Jamie Flinchbaugh Video: Daily Improvement

Everybody Everyday: Managing for Daily Improvement

The link above is an online video presentation by Jamie, courtesy of IndustryWeek (click here to subscribe to their print edition of the magazine).

In This Presentation You Will See

• How 90% of Lean strategies start and end (in minute 10)
• What you really want (and get) out of 5S (in minute 23)
• How you measure Lean (in minute 25)
• The leading metric of truly sustainable Lean change (in minute 27)
• Using lean to change the work of leaders (in minute 32)
• How to manage, not just lead (in minute 35)
• How to integrate Lean into the organization (in minute 41)
• How to know when problems occur (in minute 44)
• and more

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Nice Quote

Heard a great comment today:

"Suggestions are things somebody else should do. Ideas are things that I can do."

Maybe that is why Norman Bodek's books and the others (The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen and Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations) use that word instead of "suggestion"

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Toyota to Pay for Kaizen OT in Japan

asahi.com article - ENGLISH

Interesting article from Japan...

Toyota's 40,000 factory workers in Japan are all engaged in kaizen, or continuous improvement, as a core part of the quality control (QC) activities.

No surprise there... Lean and kaizen are tightly linked concepts, they go hand in hand. But...

Prompted by a ruling over a death from overwork, Toyota Motor Corp. will pay full overtime to factory workers engaged in after-hour kaizen activities designed to improve efficiency and product quality, sources said.

Japan's top automaker now pays compensation only for up to two extra hours a month because it considers employees are engaged voluntarily in kaizen activities.

But the company decided Wednesday to regard kaizen as part of the workers' job requirements and start paying allowances on June 1 to cover all activities done after hours, the sources said.

It's kind of hard to reconcile Toyota's "respect for people" concept with the idea of not paying employees overtime for working on kaizen activity. I certainly can't claim to be an expert on Japanese business culture, so maybe somebody can enlighten us a bit on how this had been an accepted practice?

Toyota considered it "voluntary," however:

Some employees and their families have said the workers are effectively forced to engage in QC activities because the results and achievements from the activities are included in their evaluations.

The article continues:

Toyota plans to encourage workers to review and simplify QC activities so that overtime work will not exceed two hours a month.

A senior Toyota official said the revision will inevitably push up labor costs.

So is Toyota asking employees to limit kaizen activity or to be more efficient in how they conduct it? Of course labor costs will go up, but I thought the point of kaizen was that the improvements should pay for themselves through quality improvement and cost savings... plus it develops the workforce. Does it seem a bit short-term focused to want to be limiting kaizen?

What do you think?

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Airline Kaizen - Action, not Whining

My Way News - Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel

I'm just thrilled anytime I see an example of an airline making a process improvement (a "kaizen" if you will) instead of their usual game plan of whining, slashing employee pay, or cutting corners.

Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more miles to the gallon. Now airlines are trying it, too - adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.

Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.

That meant flying at an average speed of 532 mph, down from the usual 542 mph.

This is a simple kaizen we can ALL apply. Instead of just whining about high gas prices, drive slower, ease up on the "rabbit starts," and keep your tires at the proper air pressure. To learn more about mileage improvement tips, click here.

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Norman & Me

Last week, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Norman Bodek in person for the first time. After all of our podcasts and electronic correspondence over the years, this was a real treat. I had a chance to chat 1 on 1 and to see him present to two different healthcare audiences about Lean and, in particular, Quick and Easy Kaizen (as you can read about in his book The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen).

I'll share a few of his thoughts and insights.

First off, I thought he made an excellent point that the goal for hospitals should be "NEVER harm the patient." This is a different goal and mindset than "don't make mistakes." Saying "don't make mistakes" holds people to a superhuman level -- are we going to penalize people for mistakes? We have to create an environment of learning and open problem solving -- being open about mistakes is our way of solving that problem so we don't have it reoccur in the future.

Norman told a story (also discussed here online) about our innate creativity. He asked the room what percentage of people thought they were "highly creative." About 20% of the room raised their hands. He said that was surprising, since most studies show 2% of adults self identify as "highly creative."

Norman asked how many little children are highly creative? All of them! What happens to this innate ability we are born with? A study showed that, by the end of Kindergarten, only 90% are still highly creative. By the end of first grade, it's only 10%. By the end of second grade, the number is down to adult levels -- 2%. That's sad.

The system beats the creativity out of us. It's the education system. Norman asks what happens in first grade -- the introduction of formal grading systems that punish us for making mistakes. If we learn by making mistakes, how do we have an educational system that punishes us for that?

Norman says "you've been brainwashed... you're still creative." I guess schools (and many businesses) want people who are passive and easily controlled, so the creativity is drummed out of us.

He then told a story about visiting Japan -- this was a new one to me -- and he saw a board in a factory where there were pictures of the employees. A worker came over and started writing something down under their picture. They were writing down a mistake they had made. Can you believe it? That wouldn't fly in most organizational cultures. In that factory's culture, mistakes were not going to get you fired or punished - otherwise, who would write something down?

They embraced their problems as learning opportunities, as something to be shared.

I don't think that's something most of us can go implement until we have a highly advanced "lean culture" in our workplace.

Anyway, it was a real pleasure meeting Norman. He's currently in Japan (his 68th trip), leading yet another study mission. I hope you all get a chance to meet him -- or, at the least, listen to his podcasts and read his books.

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Who Is Making Sure Things Work?

Hamilton Beach HDC100B Pourover Pod Brewer

Sorry for the blog downtime the past few days. I had a great weekend back in my old hometown, Phoenix. My wife and I stayed at a hotel in Scottsdale that had some room features that just didn't work well (although it was a nice hotel and an enjoyable stay overall). The little design glitches made me wonder, "Who, in management, doesn't recognize this stuff is a problem? Who approved it initially and who doesn't fix it today?"

The coffee maker was one of those things. It was a "pod" single-cup maker, as linked to above. The glaring flaw in the design is the challenge of actually getting water into the coffee maker. For a coffee maker with a carafe, even a small 4-cup one, there's a spout for easy spill-free pouring. Not on this one -- you're supposed to brew right into the mug.

See the photo at the left? The center part with the white disc is where the coffee pod goes. The photo is a bit deceptive, but there's an outer semi-circular ring where you're supposed to pour the water. This opening is about 1/2" wide. Try an experiment at home... how easily can you pour water out of a ceramic mug into a small area? You can't. Water ends up all over the counter.... the water that landed on the coffee pod fell straight through where the mug was supposed to be sitting. A big mess.

A) Who, at the manufacturer, designs this crap and never discovers the flaw?

B) Who, in hotel management, buys this crap without ever trying to use it?

C) Who, after discovering the flaw, wouldn't send these back, ordering coffee makers that actually work?

I'm placing more of the responsibility on hotel management.... let me give just another example of their poor design. They put a lot of effort into turning this former Hampton Inn into a cool, "hip" hotel. There was some lighting built into the top of the headboard. Problem was I had to call the front desk to figure out how to turn the lights off.

"Oh, we get calls about that all the time," said the front desk person as they explained that the switch was hidden in the nightstand that extended behind the nightstand... move the alarm clock and I'd find it. The switch was cleverly the SAME color as the nightstand....

A) Who approves that design?

B) Who doesn't fix that after getting calls every day?

I wouldn't necessarily expect a root cause fix... but at least post a little sign telling us how to turn off the light (but, then that wouldn't look very hip).

Think about our workplaces for a minute.... is there stuff in our workplace that just doesn't work? Is there enterprise software that's just hard to use? Equipment that's glitchy and causes problems for people day in and day out?

Who approved those things? Who rushed them into place? Who didn't input from those who would use the equipment or software? Who didn't discover that it doesn't work well? You find the same types of problems in factories and hospitals. Why do technologies get chosen that don't support the way people work?

Can't we do better? Do leaders need to pay more attention to these details? Or do the leaders need to care more?

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Kaizen Events Aren't Enough

Are Rapid Improvement Events enough? | Lean Healthcare

I don't have anything against Kaizen Events (often called "RIE" or "Rapid Improvement Events" in healthcare). They have their proper place and can bring many benefits, but events are not enough. They are NOT a complete Lean enterprise strategy, so I agree with the argument made in the linked blog post.

In my upcoming book on Lean Hospitals, I lay out an alternative to event-driven Lean, something that has been popular in healthcare. I spell out a method that allows systemic kaizen and the institution of a Lean management system, something that is often difficult to do with week-long events.

Even back in a former manufacturing company, I saw the dysfunctions that can occur in an event-driven approach to Lean. If there's a problem that needs solving, why wait weeks or months for the scheduled event? This happens when events are the only improvement that is taking place. Kaizen should be a continuous process, driven by the people who do the work (not the experts who run kaizen events), something that is facilitated by supervisors and managers.

What other dysfunctions have you seen with kaizen events? What do you do to battle those dysfunctions? How has your organization fit kaizen events into an overall systemic Lean strategy? Click "comments" to let us know.

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A Peek, Of Sorts, Into Starbucks' Operations

Starbucks Gossip Blog - Open Thread

Starbucks Replaces CEO with Chairman

I've posted about Starbucks before - I believe they have people at headquarters learning about and starting with Lean, but I don't know any details (any Starbucks employees reading this, feel free to chime in). This WSJ article from 2005 is still pretty fascinating, on their attempts at operational improvement that seemed very expert driven (not the Lean approach that would rely more on the associates).

I'm a pretty frequent Starbucks (SBUX) customer (grande drip) and I'm always sort of curious about the opportunities for Standardized Work and kaizen (continuous improvement) for a company with 15,000 points of customer contact. The traditional McDonald's approach to standard processes has been consistency and "dumbing it down." I've read about Starbucks complaining about their operations being similarly "dumbed down" (such as the automated espresso machines that were put in a few years back).

It always seemed that Starbucks had an opportunity to engage its associates in real kaizen... if one associate in one store has a great idea, are there mechanisms for sharing that idea across the other 14,999 stores? Does all communication go up through Seattle and then back out? It's an interesting process to think about.

One of the non-Lean blogs I follow is Starbucks Gossip (main page). I saved this post's first link back in November and hadn't gotten around to posting about it. But, Starbucks was in the news, as their CEO was fired, the founder/Chairman took that job back, and McDonald's is creeping into SBUX territory with espresso cafes. That's not what I'm here to write about.

The thing that struck me in the linked post is the operational details that employees, talk and (sometimes) bitch about. You can see Lean-type issues, management issues, quality discussions, and opportunities for improvement. I can't link to particular comments, but I'll list them by time and you can search if you want:

• 8:57:04 AM: Discussion of layout differences in stores and how that impacts productivity, how managers help during busy times (labor/volume flexibility)
• 9:41:56 AM: Comment about managers forcing them to push certain drinks making "veiled threats on our jobs if we don't meet our goals" (not very lean)
• 8:02:52 PM: Comment on running out of peppermint syrup (a supply chain issue) and managers "had us buy another brand's syrup and put it in the Starbucks labeled bottles" (a workaround)
• 11:19:15 AM: Complaint about a manager "micromanaging obsessively and making veiled threats about my job..."
• 12:14:44 PM: Discussion of planned upgrades / maintenance to espresso machines, how long that should take (standardized work)
• 8:26:30 PM: Incorrect drinks being made (quality problems and defects)
• 8:34:17 PM: A few posts about customer requirements vs. safety (people ask for drinks hotter than the allowed temperatures) -- different associates react differently (std work)
• 10:44:08 AM: Questions and discussion (many posts) about the proper standards for "remaking" a drink (std work, quality, and cost)
• 11:50:26 AM: Lots of stockouts (inventory)
• 2:19:27 PM: Mention of a "Business Resource Manual" (sounds like SOPs), they also have a "portal" (assuming a website for info)
• 8:03:23 AM: Stores with "emergency peppermint storage for your district" (safety stock, inventory)

Anyway, I think it's always interesting to hear directly from employees. In a company that big, it's natural there will be problems and complainers, so I know to take some of this with a grain of salt. But, if you get past the whining, there's a real treasure-trove of operational, quality, management, and customer service issues to work on. I wonder if the founder/CEO will be able to help?

A New Turn of An Old Phrase

“Use our minds first, not our money” | DailyKaizen

I like the phrase, above, that Lee Fried used at the DailyKaizen blog. I think I like the phrase better than "creativity before capital." Same idea, but a slightly different way of saying it.

Subtle semantic difference, or they're saying the same thing?

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You Can't Force Suggestions

There was a question on the NWLean email list about suggestions, in the context of The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen, reading in part:

"My question is this; is the 2 suggestions per month per employee forced? Meaning do I require each worker to sumit their ideas or do I suggest that they do?"

Thankfully, Norman Bodek chimed in and pointed out this is never coercive. Lean leaders only fall back on positional authority and telling people what to do as a last resort. Hopefully it starts seeming silly to people to use one concept (getting employee input) via a non-Lean approach (mandating things).

The question continued:

If the answer is that I suggest they do, then what is the next approach I take if I have very little participation?

I think cases like this provide great opportunities to ask "why?" Why are employees not participating? The answers will vary depending on your environment, but it's always a good thing to ask "why?" instead of redoubling the mandate efforts.

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"Not Conducive to Suggestions"

My ears always perk up when I hear the word "suggestions." Again, it was in a football context. But unlike the ASU Sun Devil example, it was the other way around.

As my new team (the Cowboys) was still losing to my old hometown team (the Lions). The Lions have been notorious this year for hardly ever running the ball. The announcers told a story where one of them (Joe Buck?) asked if the Lions' offensive linemen ever suggested running the ball more, and the answer was "The atmosphere's not one that's real conducive to suggestions right now."

The season is collapsing for the Lions (which is partly why I gave up on them so long ago). A team that started 6-2 is now 6-7 and probably won't make the playoffs.

Is this like our workplaces? Things go badly and the leaders, in their pride, won't listen to the employees? Maybe during bad times is exactly when you should be asking for suggestions, or at least creating a "conducive" atmosphere.

The fans make suggestions all the time.... "Fire Millen!" they chant (Matt Millen is the team president who somehow still has his job with a track record of losing). When will the Ford family hire an Alan Mullaly for the football team? I hope Mullaly doesn't turn into a Millen for the auto company!

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The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes

Article - New York Times

Here's a really interesting article that talks about our attitudes about mistakes. In the Toyota mindset, mistakes are something to learn from (and to prevent from reoccurring), an idea that can be traced all the way back to Samuel Smiles, who was an influence on early Toyota thinking. Based on the many mentions of Smiles in David Magee's book, I was tempted into buying a copy of Smile's book "Self-Help," but I haven't had time to read any of it yet.

Anyway, back to the NY Times article.

“Studies with children and adults show that a large percentage cannot tolerate mistakes or setbacks,” she said. In particular, those who believe that intelligence is fixed and cannot change tend to avoid taking chances that may lead to errors.

Often parents and teachers unwittingly encourage this mind-set by praising children for being smart rather than for trying hard or struggling with the process.

There's some research, also cited right after that in the article, that suggests people are more willing to try difficult tasks (thus risking mistakes) after they are praised for "trying hard" instead of being praised for "being smart." Being labeled smart puts pressure on people, that smart people don't make mistakes. How can we apply that in the workplace and break that mentality?

“One thing I’ve learned is that kids are exquisitely attuned to the real message, and the real message is, ‘Be smart,’” Professor Dweck said. “It’s not, ‘We love it when you struggle, or when you learn and make mistakes.’”

Many Lean-related thoughts in the article, including this one:

After all, nobody wants a worker who keeps making the same mistake, and “if we fail and don’t learn from it, it’s not an intelligent failure,” he said.

Professor Gully and other researchers have looked at ways of training people to do complex tasks and found that in some cases encouraging them to make mistakes works better than teaching them to avoid them.

The value of learning from mistakes can't be confused with making careless or overly risky mistakes. We need to learn from mistakes, that's part of the kaizen process. If we're afraid of making mistakes, or think it will be view negatively, we'll be tempted to hide and cover up our mistakes, making systemic fixes less likely.

Good stuff, be sure to check out the whole article.

Have you done anything in your organization to help people "embrace their mistakes?" Or is the culture still one where only "dummies" make mistakes?

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The Sun Devil Suggestion System

My wife is an Arizona State alumna, so we're watching the annual Arizona St / Arizona rivalry football game (well, I'm watching it, she just cares if ASU wins... sort of).

The sideline announcer just told a quick story about how ASU coach Dennis Erickson is a different type of coach because he'll watch film with the players and the players will make a suggestion, and he'll let them try it out in practice... and the players like that. She then mentioned how the former coach (fired last year) would have never done that. Must have been the "control freak" style of coach.

How would Norman Bodek coach a football team? I'm sure he would run his "quick and easy kaizen" system on both offense and defense, don't you think? :-)

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A Cautionary Suggestion Tale

Leading Lean: Make Suggestions Productive - Departments - ASSEMBLY

While we're on the topic of suggestions today, our good friend Jamie Flinchbaugh (of the Lean Learning Center) coincidentally has a column in Assembly Magazine on this very topic. Thanks to Jamie for passing that along. Check it out...

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Why Traditional Suggestion Boxes Don't Work

I saw this in a workplace, posted by a union. But, you know, as a Lean practitioner, I couldn't agree with this cartoon more.

For one, in the Lean approach, real kaizen (continuous improvement) happens without suggestion boxes. Boxes cause delays in getting suggestions discussed and acted on. Boxes interfere with communication, since they tend to accumulate anonymous complaints. And finally, employee suggestions certainly shouldn't lead to job losses. That's not keeping with the "respect for people" pillar of the Toyota Production System.

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Norm Bodek on the new Shingo Book

The following is a message from Norman Bodek, printed with his permission.

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

Dear Lean Blog readers,

Dr. Shingo was the co-discover of TPS/LEAN.

A NEW SHIGEO SHINGO BOOK

November 9, 2007 Vancouver, Washington

Announcing a new hardcover Shigeo Shingo book, Kaizen and The Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanism. Once again Dr. Shingo will amaze you. Along with Taiichi Ohno, Dr. Shingo co-developed TPS (LEAN) with his deep understanding of how to improve the overall process of production. Dr. Shingo reveals how he taught Toyota and other Japanese companies the art of identifying and solving problems.

Many companies in the West are trying to emulate Lean but few can do it. Why not? Possibly, because we in the West do not recognize, develop and support the creative potential of every worker in solving problems. Toyota makes all employees problem solvers. Shingo gives you the tools to do it.

It is an easy to read brilliant book!

Dr. Shingo presents six unique models, the sum of which he calls the Scientific Thinking Mechanism. These frameworks allow groups to deconstruct problems and rebuild them into powerful improvement ideas. This concept is central to TPS and provides the necessary foundation for any Lean Initiative to be built upon.

“Dr. Shingo was a master of Kaizen, he had the scientific training and innovative genius to deeply understand processes and the humility to realize that he needed the operators to take ownership. We are fortunate to have this new opportunity to gaze deeply into the thinking of one of the true geniuses behind TPS. —Dr. Shigeo Shingo.” – From the foreword by Jeffrey K. Liker, Ph. D., New York Times best-selling author of The Toyota Way

“This book contains a myriad of case studies taken from office examples as well as shop floors. It is a gold mine of improvement ideas that cumulatively must have saved millions, and could still do so today!” Don Dewar, President & Founder, Quality Digest Magazine

“Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking is a revealing book and is the genesis manuscript to the Lean Manufacturing mindset. It captures the fundamental thought process to structure problem solving activities and is the foundation to all essential aspects of the Kaizen philosophy. Truly a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and frameworks to embolden you to change existing practices!” - Michel Mestre, Ph.D. Professor, School of Business Northwest University

“For those of us who have revered the work of Dr. Shingo, this is an exciting work. More so than any other of his books - Bill Kluck President, Northwest Lean Network

“Practicing Kaizen (the habit of making small improvements) eludes many people. Dr. Shingo’s Scientific Thinking Mechanism replaces the hope of the flash of creativity with a reliable and learnable habit-building approach. Thanks for making this Rosetta Stone for kaizen available to the world.” - Hal Macomber Principal Lean Project Consulting, Inc.

“This book teaches managers to be problem solvers instead of problem chasers.” – Collin McLoughlin, co-publisher

Norman Bodek in 1979 started Productivity Inc.- Press and published hundreds of books on Toyota and Japanese management.

The book retails for $59.40 and is available at www.enna.com

Best wishes,

Norman Bodek
PCS Inc.

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Reader Question: Managing Suggestions

Here is a question from a Lean Blog reader, posted with permission. Here's something to chew on with your Monday morning coffee. I'll post some thoughts later, but what do you think?

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

The company president recently commanded that we will have a staff suggestion box on our Intranet. As a 3rd tier manager, I thought this was a good idea but needed a little more thought: How would we handle suggestions after they were submitted? What if no one put in a suggestion? Who would handle the avalanche if we received a dozen a week? No one spoke up so it was installed. Since it was opened, only a few ideas have trickled in.

I recently attended a meeting where a suggestion was discussed. An employee from the procurement division made a suggestion about improving the procurement services. But the senior managers were puzzled. Why didn't he just speak to his boss? Later, this was brought up with the procurement line manager and he shook his head in embarrassment,"Yes, I don't understand it either!"

I don't think managers were expecting the suggestion box to be used in this way and this confusion led to a diagnoses of failure in the manager-employee relationship. Given the mission of continuous improvement, how should a suggestion box and the "management pyramid" co-exist?
----------------

Click "comments" if you have a response...

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Updated: My Personal Kaizen for the Day

Watching the news about the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota, it's easy to feel helpless, what can we do if something like that happens to us? The odds are very slim, but it *is* a possibility that any of us could be trapped, someday, where our vehicle is submerged in water, a life threatening situation. I've been told as much in the "safe driving" class that my company put me through, but I never acted on it.

Lean people should like proactive safety measures, especially inexpensive ones. Doing a personal "FMEA," the odds of being submerged are very low, but the impact of it happening is very high (drowning and death).

That said, I ordered two "lifehammers" for myself and for my wife, to keep in our vehicles in case something like that ever happens. Not even $10 each for a little piece of mind. I'll probably buy a number of them for friends and family. Maybe you can do the same. Not to overreact or worry folks, but to be preventative.

I ordered the "keychain" versions that are small and supposedly break your window out with less effort than the full sized "hammer" version (and both allow you to cut your seatbelt, if needed). Some of the models are backordered/sold out right now, wonder if that's because of the attention this has gotten on the news? The brightly colored ones are probably the easiest to see in an emergency (yellow, neon green, or orange).

Full disclosure: I do receive "affilliate fees" from amazon on these items, but I will donate any referral fees for these safety items to the American Red Cross (link to donate online), unless somebody can suggest a better relief organization for the Minnesota area. Additionally, I will personally match the fees out of my own pocket. I'll give a full accounting here on the Blog about how many get ordered and how much I am able to donate.

Updated: No purchases of the safety devices... I received mine and plan on having them as "just in case." I went through "standard work" with my wife about how to use it. The problem with a safety device like this is that you can't practice using it, unless you want to shatter a window. No thanks. But, there are some videos that show it in use, which at least gives you confidence the thing works.

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New "Quick n Easy Kaizen" Site

Quick n Easy Kaizen:

Hal Macomber, of the "Reforming Project Management" blog, has a new site that takes inspiration from Norman Bodek's "Quick and Easy Kaizen" approach and the book The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy Kaizen.

Hal's new site allows people to post examples of kaizen and lets readers comment. It's an interesting approach and format, it will be interesting to see how it works. Check it out.

The First Lean Dentist

I recorded my Podcast interview with Dr. Sami Bahri, "The First Lean Dentist," last night. What a treat it has been to talk with Dr. Bahri. I can't wait to get this edited and released so you all can hear the discussion. Dr. Bahri is pretty humble, but I am so incredibly impressed with his Lean understanding -- the tools, the employee involvement, the management system, the drive for continuous improvement.

One example of what jumped out at me was his discussion of leadership and PDCA. I'm paraphrasing, but Dr. Bahri said he tells his employees "Don't trust me" when he has an idea. He doesn't want them implementing or changing something because he says so. He wants them experimenting to see if the idea works or not. Sometimes the ideas don't work, and that's OK. He is setting a great example of PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) for his employees, so they will give their own suggestions and follow that same model.

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