Both are examples of forcing functions.
Other examples?
Recurring meetings to review and do a certain task or tasks. The fact that you’re getting people live on the phone to discuss and do, versus emails back and forth with no ownership, is a forcing function.
Regular Reports. As Peter Drucker famously said, “what gets measured, gets managed”. Regular reports are a forcing function that ensures the right work is getting done because it is being measured.
Time blocking your calendar. This does two things: 1.) It keeps other people from stealing your time and 2.) It forces you to stop and focus on a particular project (or at least think about it because it’s staring at you on your calendar). I use this one page template to keep me focused and my calendar front and center.
These are just a few simple examples, but think about other areas where you’re already using the concept of forcing functions or where you may need to consider implementing them in order to reduce error and more diligently control inputs and outputs of a certain process.
