On the second
Monday of every October, we have a holiday in the honor of the European
explorer, Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus is important for
accidentally discovering America, thus starting the Age of Exploration, and
causing world changing events that continually influence history even up today.
This is a good
time to talk about the importance of discovery to Lean thinking. Fundamentally, discovery is the act of
detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown.
Discoveries are often made due to questioning.
Thinking is not
driven by answers but by questions. To think through or rethink anything, one
must ask questions that stimulate our thought.
Questions
define tasks, express problems and delineate issues. Answers on the other hand,
often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates a further
question does thought continue its life as such.
Thinking is of
no use unless it goes somewhere, and again, the questions we ask determine
where our thinking goes. Deep questions drive our thought underneath the
surface of things; force us to deal with complexity. Questions of purpose force
us to define our task. Questions of information force us to look at our sources
of information as well as at the quality of our information.
Encourage a
questioning culture. Urge everyone to
question. Ask why several times to try to get to the root cause of
problems. Challenge everyone to think
and learn. Because without questioning there can’t be discovery. And without
discovery there can’t be improvement.
In the spirit
of Columbus Day take some time to discover and learn about your company, your
employees, your problems, your processes, and your customers so that you can
think Lean improvement.
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