One of the interesting presentations was on the Toyota Philosophy. They wanted to explain why Toyota even has an International Teacher Program. There is a great deal of information about the Toyota principals published by Toyota and by others, far too much to explain here. However, two of the concepts I found most interesting and relevant as a teacher were: "Genchi Genbutsu" and "Muda."
"Genchi Genbutsu" is the idea that to truly understand something you need to go see for your self. Take the gulf oil spill for example; solutions generated in a board room far away from the problem are often and abstraction with key components lost in the reporting. "Genchi Genbutsu" would say that to truly understand the problem and find appropriate solutions the experts should come investigate first hand and that they should observe and talk with people of all stations to find solutions. As we seek to understand culture and the environment on our trip to Costa Rica, we are going to see first-hand the most biodiversity place on the planet, and will talk with people who have been successful at generating some of the most progressive approaches to eco-conservation. I’d say that’s "Genchi Genbutsu.”
“Muda” is the idea of waste. There are 3 types of Muda: time, movement, and resources. In this philosophy it is actually cheaper to go green because it is less wasteful. As consumers I think we feel that going green is actually more expensive, right? The muda view would say that what is lost is not just money but efficiency and far more valuable resources like human potential. In fact on one Toyota document I saw “unused associate creativity” was an item in the loss column when factoring costs. How may of our employers are concerned about the lost of our creativity and report that numerically in their annual report? Not many, am I right?!?
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