Leadership

No Fear and Big Girl Bikes

By Ron Pereira Published on April 9th, 2009

One of my favorite things about LSS Academy, aside from the thousands of awesome comments you’ve all left the past few years, is how I get to sneak in personal aspects of my life from time to time.

I especially love to write about my kids and how they teach me so much about life – and continuous improvement.

Memory Lane

Close to two years ago I wrote about how my then 4 year old daughter (now 6) learned to ride her bike and how it taught me about why simply allowing others to try and possibly fail is so important.

A few months later my then 2.5 year old daughter learned how to swim and I was so proud and inspired by her lack of fear.

Then, last summer my kids taught me again about having no fear as they held my hand and told me it would be OK as we traveled down some ridiculously huge water slides!

Big Girl Bikes

And now, I’d like to share with you the latest edition of milestones in the Pereira family. This time we’re back to my now 4 year daughter (the swimmer) who recently learned to ride her “big girl bike” without training wheels.

You see, she’s been after me for weeks to let her have a shot… so the other night we took her training wheels off and my wife and I took turns running behind her.  And you know what?  In less than 5 minutes she had it as if she’d been riding like this for years.

The Lesson

The lesson for me was simple. Quit worrying about why something may not work… instead stay focused on trying to make it work. You never know, it may be easier than you think.

Message to my Daughter

Finally, way to go “Boo” Daddy is very proud of you!  Someday you’ll read this post and realize just how much you’ve taught and inspired me.  Keep it up sweetie!

Ron Pereira

Ron has more than 20 years of experience in various manufacturing, supply chain, and senior leadership roles. Ron has held the titles of process engineer, engineering manager, master black belt, and director of manufacturing & continuous improvement. In 2002 Ron was the first American to win the Nokia Global Six Sigma and Overall Quality award in Helsinki, Finland. Ron holds a bachelor's degree in automated manufacturing and an MBA in technology management.

  2. Observer

    April 19, 2009 - 1:17 am
    Reply

    I agree. We also need to make mistakes and learn.

    The solution to some mistakes can be taught so that another does not commit it. This is in the realm of explicit knowledge. In some cases we need to leant only by first hand experience. This is in the realm of tacit knowledge. Learning to ride a cycle is a tacit knowledge issue. If tacit knowledge can be taught in a class room by conventional means without experience, people should be able to swim or ride a cycle after reading a book.

    Peter Senge describes in his book on Fifth Discipline how team learning and simulation are a important thing to go through off line, so that people are well prepared to face them online. In this example people learn to work together understanding the system’s dynamics. Often working together with good timing is important.

    In my experience of working with Japanese, they keep a problem directory of all known problems faced in the past. A new product review is a process of reviewing the product under review with every past failure mode and seeing to it that we do not repeat past problems. This way after a couple of generations of products a new product would be inherently less failure prone. In such situations it is worthwhile learning before executing.

    Thus learning by mistakes has a context.

Have something to say?

Leave your comment and let's talk!

In-Person training events at the Gemba Academy Training Center

Recent Articles

Start your Lean & Six Sigma training today.

Explore Videos Chat with an expert