[lit-ideas] See, We Can Learn

From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Anthro-L <ANTHRO-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:55:24 +0900

Cross-posted from Bestoftheblogs.com (the author of the comment is me)
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Just read an amazing story in Fast Company. It reminds me of how much
we Americans, from George Bush in Iraq to Democrats whooping it up on
Election Day night in 2006, see life as a series of games, our goal
being to win the big one then kick back and enjoy our success. Then,
it's time for the next big game. So we move in fits and starts,
feeling great if we win, feeling down if we lose, never thinking the
Toyota Way, getting up in the morning and saying to ourselves, "What
can we do better today?"The good news is that this isn't another story
that says American culture is rotten to the core. It's a story about
Americans working at Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky, factory, who have
embraced a different way to work. Here's an excerpt.

What happens every day at Georgetown, and throughout Toyota, is

teachable and learnable. But it's not a set of goals, because goals
mean there's a finish line, and there is no finish line. It's not
something you can implement, because it's not a checklist of
improvements. It's a way of looking at the world. You simply can't
lose interest in it, shrug, and give up--any more than you can lose
interest in your own future.

"People who join Toyota from other companies, it's a big shift for

them," says John Shook, a faculty member at the University of
Michigan, a former Toyota manufacturing employee and a widely regarded
consultant on how to use Toyota's ideas at other companies. "They kind
of don't get it for a while." They do what all American managers
do--they keep trying to make their management objectives. "They're
moving forward, they're improving, and they're looking for a plateau.
As long as you're looking for that plateau,it seems like a constant
struggle. It's difficult. If you're looking for a plateau, you're
going to be frustrated. There is no 'solution.'"

Even working at Toyota, you need that moment of Zen.

"Once you realize that it's the process itself--that you're not

seeking a plateau--you can relax. Doing the task and doing the task
better become one and the same thing," Shook says. "This is what it
means to come to work."

--------------------------------------------

John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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[lit-ideas] See, We Can Learn

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