DailyKaizen

What a week. It was great. I was challenged, Lee was challenged, the team was challenged, and we all learned something. I’ll be honest when I say that there were a few times when I asked myself, “I gave up sitting at a desk and having meetings for this?” I’ll also be honest when I say that I answered myself, “Yes. And I’d do it again.” Kaizen is not easy. It’s difficult. And it is just a tool - kaizen doesn’t solve any problems. It creates a framework and environment - we have to bring the passion and energy to it. And we did.

One thing I picked up on for myself was the importance of watching and listening, carefully. When I saw what people went through as they learned the concepts and reacted to new ideas, I got clues as to what amount of change was realistic, and that team members really did want to improve their processes. I couldn’t get this by checking in a few times during the week. That’s a great thing about kaizen - it brings management closer together to those they serve, rather than farther away, which might be the instinct if one is going to change the way work is done in a business unit.

There were several moments where I think the most credible advice came from colleagues doing the work, who had been through this process before, and offered up their experience, unsolicited. Their words were more credible than anything I could say as a sponsor. This is good; I was impressed at the leadership displayed by team members in these instances, and by the fact that we have all grown and changed just in the last several months.

I can’t wait for the next one.

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