May 7, 2014 | Posted by Matt Elson
What’s in A Name?
When people ask us: ”What do you do?”, we kind of struggle to be honest! How do you boil down TPS into a phrase?
Coach? Practioner? Student of TPS? They don’t really roll off the tongue. Perfecting an “elevator” pitch seems a bit off the mark as far as what the True North Thinking team stands for. One things is for sure, we don’t really consider ourselves consultants, as this has developed a rather negative image in some cases, at least in many of the companies and industries that we work with. (A direct quote: ”Yeah, they all have MBAs from Harvard and can make a pretty awesome PPT, but have they been in the trenches where we are right now? No way!”)
(BTW, we’re currently redesigning our webiste and removing all of the “consultant” information)
What is True North Thinking Inc. and TPS All About?
One thing we do know is what we stand for: human development. We believe in the unlimited potential of people to make things better.
We feel that is what TPS is about…increasing the capacity of people to make improvements everyday (every hour!) to their work in terms of safety, quality, quantity and cost. This is done through using the techniques, philosophy and approaches of the system. While we increase this capacity, improvements are made to the business processes. A win-win-win scenario!
While we’re not experts in TPS (if anyone claims that they are, I would run for the door!), our team has deep experience across many different industries and countries around the world. We have found the difference in approach can be a big factor between success and failure (defined as a failure to change the organizational culture into one of continuous improvement).
We’re sure that consulting has its place and value. However, when it comes to TPS and the journey to true north, stick steer clear of fancy titles and go with effective students and practitioners. After all, its is a learning journey!
