Contrary to good leadership, poor leadership involves a lot of blaming.
In the Treatise on Principles Concerning Human Knowledge, published in 1685, George Berkeley said:
We have first raised the dust, and then we complain that we cannot see.
Berkeley was describing something entirely different, but his comment is, I believe, an accurate indictment of most, or all, business problems that we face.
Readers — thoughts? Agree or Disagree? What is your story?
We have first raised the dust, and then we complain that we cannot see. After twenty plus years in manufacturing and lean endeavors, I’ve found that our culture gets most excited about the possibilities of improvement, without truly understanding the brevity of which might be uncovered in the process. In addition, it can be quite painful to acknowledge how unefficient something under our watch can be. We have recently encountered some humbling experiences for companies that have been around 80 years and thought they had a pretty good handle on things. After multiple gembas, the lights came on and the realization of the true condition exposed by digging down to uncover the real root causes became obvious. This is the place the dust is raised but Lean leadership must provide the support system to help others truly “see” through dust towards the bigger picture. I believe the whining about not seeing is realizing that process wise you had a big gash in the process or processes you owned and when exposed it just plain hurts and you would rather not see it. The great part is one must raise the dust to truly find out where you are before you can determine where you are going.