A Hike in the woods reminds me of a Lean Journey

This week my wife ,Donna, and I went for a walk on a trail in Algonquin Park, the trails have not been cleared yet and are covered in snow still. As we were

walking it struck me that we were practicing Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) on our travel through the trail. We knew the start point, we knew the goal, and we could only see a little ways ahead of ourselves at any given point. With the Plan of, walk from this trail marker to the next trail marker and every step being an experiment. This is just like the improvement Kata process. Moving from target condition to target condition, overcoming any obstacles using PDCA to find ways through over or around them.

When you start your lean journey figuring out where you are and where you want to go is the most important thing. Having a vision of your goal will help motivate the team to work towards it. Having a destination for your hike motivates you to keep going.

When Donna and I started the hike, the trail was well worn, with good markings, and it was easy to walk to the next marked point.

A kilometre into the walk the trail was covered in snow, and the PDCA process started. I was leading and Donna was watching were I placed my feet. When I slipped or fell through the crust of snow, Donna would put her feet in a different spot learning from my mistake. Every step went like this from trail marker to trail marker.

When we came across downed trees blocking the trail, I would look at the tree and discuss with Donna, do we go over or around the tree. We did booth many times. On one occasion, over looked like a good call. As I startled the tree trunk I realized BAD IDEA, a broken branch dug into my leg, no blood, ok. Donna decided to follow over the tree, but she stepped onto the trunk and leapt off. No injury for her.

At another point the snow and ice were melting and creating a large cold puddle. We decided to go around. Leading, I stepped on what looked like firm snow, I slipped and sank in a little. Donna not wanting to sink in took a slightly different path. She sank up to her knee in snow, when she pulled her leg out her shoe stayed behind. She retrieved her shoe, and now had a cold wet foot.

From a lean Journey point of view, this is like using the pilot cell to make all of the mistakes and learning from them. Moving to the next target condition after the target condition became the current. Each obstacle along the path to the next target condition is another PDCA cycle.

Throughout the walk there were many beautiful spots to stop and take picture and enjoy the fruits of our labours. On your lean journey remember to stop and reflect on how far you have come. The people you develop along the way are the fruits of labour along your way to lean nirvana.

#LeanManufacturing #PDCA