As humans there are many things that we just do naturally. These things are nearly always associated with survival. These natural instincts don’t always serve us well though. We approach the activity of work for instance with a batch and queue mindset, grouping and storing similar things in order to keep them together until the time is right to do something with them all at once, all in one go. It comes from our natural instinct to hoard things in preparation for bad times.
This natural instinct can get in our way when it comes to finding the most effective methods of performing the tasks required to run our business. We need to engage instead with the concept of Single Piece Flow, a substantially more effective method for businesses to provide products and services.
These concepts are based on significantly different ways of working and require new routines. These changes can only be undertaken by a leader who commits to the daily practice of these new routines. But oftentimes I see leaders reject new things just because of their fear of making mistakes. The wise however, mend their ways.