So here is the next installment in my ongoing effort to turn things that absolutely did not need to become business lessons into business lessons.
At one point in Iraq, we were stuck at a patrol base for 28 days because all the routes were black.
For the first two weeks, we had MREs.
Then on Day 14, we ran out.
What we did have was a pallet of Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffins.
So for the last week, that was the menu.
Breakfast: blueberry muffin.
Lunch: blueberry muffin.
Dinner: a strategic re-engagement with blueberry muffin.
By about Day 23, opening the wrapper hurt.
So we got creative.
We smashed them flat and baked them in the Iraqi sun to make cookies.
We heated them.
Mixed them with whatever scraps were left.
Basically, we found increasingly questionable ways to make one food pretend to be several different foods.
There is actually a practical business lesson in this:
Resource constraints force prioritization and ingenuity.
In business, the instinct is often to solve problems by adding something.
More people.
More money.
More technology.
More time.
But when none of those are available, you have to get better at using what you already have.
That is where lean thinking becomes real.
Not “do more with less” as a slogan.
Actually figuring out what matters and getting creative with the resources already on hand.
Nobody formed a steering committee.
Nobody built a roadmap.
Nobody hired a consultant.
Nobody scheduled a workshop on “muffin optimization.”
We were just trying very hard to make a blueberry muffin stop being a blueberry muffin.
Necessity may be the mother of invention.
Absolute disgust is apparently a pretty strong continuous-improvement methodology too.
For the record, I still refuse to eat Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffins.
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#ThoughtLeadership #LeanThinking #ContinuousImprovement #Resourcefulness #Innovation #AmIDoingThisRight