When it comes to process change, three Ks spring to mind. One of the many interpretations of the Hopi Indian word koyaanisqatsi is ‘a state of being that requires a change of state’. This is the trigger that the team has a process problem to solve. And the Japanese word kaizen (from the world of Lean Thinking) means gradual, continual change for the better. This is what the outside world would see if it could somehow map the team’s practices over a period of time. And of course right at the beginning, as soon as a team is empowered to design its own process in this way and allows itself to enjoy the freedom that this brings, the first few changes are likely to be relatively dramatic and close together: this is kaikaku (radical improvement), again Japanese and again from lean thinking.
