Lean Quote: Everything Can Be Improved

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Everything can be improved." — Clarence W. Barron

I believe this quote is true. I also believe it is the basis for Lean thinking. It is easy to get discouraged by all the problems we face. We can founder on our problems or we can accept the fact that problems can be solved and things can be improved. The choice is ours. Lean thinking is the belief that everything can be improved.

Clarence W. Barron was the president of the Dow Jones & Company. He managed the Wall Street Journal. He was born on July 2, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts and died October 2, 1928.

Barron was a formidable man. He was known as a powerhouse. He had great energy and sought to improve many things. He understood the power of this phrase, this idea. He believed it just as I do. In addition to buying the Dow Jones Company he founded various journals including Barron’s Financial Weekly. He is credited with founding the modern concept of investigative financial journalism.

Certainly it was Barron’s philosophy that everything could be improved and he sought to do just that in his field of financial journalism.

Just as Barron strove to improve his industry we can all continuously strive to improve the work we do whatever it may be. I invite you to join me in adopting and implementing this credo: everything can be improved and there is nothing that serves mankind better than the continuous improvement of all human endeavor.