Not my title but the title of a great article, (see source below) which I uncovered in my research on meetings. I wanted to include a small section on Hansei meetings, part of the Toyota way teaching an attitude of self reflection.
Despite the bad press, I don't mind our RCMP, here's why. After going through a road block in the Dominican, setup for the express purpose of extracting bribes from drivers, (full flak gear and machine guns), our RCMP started looking pretty good.
I asked our Dominican driver, "how does this escape the attention of the local police chief, or the media?" I was told, "the chief assigns roadblocks to raise money for him and his officers."
Our RCMP may have a raft of dysfunctional issues but I've never been asked for payola at a local roadblock. Which all takes me to the RCMP commissioner's apologist line where he suggested that if the RCMP was good enough for him, it couldn't be that bad. (Author Paul Plango).
Funny, yes? If you employ people who think lowering the standard or improving the process are the same thing, - send them to the Dominican.
Going back to the Hansie meeting article and the idea that Americans, (Canadians) tend to make excuses rather than seek improvement, there's some truth to that. It's a bit of our positive thinking culture but it doesn't make for many learning moments.
Lean thinking asks these questions.
- What can we do to avoid this problem in the future?
- How can we make sure this doesn't happen again?
- How can we prevent re-occurrence of this incident?
- What can we learn from this?
- How can we do better next time?
- What ideas do you have for improving in the future?
These are great process improvement questions to ask at meetings because they solve root cause. They dig deep. Lowering the standard to our personal best, won't improve anything, not even the RCMP.
See you for breakfast,
Wolfgang
p.s. Source: Rochelle Kopp, Managing Principal, Japan Intercultural Consulting. "Are Americans always making excuses?" Feb. 2012.
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