Hindsight is
20/20. The term “hindsight is 20/20” is often used to describe the phenomenon
of being able to see things more clearly after they have happened. This phrase
is derived from the idea that our vision is usually better when looking
backward than forwards.
Despite many
believing we should always look forward instead of reminiscing about our past,
if done right, it can become less of a downer and more of a positive. If we
only look back to highlight the success, rather than the mistakes, then that
reflection loses its value. Whilst it’s important to celebrate the positives,
you can only learn so much from them. If you want to continuously improve then
you need to take into account, the negatives too. That’s where the real value
lies.
For the past
twenty-five years, I’ve helped to develop methods for implementing lean
practices in factories and across supply chains. One of the most important
things I’ve learned is that self-reflection is as relevant to lean practices as
continuous improvement. In fact, it’s an integral and essential part of it.
John Dewey, the
American philosopher and psychologist, said “We do not learn from experience.
We learn from reflecting on experience.”
To develop, we
need to build on our experience. Whether it’s to improve our skills and
abilities, become more competent, increase our performance or open ourselves to
new ideas. But as Dewey observed, we do this through reflection, either on our
own or with others.
In Japan, when
someone makes a mistake, they will profusely apologize, take responsibility,
and propose a solution for how they can prevent the same mistake from happening
in the future. This process is referred to as 反省 – or Hansei. Hansei is a core concept of Japanese culture.
It’s not about shame or guilt. Rather, it’s about admitting there is room for
improvement – and committing to that improvement.
To paraphrase
my friend, Jon Miller: “Han” means to change, turn over, turn upside down.
“Sei” is the simplified form of a character meaning to look back upon, review,
examine oneself. As a native speaker of Japanese “hansei” strikes me as both an
intellectual and emotional exercise. With hansei there is a sense of shame, if
that is not too hard of a word. This may come from having been asked to do a
lot of hansei as a child, being told “hanse shinasai!” which in English might
be “Learn to behave!”
The point is,
when you do hansei it is almost never because you are “considering past
experience” as if they were happy memories. You are confronting brutal facts
about your actions and the impact they had, in hopes that you can learn from
this and change your behavior in the future.
Toyota is known
as a learning organization, and this is one of the reasons why Toyota has
become so successful. Hansei has a strong role in being a learning
organization. In Toyota, hansei is often viewed as a precursor to kaizen, and a
pre-requisite to being a learning organization. This is best explained as below
(taken from Toyota-Global website);
Hansei is
both an intellectual and emotional introspection. The individual must recognize
the gap between the current situation and the ideal, take responsibility for
finding solutions, and commit to a course of action. The examination involves a
review of successes and failures, to determine what works and what needs to be
improved. Hansei leads to ideas for kaizen and yokoten, the sharing of best
practices from one location to another.
At each key
milestone in a project, and at completion, the people involved meet to reflect
on their experience of what happened. However, successes aren’t celebrated. In
true Japanese fashion, they are treated with humility and modesty. Instead, the
focus is on the failures and what could have been better.
It goes without
saying, but to perform hansei correctly you need to make sure you’re examining
the past and what exactly went wrong. Then you must think about the situation
and how it could have been improved or averted in the future. Ensure that
someone else is responsible for hansei, and it should always form part of your
performance management process, whether it’s on completion of the project or at
specific review intervals.
The following
structure can be valuable for following hansei:
- Pinpoint the problem – There’s no
such thing as being flawless, so identify what the main issue is.
- Accept accountability – Make sure
the individual holds themselves liable for what went wrong. From this,
they can work on areas for improvement.
- Reflect on root causes – There
could be more to the problem than meets the eye, so dig deep and reveal
any belief systems, habits or assumptions that may be preventing success.
- Build an improvement plan – Action
all the learnings, then you can stop the same problem from happening
again.
This isn’t
about pointing fingers, issuing blame or scoring points. It helps to identify
when things need to improve and prevent any of the errors that were made. Above
all, it helps to instill the belief that there’s always room and always need
for further improvement.
Hansei is one
of the keys to kaizen, as the concept itself focuses on improvement as opposed
to punishment. When we fail, we realize that we have done something wrong. So,
it is important that we will learn lessons from it, and find methods to prevent
its recurrence. It is most important to
consider also how bad we feel when we hurt others in the team by not performing
to their expectations.
Why not take
this opportunity to practice some self-reflection? In what areas do you need to
improve? How can you take ownership of that need to improve? What can you do
differently?
