top of page
Writer's picturemurakami26

Beyond the Giants (28)

Conditions for survival in the manufacturing industry in VUCA era


Satoru Murakami

CEO Goal-System consultants Inc.,



Because "uncertainty" is human


Last time, I introduced the process in which Toyota's "three realism (Sangenism)" evolved into the LAMDA cycle, and lean development and evolution.


Last time, when uncertainty increased and the situation was "Ignorance", I introduced the idea of ​​"Analogy" to identify the essence and borrow a countermeasure.


This time, we will consider "human beings", which is another cause of uncertainty.   Dr. Goldratt extends the concept of Constraints, claiming that constraints created by "human behavior" such as "mechanisms" and "policies" within an organization limit corporate profits. At the TOC, the organization's policies, strategies, and corporate culture are also regarded as the root cause that creates constraints, and have been targeted for reform.


Humans are also called capricious. Therefore, even if you are a "good" person, you cannot always take actions rooted in goodness. Everyone has the experience of not being able to move as they thought they should be, being dragged by the words and actions of others and the conventions of the group.


Considering this, reforms and improvements to improve the flow include dealing with the illogical phenomenon of human " capricious", such as what kind of behavior humans take in what situations. I think that human " capricious" is another "uncertainty", and answering this is another big theme.


Are humans a creature of reason, or are reflexive behaviors regulating us? It is said that we, Homo sapiens, first appeared in East Africa about 200,000 years ago. The most important thing for our ancestors was the methodology for survival in the savanna, which is to react faster than to think and act.


In order not to be preyed on by natural enemies, it is necessary to have the quickness to escape before thinking, and to ensure safety, it is necessary to be careful not to deviate from familiar procedures rather than casually challenging new places and things. did.   In addition, we must avoid wasting energy in order to live on limited food.


It is said that the brain, which consumes a lot of energy in particular, had event-driven characteristics so that it would work only when something happened, without constantly rotating.


However, although the work of the brain required by the evolutionary process of human beings becoming social and cultural creatures has changed, our fundamental brain structure is still an old characteristic acquired during the Savannah era. It is said that it is dragging. With the recent development of brain science, the human brain is known to cause "errors", and it is known that humans are easily biased against ambiguous and uncertain events.


How to consider the characteristics of human beings such as brain errors and cognitive bias, so-called instincts, is another big problem to face VUCA.







5 views0 comments

Comments


top.png
bottom of page