I get to have so much fun at work, it makes me want to start a TV show called “People are so Funny”. As humans we naturally resist change. It is deep in our bodies to do so. Think about it: if we went around changing how our blood flows or body temperature regulates, we would be a mess. It is a natural biological function, called homeostasis, which keeps these ole bodies ticking away. This same function keeps people and organizations from accepting change. It is just natural. Yet, if we don’t change, learn or grow in business, we are out of business.

What does this have to do with Japanese words? Anyone in a lean transformation knows it is all about change. Change the behavior, change the culture, change the things done and how they are done and change the words….. to Japanese words!

A superintendant joined a project under way and was openly dismayed and dismissive of “all these Japanese terms.” He could not and would not accept this at that time. This was a few months ago.

This Fourth of July, I had the honor of watching a parade in a small town. It had the usual classic and new fire engines with the local firefighters riding. But the unusual thing for me to see was how truly appreciative the local towns people were of their firefighters, their heroes. The firefighters in the trucks and the local people watching were calling out to each other by name. The cheers were real and heartfelt. It was touching to see how this small town truly appreciated their firefighting heroes.

But don't we all? Take it to corporate America, and don't we respect and honor the project manager, or leader who rises to the occasion to save the day? The hero, who sweeps into the struggling situation, sorts it all out for the moment and moves on. These heroes are given respect, high fives, pats on the back and raises for their heroic measures.

So we teach these people to be firefighters. But in this corporate Americana way, we teach against the lean principle to work in a manner as to prevent the fires. And alas, what becomes of these heroes then. How do they shift from this glory to a different way? In his book, Managing to Learn, John Shook points to this as a fundamental shift in managers that is needed in order for organizations to be operating in a lean manner. He states, "The desire to celebrate heroic campaigns remained a perennial threat to the necessary daily mindset of looking for small problems and anomalies as opportunities for constant improvement." "These individuals successfully responded to crises with dramatic solutions-yet did little to prevent these crises from occurring in the first place." For an organization to behave in a lean way, people must be looking to prevent the fires, the crisis. It makes sense but we love our heroes.

Today I had lunch with a colleague that taught me an important lesson. We both are trying to loose those few pounds. The ordering went something like: lean turkey burgers for both of us. But then the all important question: fries, coleslaw or fresh fruit bowl? He, let's say being "good", ordered the fruit bowl. I went for the fries, let's be generous and say being "not so good". The food came, my fries were delicious. Next thing I hear is him ordering a side of fries!

So I got to thinking, about drift to low performance on projects. Lately, I have been reflecting on how easy it is for project teams to "drift" or "backslide" into old habits and behavior. It struck me how easy it was for me to order the fries in spite of the fact that a "good" example was set for me. Then it became apparent how my "not so good" example pulled my colleague into a backslide.

What does this mean to us on projects? To me it points to the importance for leaders, mentors, etc. to really set the "good" example and stay with it no matter how hard it is for them. It is much easier to follow a "not so good" example than to follow a "good" one. We are, after all, human.

 

In my last post I wrote about Hansei (deep reflection).  In my writing, I did not make a point about the importance of reflecting from a neutral position.  What do I mean by that? 

In general, when we reflect or look back at what happened, it is usually from the perspective of what went wrong or what did not work.  We create stories or assessments of ourselves or our team based on what happened.  Furthermore, we place judgments on these stories (good, bad, negative, positive). This practice results in moving forward into action from this judged stance.  When done from what went wrong or negative stance, our learning from what happened is clouded or limited.  Could this limited perspective lead us to take action more narrow or different than we would from another perspective?  Might we respond in a way that may not be the most effective? 

How might our behavior, conclusions and actions be influenced differently if the reflection were done from a neutral position?  What would that look like?  In my opinion it would include reflecting equally as much on what did work and did not work.  Would our mood about what happened be different and lead to different mood moving forward resulting in different action?  Would a person or team take different action when including the whole picture? Our Western way of thinking, observing and acting in the world tends towards isolating objects and events from the whole.  Just look at the silo's created in businesses and in our everyday life. Many people silo their work life from their personal or home life.  Is it not a wonder that we silo the positive from the negative and even leave out the neutral?  How different would our individual and collective actions be if we observed from the whole? 

When was the last time you stopped to reflect on what you are doing, the value you are adding on a daily basis, either personally, as a team or a company? 

Hansei, or deep reflection for learning, is not something we tend to do on a regular basis as teams or in our companies.  Reflection is likely more a personal habit than a team or company habit.  All reflection, if done with intention to learn, can lead to improvement or growth.  Toyota holds a form of formal scheduled hansei-events at key milestones or intervals in a process with the intention of learning in order to improve. 

Lately, I am more focused on hansei. I am learning how powerful it can be when teams stop and reflect; when they move away from the traditional idea of “lessons learned” at the end of a project which so often while, right intentioned, end up in a binder on a shelf.  I have yet to work with a team that did not resist taking the time to stop and reflect.  Goodness, we are all so busy – being in meetings, multitasking and just running around in our important circles – how can we possibly take the time to stop?  Do we fear stopping?  Do we think something will pass us by?  Once teams learn to stop and reflect on a process, time is found, they stop doing things that do not add value to their day or lives or clients, they start taking new actions that lead to a better process or value.  It becomes a habit that not only leads to improvements, but to better understanding and cohesiveness within the team.