Back to Work.

Well, we have all had a good Christmas and most of us probably over ate. I can tell you, that I gained 3 pounds. This Christmas was a unique experience. I enjoyed spending time with my extended family and for one brief 24 hour period of time, I didn't think about work.  

Nope, not one bit.

On Christmas Day my soon-to-be nine-year-old daughter, received a new bicycle from Santa. This bicycle is slightly too big, but far better than her old beat up hand me down. She got on it with the pure enthusiasm of a small child and with a little guidance was able to write it up and down the street. She was blissfully happy, until she tried to turn around on her own. She immediately fell with a loud thud. Even though she was not seriously hurt, by the sound of it, you would've thought the world was coming to an end.

She was very upset with me when I forced her to get back on the bike. After threatening to take away, she got back on and continued riding for another 5 min. or so. After she had completed riding I was assisting my daughter and taking off her helmet and putting the bicycle away, when she said something out of true innocence that struck a chord with me.

 She said; “Daddy, sometimes we just need to practice and get used to new things”

This morning, while pondering the topic of today's discussion, I began thinking about how any processes that I created that didn't work out as intended. Many of my processes went through several iterations and to this day still continue to grow and change to fit the ever-changing requirements of my company.

In the past two months, I have redesigned my origination system three times, created the four versions of a projected forecast and budget, created two separate PowerPoint presentations for requesting private investment dollars, and I'm still trying to determine how I am going to afford my lease accounting system. Sometimes it seems like I am running around in circles. I have made significant investments of time and money to get my company up and running and I have had to not only acclimate to a different lifestyle, but I have also had to redesign almost every procedure that I have ever created. As I am meeting with different debt sources, I find myself continuously fine tuning my presentation. I know that this is a good thing and that in the future it will assist you greatly but when you're in the mode of the start-up. It seems that these things take far too much time away from the transaction origination process. 

How often have you created a process that at the time seemed to perfectly fit your end goals, only to realize upon further analysis that your process was completely inadequate. When this happens it is very easy to feel like you've wasted your time but it is important to know that this is simply a step in the process improvement method. Without your initial process, you would have very little to expand upon. Process improvement is a step by step, methodical process in itself. The trick is to keep putting 1 foot in front of the other seeking continuous improvement.

I would like to expound upon my daughter's comment. Sometimes we do need to practice. As human beings we need to practice a lot. But we must never let ourselves become stuck in a rut. We need to become acclimated to new ideas and new processes, but once we are acclimated. We need to continuously look for improvement. As we get used to things. It is far too easy to stay in that rut.

As a process improvement specialist, you must be forever forward thinking while living in the trenches of today.

Anyway, I am sure that that is enough of my ramblings for today.

I hope that you all had a happy holiday and that you enjoyed time with your family.

Now it's time for me to get back to work.