Self reflection, or hansei, is an integral part of kaizen

An excellent story by Errette Dunn illustrating how the concept of self reflection, or hansei, is an integral part of kaizen.

An excellent story by Errette Dunn illustrating how the concept of self reflection, or hansei, is an integral part of kaizen.

I came across an excellent story by Errette Dunn on his blog Ideal Way, telling his own experience with the Toyota belief in Hansei, or "self reflection". The concept is when you make a mistake, you reflect on your own actions and see how you can prevent it from happening again.

In Errette's case, he managed to total a company owned car on his first day on the job in Toyota. Instead of being fired or disciplined, his manager simply took him through the steps for him to "reflect" on what he has done, so he remembers it: a key to prevention.

Hansei is one of the keys to kaizen, as the concept itself focuses on improvement as opposed to punishment. When you do something wrong, it is expected that you will derive lessons from it, find how to prevent it from reoccurring and most importantly, remember just how bad you felt about it so you never do it again.

Link: Ideal Way | Hansei: The Day I Destroyed Toyota Property