We all do it, every year at this time—we begin to think about repenting our holiday overindulgences and aspire to refocus on what we attempted to accomplish last year at this time. It always starts with goals to exercise more, eat healthier, spend less, and be a better spouse, mom, sister, or friend.

Yes, this year is no different, except for this addition: to incorporate a lean philosophy, lean culture, and lean technology into the workplace—and not just as a weekly or monthly reminder, but rather to live it daily. I will make a resolution to communicate, support, and reinforce a lean philosophy, and through my actions and encouragement of others to exercise a lean culture, and empower others to utilize our technology to implement lean practices. We will create opportunities where staff can openly comment on processes, and contribute suggestions and solutions for continuous improvement.

We will discuss and set a company vision, and then define a mission on how to accomplish that vision. We will establish objectives and priorities with target goals of lean application through specific tasks set to a rigorous schedule and measure our accomplishments. We will create a feedback loop so that we may evaluate, analyze, and adjust our efforts accordingly.

We will start now. We will describe our current work model—what works, what doesn’t work. By identifying what can be improved, we can develop a strategy or mission of incremental improvement. First, we must educate our staff about a lean philosophy. Only when they understand this philosophy can we expect them to see our world in a different light, and to think differently about the work they do. Only when they begin to think differently can they begin to act differently, and then we can practice a lean culture. Only when we are able to practice a lean culture can we expect our staff to use technology in a lean way, making the most of the capacities of lean technologies.

1. Educate

2. Set vision

3. Describe mission

4. Establish strategy deployment

5. Identify target milestones and measurable successes

6. Evaluate and analyze measurements, assess achievements

7. Identify new goals and periodic milestone checkpoints for continuous improvement

Okay … ready, set, go. Go ready and energized for a new year of success and prosperity.