by Lee Fried, on 26 May 2008 07:15 pm
The Journey
Solving Problems and Creating New Problems
Last week I had a hallway conversation with a manager that has been applying Lean thinking and tools to her area for the last couple of years. I love the conversations when people talk about those moments in life when things became clear and this was one of them. I asked her if I could write a blog entry about this experience and she said as long as it was anonymous she would love me to share so here it is.
She told me she had just figured out why they talk about Lean as a never ending journey. She had heard this many times, but it finally had become real for her and because of this realization she said for the first time in a year she was able to relax. She had recently completed a rapid improvement workshop and as a result of this work many of the problems in her area had been solved. Yet, soon after she began to identify a whole new set of problems that were created as a result of the change. For the last year she had been working hard to solve problems with the hope of being able to solve them all. As new problems continually popped up she would be frustrated and would only work harder, which over time was exhausting.
So the realization that freed her mind was that there would always be problems. She was talking with a frontline staff member when this realization hit her. He was telling her the evolution of a process they had been focusing on over the last year and discussed each of the problems that had come up as they had tried to make improvements. This process had been a difficult one for the organization and our members and the team had made huge improvements over the last year, yet, changes kept creating new problems. What was interesting was the each new problem caused headaches and frustration, but it seemed smaller then the problems of the past. She suddenly realized that they were measuring progress in the wrong way. That by the very nature of solving a problem the system changes, which will create a whole new set of problems. That striving for perfection may be the target, but the real goal was to make improvement each and every day. So as a manager her job was not to try and create a problem free environment, but instead to set up the conditions and system by which problems could be effectively solved.
It is exciting to think how much more effective and engaged this manager will be armed with this new perspective. I love these moments…
on 27 May 2008 at 3:22 pm 1.Dan Lafever said …
I manage an IT help desk for a hospital system. We recently had a tour from another hospital help desk department and a big section of the tour we devoted to our Lean and Kaizen journey we started in 2005. As we recounted our progress and shared what we learned, we realized how much progress we have made. It was a truly “ah-ha” moment understanding how far we have come in 3 years. Yet we realize how much we can improve discussing operations with another help desk and seeing more improvement opportunities before us. Sometimes, a bit of reflection opens the mind on how far we have come and yet how far we have to go. Considering the good that we have done, the journey looks even brighter ahead.
on 01 Jun 2008 at 12:44 pm 2.Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #36 said …
[...] Solving Problems and Creating New Problems by Lee Fried - So as a manager her job was not to try and create a problem free environment, but instead to set up the conditions and system by which problems could be effectively solved. [...]