It’s hard to remember where my head was two years ago, but I wrote down a very simple note to myself with the following:
- Road to continuous improvement
- Innovate
- Communicate
This was the starting point to my ‘Mind Temple’ that I would go on to create about 12 months later and what would start my journey at Harvard Extension School. Basically what I recognized is that continuous improvement cannot happen without innovating and innovating cannot happen without communication. Two years later, I still stand by this. Communication is absolutely key and I need to continue to remember this as I work through my new role as this Improvement Leader. Yesterday was a good example of poor communication between me and my new department. There were a bunch of buyers that were complaining about lack of engineering data and a coworker joked that I should be fixing all of that for them. I probably came on too strong to suggest helping them. Ultimately, I think they just want to vent out their frustrations. When I was in engineering, I focused on standing up and butting myself into any conversation that was happening when people were having problems. Now, I think I need to be more reserved. I do need to think of some way to spark the continuous improvement spirit from the supply chain team though, but for now, I am the outsider.
