Tattoos and Kaizen

I don't have any tattoos.

Not that I'm against them, it's just that I know that I'd be paralyzed as to what image to get. Which got me thinking about a story I read recently about a guy who got his first tattoo with the Japanese symbol for Kaizen on it. Unfortunately, they tattooed it upside-down.

Ironically, Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement. So, I guess you can say that the tattoo artist has room for some Kaizen.

The kaizen revolution in Japan took place in the 1950s after World War II. American occupation forces brought the American experts to teach improvement methods (Shewhart cycle, W. Edwards Deming cycle or PDCA).

Basically, the cycle of kaizen can be summed up as Plan, Do, Check, Act:


PLAN

Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the expected output. By making the expected output the focus, it differs from other techniques in that the completeness and accuracy of the specification is also part of the improvement.

DO

Implement the new processes. Often on a small scale if possible.

CHECK

Measure the new processes and compare the results against the expected results to ascertain any differences.

ACT

Analyze the differences to determine their cause. Each will be part of either one or more of the P-D-C-A steps. Determine where to apply changes that will include improvement. When a pass through these four steps does not result in the need to improve, refine the scope to which PDCA is applied until there is a plan that involves improvement.

The concept of Kaizen offers us many gifts. A couple of obvious ones to me are that the kaizen method of tiny improvements is the perfect device for anyone, no matter where they are in life, no matter how downtrodden. Kaizen reminds us that no matter where we are, we can take tiny steps to improve. In other words, Kaizen gives us HOPE for the future. There is always HOPE and always room for improvement.

"All that is needed is the seed of desire to improve something," writes Silvia Hartmann in a Kaizen essay. "to change something that needs changing or wants changing or would be serving you and those you love in a better way. Whatever your perceived limitations, think again."

Sir Bowie "trying to remember to make tiny improvement -- but still not getting the tattoo" of Greenbriar

Rest Our Weary Heads

a.k.a. The Day After Moving Day!

Sunday and yesterday were moving days for our older daughter Amy and her h... hus... husband.
Husband. There, I said it. Her husband Mark.

So, Lady Suzanne and I packed up a U-Haul and three vehicles and moved the new bride and groom to their first apartment just south of Indianapolis.


As we were packing and unpacking wedding gifts, I noticed several wall decorations and other items with one of Amy's favorite sayings.

So today's blog comes from a set of pillows with a profound message that we all can rest or weary heads upon:


Peace,

Sir Bowie of "180 miles / about 3 hours 23 minutes away from our baby - not that we counted" of Greenbriar

The Way of All Flesh

A world leader should be applauded, not criticised, for going to the theatre



President Obama promised his wife during a gruelling election campaign that when it was over he would take her to a Broadway show. He fulfilled that campaign pledge on Saturday. The couple attended a performance of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by the late August Wilson and then went to a restaurant. They travelled by official plane and motorcade, at public expense and causing traffic disruption: hence Republican criticism of supposed extravagance at a time of economic hardship for Americans. The criticism is worse than mean spirited: it is wrong.

The President is of necessity a public figure rather than any longer a private citizen. That does not mean he should live in an official cocoon. It does entail that he travels by official transport to ensure his safety. The notion that he would be a better public servant if he were denied the private pleasures of theatre-going and dining in company is hard to fathom. The only ostensible sense it makes is that the arts and good food are fripperies that a world leader should have neither need nor time to indulge in. That is dangerous as well as arrant nonsense.




As Denis Healey, the most cultured of postwar British politicians, recalled in retirement: “Without the arts, politics would before long have encrusted me in a horny carapace; my persona would have taken over from my personality, and the mask would have become the man.”

Without an appreciation of a world more enduring than statecraft, a politician lacks a collective wisdom provided by artists, and a source of solace in hard times. Put simply ; All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And President Obama is not dull.

Sir Dayvd ( who plays rather more than he works ) of Oxfordshire