I haven’t had the chance to apply the kata to my work yet – still looking for a current condition that is stable enough and a person who I can work with. I think I’ve found both – 1. A new hire who is a very open and advanced person in the ways of lean and six sigma and 2. A process that has too much data and is tied into many of the processes in the company.
Since I can’t find a product that is stable and repeatable enough, it looks like the Material Review Board (MRB) process will lend itself to the kata. There is lots of data about how long it takes to process each reject and it has a standard process and it touches on every other process in manufacturing regarding how product moves through the floor.
On another note, I’ve noticed how the kata has seeped into my personal life or maybe it’s the other way around – I’m seeping into the kata.
Lately I’ve noticed that I have been saying “I don’t know” more than usual. I used to always try to guess at the answer. I felt it was important to come up with an answer no matter how “off” it was. It was related to that “need for approval” thing. Also, I recall some busines advice long ago that said “saying I don’t know is the worst thing you can do for your credibility”. This was part of the “how to live in a man’s world” advice book, I think. But now that I’ve decided to split off from that book and write my own, “I don’t know” seems like the best answer and it is very satisfying to say. It has the same satisfaction as saying “no”. I don’t know the answer to everything and I can’t do everything. I will pick the things to do that are going to have a payoff and I will focus on those.
Two other things I’ve noticed is that I will sit quietly and wait for the inspiration for what to do next insted of just running off in a direction “keeping busy”. I remember this recommendation from the book The Machine That Changed the World by James Womack where he said that one of the most successful people he knew would sit in his office with his feet up for long periods of time, not just doing something. I never thought I’d have enough confidence or work in a place that accepted this behavior but here I am.
Second is that I’ve stopped “batching” so much and taking things a little at a time. For example, carrying the groceries up the stairs, I used to try to see how much I could carry in one load but now I take a little at a time. Instead of trying to gather all of my tasks into one trip, I do one at a time. I remember starting the gathering process when I started to learn about industrial engineering and learned about time standards.
This sounds kind of ridiculous but when I started doing time standards at work, I started counting my steps from the car to the house. I guess my work and my life are pretty interconnected but that’s another story for another blog based on David Whyte’s Three Marriages which says there is no such think as “work/life balance” – they are interconnected to such a degree that we can’t separate them in order to balance them.