Life coach - Step 73 of 100 - Lean versus mediocre success

I have stated earlier that "Good is the enemy of better and better the enemy of best". There is another perspective to the above that I call "Mediocre success". The problems with most organizations is that the person at the top feels the need for things to improve and drives initiatives and depending on his or her personality would succeed. However this is what I call mediocre success for two reasons

• The day the person leaves things could return to normalcy / as they were before
• The improvements are limited to what this guy on the top can think of - which would be highly limited as compared to what is possible

This is where lean comes in and why I advocate lean. Lean is about every one involved in identifying and improving even if the increments are miniscule. But when these hundreds of people pool in the small improvements which in other words could be only mediocre success, what we have at the 30000 feet level is amazing success - wow success. That is the power of lean. And that is why in my past few blogs I have been reiterating on bringing a change to bring the change.

A lean journey is like the bamboo roots that take months to spread below the ground. It could be years before one actually sees the bamboo growing about the ground. But when the critical mass is reached, the growth rate is amazing. Everyone sees the bamboo above the ground and the inches that are addded every month. But the lean journey began with months of preparation before anyone could see the fruits.

As a Commanding Officer in a personality led organization, implementing a lean journey is both difficult and easy. Difficult because it is perceived as another order and followed immediately without realizing what it entails and easy because it can be done without major obstacles.

Any important note: It is probable that the fruits of your labor may not be enjoyed by you at all, a majority of them would be enjoyed by your successor and those who follow. But if you tomorrow have to command this army, would you rather not have the seeds sown right now so that you can depend on your men without a second thought. And as your proceed up the chain of command, every seed that you sow would some day bear your fruit - its the LAW OF KARMA