7 Responses

1. Critique my A3: An Experiment in Internet Nemawashi | DailyKaizen

   June 4th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

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   [...] With that in mind, feel free, if you’re curious, to take a look on my other blog and offer myself, and Californians, some advice on improving a plan tha…. [...]

2. e-Patient Dave

   June 4th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

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   I feel like I want to comment on this but it’s not my sweet spot and it’ll take some time. In my other lives I have deep interest and shallow knowledge re Toyota stuff.

   But one thing you guys gotta correct - A3 is not 11×17! They’re comparable in general size, but you should trying handing 11×17 marketing materials to Europeans. (Wear spit-guards.)

   A3 is part of the world standard ISO 216, which only North America ignores, surprise surprise. A4 is the analog for our letter size.

   (btw, having spent much of my prior life in printing, I must say the Wikipedia article is the most elegant thing I’ve seen on the subject.)

3. Ted Eytan

   June 4th, 2008 at 6:32 pm

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   Hi Dave,

   The name of the document is an A3 document. When we go to print it, we stick 11 x 17 paper in the printer as the closest approximation. Should we be using some other kind of paper, and where do we get it from?

   I usually end up shrinking it to letter size to get it out of a laser printer that most people have, but that doesn’t change the name of the planning document, which is well established…..:)

   Ted

4. e-Patient Dave

   June 4th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

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   Use whatever paper you want. Just don’t go saying “A3 is 11×17.” (Can’t link-chase now, but the HPP blog you linked to earlier says that exactly, and I think you did to.)

   Acrobat, btw, has the nice feature (which many apps don’t) that it’ll shrink to fit the selected paper size, making the distinction useless for non-graphic-arts applications.

5. Ted Eytan

   June 4th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

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   Dave,

   You are right on both counts (well more than that) - I did equate the two, and I won’t do that anymore.

   And you are right about Acrobat - the way I get things to size right every time is to print to PDF and then it automagically comes out just right on letter size paper. When I try to print directly from Pages, things don’t quite work out right. Now I know why. Thanks for keeping me accurate, every improvement makes for a believable story for everyone in the room and that’s what matters,

   Ted

6. Karen Wilhelm

   June 7th, 2008 at 10:04 am

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   As “outside eyes” unfamiliar with anything about your project or the problems you want to solve, I found that I could get a simple comprehension of both the problem and your plans for solving it - with full recognition that you will have to “check” and “adjust” — in about 30 seconds. Of course for real nemawashi, we’d have a deep conversation about everything you’ve written, but you achieved the first goal of the A3 - quick communication. If this had been a report, it would have to be at least 10 pages long, and it would take me at least 30 minutes to do the same cursory reading I did in 30 seconds with the A3. I’d say “good job” but if I were a Japanese sensei, I guess I’d say “nice try.” Seriously, I think the internet nemawashi is a great idea.

7. Fran Donovan

   June 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

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   Agree with Karen! Fabulous concise process that clearly states problem, goal and call to action and solicits feedback.
   After this limited exposure I like A3.

   It’s clear to me that we must use technology to help leverage the clinical effort and improve outcomes.

   At Silverlink we are currently involved in several exciting projects using a sophisticated web based platform to help communicate and manage members with chronic diseases.

   I’d love to help in any way.

   Fran