For hundreds of years, storytelling conventions have used “once a upon a time…” for opening stories, and would close them with “and they all lived happily ever after. THE END”.

Movies have also used “THE END” in a pervasive way since the inception of the industry.

Most entertainment and activities we engage into have a clear beginning and end – a TV show, a basketball game, a magazine.

Our brains are trained from the earliest age to deal with time bound projects.

Waterfall projects with deadlines fit well this mental model.

Scrum iterations, while hard to accept for many people because of the short timeframe, fit well this model.

A pillar of lean is continuous improvement (kaizen) of products, services and processes. This is the relentless focus on improving flow, and reducing waste. FOREVER.

Left unattended in an organization with low maturity, the lean proposition comes at odds with everyone’s deeply rooted reference points – from the line workers up (“okay… I’m done”) to the CEO (“I thought this problem was already solved!!”).

Until continuous improvement is a natural part of the culture of an organization, it is critical to celebrate the wins, no matter how small, no matter if they “could have” been achieved faster. A day when the stock market move up, even by a point, is a good day. A day with some improvement is a also a good day.

It doesn’t really matter what your position in a your company is. Someone will care that you made something run a bit faster, saved a minute, or a dollar.

Once upon a time, there was a manager. He heard about a teeny improvement. He gave a big and loud thank you… and he lived happily ever after.