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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAs Rick and I entered junior high school, we joined the track team to continue our trek to greater heights.\u00a0 Our backyard skills transferred fairly well, but now there was new technology.\u00a0 An eight-foot bamboo pole was replaced by a twelve-foot aluminum version, enabling a higher vault, but also requiring significantly more speed on approach.\u00a0 With a singleness of purpose, we trained every spring day, and by season\u2019s end we were both able to manage the longer, heavier pole and hoist ourselves to a lofty elevation of nine feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time marched on as Rick and I honed our skills, but with little technology change. Over the next six years, the sawdust pit was replaced with an air-cushion landing area, a nice safety feature that did nothing to increase the height of our vaults. \u00a0And while new technology in the form of fiberglass poles was beginning to replace aluminum, the skills to capitalize on the new material were conceptually very different and even counter-intuitive. The idea of \u201cbending the pole\u201d to gain greater height was very new and not well understood. \u00a0In the absence of this new information<\/a>, fiberglass poles behaved much the same as their aluminum counterparts, providing little height advantage.\u00a0 Rick and I both maxed out our pole-vaulting careers just under twelve feet in our senior year of high school. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what does this story have to do with Lean and continuous improvement? Several things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, Rick and I became practiced with a method that required revision as technology changed. The method we learned well as kids ultimately bounded our development. In the words of improvement expert Tomo Sugiyama<\/a>, in The Improvement Book<\/span>, practice makes permanent, not perfect.\u00a0 <\/em>Or paraphrasing Deming Prize winner Ryuji <\/a>Fukuda<\/a> from Managerial Engineering<\/span>, Before you practice, first be sure you are learning from a good teacher.\u00a0 Practicing a bad golf swing does not improve it.<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, having new technology and benefiting from it are two different things. In 1965, my friend Rick and I had the physical technology in our hands, but the information component necessary for human benefit was not yet available.\u00a0 As Stan Davis<\/a> notes in Future Perfect <\/span>(1987), information is the new currency. First to coin the terms \u201cinformation society\u201d and \u201cmass customization,\u201d Davis augured the impact of what is now dubbed IoT, the Internet of Things.\u00a0 Today, for example, thanks to multi-sensory technology, bio-mechanics, high-speed digital video and analytics, the physics of pole vaulting is informed like never before.\u00a0 The result?\u00a0 The current world record for pole vault is over 20 feet. \u00a0Unfortunately, like Rick and me, too many organizations spend millions for new technology, but then skimp on training employees how to use it.\u00a0 <\/em>Perhaps this is because the technology is an \u201cinvestment,\u201d but training is an \u201cexpense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Pole vaulting is a human<\/em> endeavor that has been around for thousands of years, slowly advancing from oak sticks to bamboo to tapered aluminum to fiberglass and carbon fiber, each technical change meeting first with objections (fiberglass poles were actually banned from the 1972 Olympics), and then through gradual learning and acceptance propelling athletes to new heights.\u00a0 Owing to the science now behind it, perhaps we can call it Pole Vaulting 4.0<\/a>; not really a revolution but more\u00a0a continuous evolution<\/em> supporting human endeavor.\u00a0 So, why not take it to another level:\u00a0 Replace the athletes with robots.\u00a0 We could. But should we?\u00a0 This consideration is, for me, the most worrisome.\u00a0 Harkening back to my backyard, where Rick and I first learned to fly, I wonder about the implications for human development. What do you think?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n (By the way, current pole vault world record holder, Armand Duplantis, also began his reach for the sky as kid in his back yard! \u00a0Have a look at the joy of human endeavor: Twenty feet and climbing.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n O.L.D. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hey O.L.D. Readers:\u00a0\u00a0 Industry 4.0 and IoT are central in the discussion at our upcoming 16th<\/sup> Annual Northeast LEAN Conference.<\/strong>\u00a0 The theme, 21st<\/sup> Century Lean<\/strong> will deal with many of the ideas from this post. How can Lean thinking inform IoT?\u00a0 Must we adapt Lean thinking to harmonize with Industry 4.0? \u00a0And thanks to the Internet of Things, you can join in from anywhere this year as we have pivoted to virtual for safety during Covid-19.\u00a0\u00a0 Please join Lean legend Jim Womack and Industry 4.0 experts, Fady Saad and John Carrier along with ten more Lean\/IoT thought-leaders. Registration is super-affordable and you get to sleep in your own bed.\u00a0 More information and registration here:\u00a0 https:\/\/bit.ly\/2ZKmo5t<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/oldleandude.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/21s_We_Can_Virtual2_e-sig.jpg?resize=280%2C431&ssl=1\")
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