Things are not always as they seem
What do you do when you realize that your view of the situation was incorrect? We have all experienced that moment where our senses and ideas have deceived us.
That time when we are startled jumping back involuntarily with our hearts pounding at catching a quick glance of a coiled-up piece of rope in the corner of the garage floor misperceived as a snake. Our brains highjack our reasoning thought process at that moment to save us from dangers. Better to be safe than sorry seems to be the biological protocol, and so we are wired first and foremost with fight or flight override mechanisms.
But in the practice of continuous improvement whether professional or personal, we must always be on the lookout for misconceptions and wrong views. Behaviors and habits that we have maintained that have served us well to a certain point, but now may have become a hindrance to our improvement moving forward. What harm would there be in reexamination of the current process that we have in place?
Missing out on growth
What insights are we missing out on when we choose to just accept our current view as correct? To have the courage for self-examination is a key component to learning and growing. Looking deeply at the concepts we have of others and our own habitual practices. Everything we are doing today can’t be the end of the line, can it? Surely there is room for improvement of some kind.
To practice continuous improvement and be a subscriber to lean philosophy, one must enter with a curious and humble mind, open to the possibility of things changing for the better. If that is missing from our practice, then all the lean theories and tools are just a thin veneer pasted to the outside of ourselves, to fool the world.
Lean leaders need to be the courageous people who are willing to show the world that a strong lean culture is not something that you import from outside but grow from within. Not an easy task by any means, but with a focus on respect for people and building an environment where all current concepts are open for examination no matter how sacred they are. Endless improvements seem to be open to everyone. Building a culture of problem solving and individual thinking teams would serve everyone well.
Photograph: Provincetown, Massachusetts- Summer 2023