Lost in Translation: Does Lean Jargon Hinder Communication and Clarity?

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Does jargon–or Japanese terms like ‘Hoshin Kanri'–get in the way of clear communication in your organization?

It reminds me of the classic Saturday Night Live ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!' sketches, where Sean Connery (played hilariously by Darrell Hammond) would completely misread category names to hilarious effect. That inspired me to create this meme about ‘Hoshin Kanri':

See more fun memes on my site LeanMemes.com.

Would it be easier if we just called it ‘Strategy Deployment' or ‘Policy Deployment'? It's the same concept, but with a name that might be easier to digest for everyone.

On a different note, it's funny that we so often use the Japanese word for waste (“muda”), but value is called… value.

Weird, right?

Have you ever seen a Lean term–whether in English or Japanese–get hilariously misunderstood at work? I'd love to hear your stories!


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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

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