An interesting perspective on Kaizen
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A couple months back at Java One, I bought a book called Think Better, An Innovator's Guide To Productive Thinking, and forgot about it somewhere in the clutter space that is my bedroom. I spent this past week nursing an allergic reaction at home so I decided to pop open the book and start reading. The author Tim Hurson is a thought provoking author giving some excellent examples people living constantly in "reproductive" thinking mode. Reproductive thinking mode is the that mode our brain goes into to save energy. We are all guilty of this... A trivial example he gives is waking up in the morning. You don't think when you wake up in the morning. If your mornings are like mine you:
- Wake up.
- Brush your teeth with the same brush strokes.
- Put on clothes from the same subset of work clothes.
- Get in the car and drive the same way to work.
But have you ever thought about the "why" behind everything you do? Why do you always brush your teeth in the same direction? Why do you always put a shirt on first before your pants? Why cofffee? Why not tea? I've simplied the examples, but you can see this translating into other aspects of your life. Why do you always solve problems in the same way? On one hand it might be because you are using tried and true patterns that solve the problem in the most efficient way possible. On the other, you could be locking yourself into the same routine:
"Things went on like that for awhile - prison life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Andy would show up with fresh bruises. The Sisters kept at him - sometimes he was able to fight 'em off, sometimes not. And that's how it went for Andy - that was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him, and I also believe that if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him" - Red, Shawshank Redemption
I've only read through half of the book, but Think Better attempts to show you the thinking prison that we are living in. It's showing why the same routine that let's us feel comfortable will only lead us to living on the same curve.
All very interesting material. Thinking is good, routine is bad. Then I came up to a chapter titled, "Kaizen vs. Tenkaizen". As you probably know, especially fellow hacker Ryan K, Kaizen is a Japanese philiosophy that focuses on continous improvment though all aspects of life. Tim Hurson argues that Kaizen is not always the best philiosophy to live by. Continous improvement is a great thing if you want to keep chugging along on the same level. But Tenkaizen, which is a word he made up, means "Good Revolution". Producing new innovative ideas, rather than reproducing the same old ideas is what can take us to the next level.
A presentation that comes to mind is Guy Kawasaki's talk about the ice delievery company, let's call them Quick Ice. Quick Ice believes in the Kaizen system. They want to continously improve their ice delievery for their customers. So they work on continously improving. They buy faster trucks, send out larger delieveries, develop efficient ways to produce ice, and waste less ice during deliveries. All of these ideas can come through the philiosophy of Kaizen. You are continually building upon what you already know. But the real innovation occurs when someone has the genius idea of letting customers make their own ice! A refrigerator! Genius! Definitely a product of productive rather than reproductive thinking. Productive thinking lets you jump to that elusive next curve.
I'm very interested in the rest of the book. It has already made an impression on me by making me think about the "why" instead of being a drone and always doing what I've always done. I've decided that I'm not gonna let routine get the best of me.
