Later in life, I was employed as a department manager by a national retailer that was introducing LSS into the organization. We had our weekly manager “huddles” every Monday morning at 5am standing in a circle at the front of the store (the store opened at 6). We would review our sales plan from the week before and discuss why we hit it or why we did not and our plan for the week. Unless you knowlingly had a banner week of sales, few managers would sleep on Sunday night trying to think of the reasons why they did not hit plan.

Our store prospered, but I think back with loathing of the sleepless Sunday nights and how demoralizing the process of explaining your shortfalls in hindsight was. My heart goes out to music instructors as they typically have angelic patience and understand the tedious PDCA process of learning the new language of music. They ususally have a Target condition that they can refer to, or a recording that the students can hear and strive for. From these experiences, I learned what “not to do” to help people engage, find joy in their work and want to progress.

For those who viewed “Whiplash”, I hope you agree that this film demonstrates the antithesis of the Coaching Kata. It reaffirmed my comitment to allow people to make mistakes and to view those mistakes as gifts for learning.

Gerry Cronin