Hansei and Kaizen in the Second Quadrant

Last Friday night, Ben, Pete and I were having drinks, and Ben mused that we needed to do a better job of training for our software applications. “Perhaps better training videos are the solution,” he mused, sipping from his coke. Ben was demonstrating Hansei. He often does this when we are out drinking, much to the annoyance of Pete and I, who were just trying to enjoy each other’s company and drink.

Addicted to the First Quadrant

I thought deeply about Ben’s statement. Often – too often, I believe – we operate in a hurry-up, get-it-done, meet-the-deadline, schedule-driven environment and don’t allocate enough time to do the things that might actually prevent us from have to spend time in that environment in the first place. Don’t get me wrong; it’s an addictive, adrenaline and caffeine fueled world, filled with excitement, and at the end of the day it leaves you feeling like you got a lot done. But all too often, getting caught up in the rush of fast-paced delivery leads to an environment of poor quality software, unhappy customers, broken relationships and a myriad of other problems that stem from poor planning, lost opportunities and lack of preventative measures. What can be done? What do these Japanese words mean anyway, and what is Dave getting at with quadrants?

The 14th Principle

Hansei is a Japanese word which means “relentless reflection.” It is a central idea in Japanese culture, and it is about acknowledging one’s own faults and always trying to correct them. Kaizen means “continuous improvement,” and practiced together they help to build a learning organization. This is the 14th of as many principles of management practiced at Toyota. We practice a little hansei and kaizen already in our software development today. We have a sprint retrospective where examine how we can improve our processes, and we have a built-in improvement step in the inspection process as well. I have seen this at work in the few months since it has been installed. All of the teams have already been getting incrementally better at estimating and scheduling their work, and measurably improving their quality. I want to acknowledge that improvement that the teams have made here. It’s good, but there is still a lot of room for progress.

The Second Quadrant

Stephen Covey, one of my favorite authors, classifies tasks in four quadrants:


The first quadrant contains those that are both urgent and important. Fighting fires and crisis management are examples of first quadrant activities. The second quadrant contains tasks that are important, but not urgent: planning and relationship building are examples of quadrant two activities. How much of your day is spent in these two quadrants? Do you balance them appropriately? (If you’re spending any time at all in quadrants three or four, you’re probably wasting your time).

One of the problems with operating in the first quadrant is that it’s addicting. It’s very satisfying to go to work day after day and solve a seemingly endless wave of problems. You look like an aggressive problem solver; someone willing to take on difficult situations and get the job done; a “can-do” person. Unfortunately, it is not the best way to deal with the situation, as it usually leads to the same thing happening over and over again (well, at least you have some job security). A better approach is to find and eliminate the root cause. This will drive first quadrant activities into the second quadrant, and bring some sanity to the workplace.

Fix it Once

Kiichiro Toyoda said that every defect is a treasure – but only if the root cause of the defect can be found and corrected across the company so that it does not occur again. The Toyota Company empowers every employee to completely shut the production line down when a defect is found in order to discover the root cause of the defect and prevent it from re-occurring. This is a very powerful paradigm, and in part has led to the highest quality automobiles in the world. Do you feel that way? When you see a problem, do you feel empowered to stop what you’re doing and make the changes necessary so that the problem never happens again? Why not? Wouldn’t that be adding real value to the company? Sun Tzu’s wit is not lost on us when he said, “When trouble is solved before it forms, who calls that clever?” Yet the best employees are those that do exactly that.

It will be interesting to observe Ben as he practices hansei and kaizen in the second quadrant and solves the training issue. I suggested he work with Dave Skender and work to install these pieces as potential deliverables within the MedAssurant Agile Process. These Work Products will need Owners, will belong to a Discipline, and be assigned to a phase of the Process.

More to the point, it will be interesting to watch each and every one on the team as you practice hansei and kaizen in the second quadrant and solve problems before they turn into fires. Franklin was right when he said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” We must, each and every one of us, practice hansei and kaizen in the time that we have, in the place that we are. That, or inevitably be consumed by the unquenchable fire of the first quadrant.