Are you Passionate about Lean?

Of all the kaizen skills, lean manufacturing knowledge and personal characteristics that would help us on our lean journey, the most powerful is passion. Without passion, we will have little chance of advancing in our lean journey or sustaining our improvement efforts. Without passion, we can easily get discouraged at all the roadblocks we will encounter on our journey. Without passion, we will not inspire others. Without passion, work is not fun.

What do I mean by passion? After my lean presentation at our PB & J at Personix, the management team awarded me their P.A.C. T. Passion Award which is their way of promoting and recognizing this valued behavior. PACT stands for Passion, Accountability, Courage and Transparency which are the primary behaviors promoted at Personix. What a cool award idea and an honor to be included as among the passionate. On the plaque, part of what is written about passion:

“Possesses a strong desire to achieve goals with a resourcefulness, tenacity and enthusiasm that inspires others.

If I were more Passionate today, I would…

* Openly show enthusiasm
* Gain enjoyment from doing a good job
* Bring positive energy to every situation
* Actively support the achievement of others
* Celebrate success
* Enjoy a challenge
* Creatively turn problems into opportunities
* Clearly focus on goals”

This is a great list to help guide our daily action and reflect on our behavior. Think about it this way.

Would you prefer to work next to a passionate person or someone devoid of passion in their work?

Look around our company, can we tell who is passionate and who is not? What would our company look like and feel like if we all have passion? What could we achieve as a company? Would there be anything we could not achieve?

Do we hire passionate people? Do we promote and reward people with passion?

Do you have passion?