How would you explain what Lean is to a 7-year-old?

You gave a very good answer. I think you should have said something about teaching people to focus on creating value for their customer. We eliminate waste because it does not create value, but creating value and finding new ways to create value are integral parts of lean. I also think this customer focus is an integral part of respect for people. We respect our customers by creating value for them and respect each other by giving each other the opportunity to do work that others value.

Ron:

I really like Jason’s response in addition to your input. Explaining value and more complex cultural issues to kids that are 7 years old can be hard for them to grasp. Putting things into perspective that they deal with like feeding the dog or doing homework will help them better understand “process” that delivers value. Explaining why it is important to feed the dog (customer satisfaction & maintenance), how to feed the dog (good process, execution, reducing waste of uneaten food), where to get the food (kanban and material handling), when to feed the dog (standard work), etc. can give them a total perspective and help align what they do to what you do everyday for the masses.

I often feel that this is the only way to teach Lean/CI. Looking at things from the operators (your childs) viewpoint and conceiving a way to communicate the lessons, goals and reasons why will always help with adoption and buy in from their perspective.

Ron Jacques

I have to tell you that I have been contemplating what happened to make me what I am today. I have discovered that what my Dad taught me when I was 7 years old probably shaped my life more than anything I have learned as an adult. My moral and ethical values were shaped by the time I was 12. I wish my Dad had given more thought to what he was teaching me.

From my perspective, it is important that we stress that no one can achieve perfection, and that making mistakes is a part of life. The important thing that your child’s Dad teaches is that mistakes are learning tools that can teach us about ourselves. If we are not afraid of looking at our mistakes for what they are, we can become better at what we do, no matter what it is.

There are all sorts of illustrations you can give from her real world, especially since she is involved in sports.

I remember several years ago – one of my co-workers (male) always shared CI/Lean training with his family. It was funny when his daughter (somewhere around 9 years old) came up with 2 projects she wanted to run. First, why did her younger brother get into trouble so much – so a pareto was created. The other was why did some of her “barbie” doll heads fall off and others did not. Of course the mom knew the reason – the ones with loose heads were the “barbie want to be’s – from the dollar store”

So my suggestion is to find something that matters to her – and help her improve it. Let her learn by doing.

For adults, my short explanation that I implementing lazy people dreams – do less, get more. For kids, I saying that teaching people how to win faster in daily games.

My description will be similar to all the wonderfull suggestions by you all and finally I would add “Daddy helps people in Daddy’s workplace to make work easier by teaching them to share and help each other in their work so that they can leave office on time to with their sons & daughters or friends like Daddy”

Ron,

Company or organisation embarking on a Lean Journey is no differnece to any child on a learning and growing-up journey. Lean – a very slow long journey and requiring constant coaching and guidance to ensure that the individual or organisation is doing the right things and learning how to maintain and improving it on his/her own pace – Personal Kaizen

Sensei/coach/parents would provide the guidance, coaching, role model for the individual to learn and to benchmark against for future performance standards.

The ultimate success would of course very much depending on the sensei/coach/parents and last but not least, the individual child/organisation to maintain the enthusiasm to continuouslu to learn and applying it correctly. Mistake will be be made along the journey. The sensei/parent has a very big part to play – providing constant coaching and guidance to ensure that the learning and application process is gradual and consistent – aware of the risks but not stiffling the creative/innovative potential of the child/organisation.

Learning how to do small things very well all the time is the essence of Lean!

Regards,

Kim Chong

I like it. As, Jason mention my thought on your response was to include something about helping people focus on improving the process (making their jobs easier, making the system more reliable, reducing the chance of errors…). We want to always be thinking how we can make things better and then trying out those new ideas.

I think mistake proofing is a really cool concept for kids. It is cool for everyone but I think it is also very obvious in a way that kids directly get it and can apply the concept themselves.

I still remember being confused about my Dad going to give a seminar to adults. He was talking about teaching them about design of experiments. I couldn’t understand how highly educated adults (engineers…) had to learn stuff he taught me in middle school.

Yet still today, I often see people saying in order to experiment you need to hold all the other variables constant to test what you want to learn about. 🙁 We need to do much better at disseminating good ideas.

I actually think your reply was right on target!
My kids would easily get that and understand my work. I see no need for improvements 🙂

My answer to my kid would be : ” Its pretty much the same how you utilize your time effectively to learn new things, to be jumping all around to be fit and be more active” .
In more technical way : Earn more with less investment