do not always follow the process!

I know for sure that for an employee that works in a big organization, that advice might be kind of annoying, just bear with me till I explain my opinion.

about processes within the movie industry

Yesterday, I watched the movie “Django” and, well, as all movies of Quentin Tarantino I just fell in love with the story, the scenes and the actors. I kept asking myself what makes Tarantino’s movies so special? What makes you just want to clap your hands in each and every scene.

And I simply got the answer from a friend of mine graduated as a movie director from the High Institute of Cinema in Egypt: Tarantino NEVER follows the normal recommended ways of directing a movie, he has a way to catch your eyes by creating scenes that are out of the ordinary and new to any movie director.

transferring these ideas to "regular" jobs

Well, enough movies, and enough cinema. I then asked myself, what about you? Are you different? Do you have your own ways of doing things? And, to tell you the truth, I felt I may not be that special… I may need some improvements.

Thinking of improvements, I told myself, do you mean Kaizen? Do you keep doing continuous improvements to your methods of work? And here I told myself I’m always busy in delivering the project on time and withing project constraints, I don’t really have time for this! And I stumbled upon this “Lean” blog where the author simply gives us a tip on the Kaizen process:

“Improvements don’t just happen. They require focused effort, brain power, input, strategic thought, and cooperation. Kaizen isn’t flipping a switch. A manager saying there’s no time for Kaizen is the equivalent of someone on a sinking ship yelling “We have no time for fixing leaks – we’re too busy bailing out all the water!””

Simply said, as a project manager, you cannot succeed if you’re not willing to change and improve. Even if you don’t have time, do it on a very small scale using continuous improvements, but never sink into the feeling that “you don’t have time to change”.

is it always right?

Well, NO. My opinion is: to succeed, you should first and foremost have a process and then change it. If you want to succeed and be different, you cannot just work randomly, but you cannot be stuck in a process either! Make improvements and adjustments to that process. Be creative but work on something that is already built or build it youI know for sure that for an employee that works in a big organization, that advice might be kind of annoying, just bear with me till I explain my opinion.
rself.

You should always be able to balance between what’s new and what’s right. That doesn’t imply that what’s new isn’t right, but it does imply that what’s new may sometimes be wrong if it’s not based on basic rules and specific modes of working.

What about you? Are you different?

Ahmed

photo credit: copyright alphaspirit - fotolia.com