Imagine you’re a detective in the bustling city of Managerial Misunderstandings, a place teeming with crimes of miscommunication and missed targets. Your clients? Managers, often seen chasing their own tails in the pursuit of productivity, come to you with a common refrain: “The problem is, people just aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Ah, the classic case of the Misplaced Blame Mystery. You sit these managers down, offering them a fresh perspective like a cup of hot, enlightening coffee. “Let’s redefine ‘problem,'” you suggest, swapping out ‘people’ for ‘process output’ in the equation of their woes. This, you explain, is the art of being hard on the process, soft on people. Yet, as the plot thickens, you’re met with the twist you’ve seen a hundred times before: “Oh, but that’s not my problem. My problem is the people…”

It’s like watching someone repeatedly walk into a glass door they swear isn’t there. You guide them, patiently, to begin a journey of root cause analysis with a simple question: “Why did we not achieve our planned output?” Predictably, the first culprit they point to is—drumroll, please—people not doing their tasks. Yet, as you lead them down the rabbit hole of ‘why’ after ‘why,’ they uncover not a den of lazy, rebellious employees, but rather a vacuum of standards, training, monitoring, and improvement. In other words, managerial tasks are left undone.

The lightbulb moment flickers dimly for some, as they come face-to-face with the revelation that they, the managers, might just be accomplices, if not the masterminds, behind their problems. It’s a plot twist that few see coming, their earlier projections of failure onto others now appearing as misguided as a silent film actor’s exaggerated gestures.

And here lies the moral of our tale: recognizing one’s role in a problem is like finding the first clue in solving a mystery. For in the city of Managerial Misunderstandings, the greatest detective of all is the one who uncovers the truth within themselves.

As our story closes, we leave our audience with a thought to ponder: If insight into oneself is indeed the first step to improvement, how many of us are still searching for the entrance to the staircase?

Contact Us to learn more about MindKaizen.