Lean Life Lessons

Here is something that has been yanking at me today.  How many of us are actually Lean practioners?  Let's be honest with ourselves.  We may preach from the mountain top at work, teach the kata, bring down the rules on stone tablets from the book Lean for Dummies, yet do we as individuals actually implement a lifestyle kata of Lean?

Here is a story that is a testemant of how Lean thinking actually transforms our minds into a thought pattern of logical progression.  Picture this, you go out for you daily 6.2 mile run where you are thinking about the best John Wayne quotes to use and just how do you implement that into a morning meeting, you arrive home and BOOM!!! an ant invasion.  Where on earth did these rascals come from?  Why did they decide to come into our home?  Why are they doing a line dance into the kitchen that reminds me of ealy 90's country music videos?  Why are they moving is such an orderly fashion?  Where did they come from?

Yes folks these ants invaded the homestead and I wasn't going to stand idly by.  Unknowingly I did an Ohno circle taking mental notes and asking questions.  No by no means did I pull out an A3 and get out my purple pen of truth writing down 5 why's etc.... Yet this was a perfect chance to implement containment, activate countermeasures, GO TO GEMBA.

My significant other was right on time with proper containment measures, furiously searching what to throw down to prevent those onry varmits from coming in, *cinnamon*, eliminate the phermone trail, etc.  We were working as a Team, a driven cohesive unit implementing a standard work protocol that each of us has used in the past for house chores.  Yes standard work, works.  Yoda is a bright and beautiful person, I believe that is the reason the ants decided to descend upon our homestead.

When all was said and done, we eliminated the problem, found the source, implemented corrective actions, and restored a current state continuing towards our desired state.  What I'm getting at here cowpokes is this,  Lean thinking and proper execution afforded us the chance to actually reduce the time of the "invasion" and prevent a return to a non-desired state.  So the next time life throws you a curveball, STOP!!!! Yes, we must sometimes slow down to speed up.  Put forth some mindful thought and action before you take to the knee jerk reaction route.

That's about it for now buckaroos, I thought a true story from the front line of life was fitting for this week demonstrating to others that Lean just isn't for work.  Lean is a lifestyle that can be fufilling and rewarding.

Until next time Happy Trails and remember "slow is smooth and smooth is fast".  Thanks for stopping by and spending some time,

Cowboy