Lean is very much about Organisational development and to develop as an Organisation we must learn as a team.
For my last blog of the year, I thought it appropriate to write a little about reflection.
It’s strange that in life we seem to need some sort of milestone or key point to reflect, whether that be the advent of a new year, a birthday or some other form of important life event.
In Lean Organisations it is essential that we do the same, however waiting for a pre-determined date, or worse, the occurrence of a crisis situation, can be too late.
While spending time in Japan, I heard the word Hansei. It transpired that this translates almost directly to mean Self-reflection and describes the need to recognise mistakes and take appropriate action to avoid their re-occurrence.
This principle is an essential element of a successful organisations as recognising and reflecting on mistakes is the key to not repeating them.
It doesn’t stop there of course as even where targets are met we should still reflect on our path to achievement. What went well and where should be celebrate that success. What problems arose along the way – where was the waste? Was our target to easy and should we stretch our goals further
This manner of reflection is best acted upon when built into the very core of the Organisation. A fundamental part of the business system and thus ‘business as usual’
Like all improvement activity, of which this is very much an aspect, it is critical to build the right environment and time to incorporate not only the reflection but the subsequent resulting actions as something that gets done instinctively, rather than at predefined date milestones.
“But we don’t have time to do this as well” Yes, I hear this and my answer is simple. Create your time opportunity by undertaking lean improvements and reducing waste. Reflection, the subsequent learning and actions are key to a successful organisation.