Jeff Widman (.com)

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In January, I spent a week with Genie Industries participating in a kaizen event. This week was special–Genie paid a lean manufacturing Sensei upwards of $30k to supervise.
(Shingijitsu’s website looks like crap… Yet my Genie contact told me, “We’re working hard to wine/dine them–otherwise they’ll fire us.” That’s abnormal.)

I’ll never forget asking the Sensei a question; he grabbed my arm, moved to the middle of the process, planted me there, and said “Watch. What do you see?” The more questions I asked, the more questions he asked me. My brain spun. I learned.

I was reminded of this quote:

After Seth’s keynote this morning, I reviewed the notes that I was taking… The notes had nothing to do with what he was saying and everything to do with a fistful of creative sparks that were inspired by what he was saying. - Mitch Joel

Did you catch that?
Seth’s talk cast vision without constraining the answers.
Communicating like this requires discipline–it’s easier to tell people what to do than to patiently inspire them.

Where does your brain go after reading this story?

8 sec’s left in the third period; America 6, Religion 7. God loses the puck at center ice, Charlton picks it up. Heston shoots, Jesus saves! - Aidan Nulmann via Twitter

In 140 characters, Aidan got me thinking about America and religion. For twenty minutes. If he’d written a 4-page article, I’d have left after two paragraphs.

Listen to your market.
Discern their needs.
Collaborate on the answers–clarify the problem, and get out of the way.
(Be patient.)

Leverage their brilliance.

Questions for which I’ve heard neither concise nor comprehensive answers…
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