Stradivarius — Inside the Accademia, Firenze, Italy

One of the great questions that could be asked about a lot of the stuff I write about might be this:

OK – you say we can’t just write down a bunch of rules, or bullet points, and expect to have people figure this out.  What can we do?

The challenge in evolution of social systems is helping those used to more rigid systems see the  potentials for flexible work environments. Management has to give others that may have more difficulty taking the old ‘Org Chart’ with a grain of salt, a window into the possibilities.

This article on Kaizen events for Manor Tool is just about perfect.  They center many of their Kaizen, or continuous improvement events, around safety.  In today’s environment, no one argues about the need for workplace safety, or the avoided costs when ergonomic or safety concerns are surfaced.  As such, spending a day to address these types of issues is a company-uniter.

But what’s even better is the way they execute this.  Everyone is involved, and people from different departments, with fresh eyes, are required to watch work practice from outside their area and make suggestions.  Not only do the new perspectives help, but employees walk away with a far more holistic set of relationships inside the company, along with a positive shared experience, and tons of new empathy developed.  What’s not to like?