Kaizen: apply tools, but address the culture

05 May 2009

Never ever can a disjointed, tool-focused approach truly be considered as organisational transformation, says Jayanth Murthy, founding partner and director, Kaizen Institute - India and Africa

In March 2009, while the global leaders of the Kaizen Institute met at Venice for the annual awards, I got chatting with our sensei or Japanese for guru, our founding chairman Masaki Imai on organizational transformation.

It was early evening, and we were relaxing before dinner and Imai san went on to narrate an anecdote and share some pearls of wisdom on matters relating to organisational transformation. His story:

"A chimp dressed up in pair of trousers, shirt, jacket, a pair of sun glasses and a smart hat to complete the getup,  was let loose on the street. Soon the chimp started walking towards an office building. A group of people saw this 'object' approaching them and each one started guessing who it could be. Some were sure it resembled Jack, while other were betting it was Jim ….or was it Peter?

"As the object of their got closer, it started looking less like Jack , Jim or Peter and more like a stranger with a funny hunched and awkward gait! When it got really close, they were shocked to find that it actually wasc a chimp dressed up as a human."

What is the point here? That a chimp dressed up as a human, does not ever become a human! A chimp can never become a human unless his very bones, his fundamental skeletal structure changes. The chimp has a curved or bow of a back bone; we human have erect back bones! This fundamental difference makes us different, though from far we may 'resemble' each other.

True organisational transformation happen when the very bones…the skeletal structure is challenged and changed. When old paradigms and structures are questioned and replaced when needed. One can't fool one self or others by mere 'dressing up'.