Second Year Hansei at A Lean Journey

Two years ago today I started this blog and as I did last year hansei or self reflection is appropriate and necessary.  I believe without stopping and looking at where you have been it is hard to move forward.  Like in Lean this too has been a journey.  

Let me start by revisiting my first year of blogging.  I entered this endeavor without a plan and limited knowledge of blogging, social media tools, and even writing.  My goal was simple: grow the number of blog readers. I was pretty successful in doing just that my first year. This result was not without the help of a number of great people and those relationships have continued to grow.  Looking forward to my second year I planned to do continue developing good content, learning more, sharing ideas, and dialogging with other Lean thinkers.

So how did I do?  Well, let's look at a couple of measures.

Maybe looking at this quarterly is an easier way to see the data.

I think the number of repeat visitors is a measure of success over time.

My Lean Quote and Lean Roundup series are the most popular series of posts.  The most popular post this past year was the Personal Kanban Kaizen at about 3000 views representing only 5% of the total views.

About a year ago I created a facebook page and I wanted to increase the number of likes on my page.  So at the end of last summer I created the idea of posting a Daily Lean Tip as a way to create a unique value for this page.  I now have over 200 tips posted and about 300 facebook fans.

This past year I also had a chance to embark into a number of other projects.  My good friend Jeff Hajek and I started a monthly webinar series where we share some of our Lean knowledge from experience.  I spoke about Lean Product Development at a local Lean conference in the fall.  A number of authors have asked for book reviews which has been a great learning experience.  I recently had the opportunity to co-author a lean reference book for ASQ that my good friend Tony Manos is leading. 

In looking back, I have had a number of new experiences this past year.  Again, I continue to learn a wealth of knowledge from so many other great Lean Thinkers, many of which I highlight monthly.  As in life and business the people aspect of my blogging experience is the part I treasure the most.  

An important element in hansei is continuous improvement. So I guess it is appropriate to ask what is next?  Well, I would like to create more engagement with my readers. I am not exactly sure how to do that yet. Any suggestions? In the next year, I would like to bring my LinkedIn Group into the fold along with the blog and facebook.  I'd also like to add some guest posts from those Lean Thinkers I talk about each month.

I'd like to know what you think of my second year at blogging. What do you like? What can be improved?  If you have ideas on posts or Lean questions I can answer let me know.  I value your feedback since without you I couldn't do this.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my journey with you.


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