Oh and by the way it is going to be broadcast live around the world by satellite. 

Would you feel in your "comfort zone”? 

Probably not. 

Why is that? 

The majority of us could physically speak the words if we had them in front of us. 

Would you agree with that? 

So what is the issue? 

For most of us it is fear of failure. 

People often focus on all of the things that could go wrong. 

You probably think to yourself what if I stammer or freeze or get
asked a difficult question.

All of these negative thoughts - and they only are thoughts, somehow tell our body via our brain exactly what to do. 

Yes and we would probably end up stammering or freezing. 

Why, because we have conditioned ourselves to fail. 

We have told ourselves that we will fail and we have now stacked the odds firmly in favour of failure. 

Why, because we are out with our "comfort zone" - we imagine all of the things that could go wrong rather than imagine about all of things that could go right.

How many times have you had a great idea, but have managed to talk yourself out of actually doing anything about it because of the fear of failure? - If you are like me probably every day. 

Often you hear very negative language in the workplace. 

"Yes, but...." 

"It will never work..." 

"We've tried that before..." 

"What's the point....?” 

Do a little experiment with yourself. 

Count the number of times in a day that you communicate with your colleagues and friends in a negative way. 

I've done it and the results weren't pretty. 

And what's worse we often talk to ourselves in even more
negative terms! 

As you are probably aware by now kaizen means "continuous improvement" 

It can make life far more fun and stress free. 

The thing I like most about facilitating Lean kaizen blitz workshops is that for oneweek people are able to perform in an environment where negativity is minimised and people are challenged to perform out with their "comfort zones" 

A good example of this is at the end of the week when the team do a short presentation on their achievements and the potential results. 

Many individuals are clearly out with their "comfort zone" 

Ok, they are not on TV at the G8 summit but they might as well be for some individuals. 

You only need to check the usage of the toilet facilities a few minutes before the presentation to
know that people are fearful of the next half hour. 

They great thing in my experience is that people always rise to the challenge.

Kaizen for me is about changing cultures from a "can't do" to a "can do" environment and eliminating
the fear of change both for individuals and the organisation. 

So stay positive and banish negativity from your workplace. 

The worst thing that can happen is that you could actually improve things!

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Graham Ross

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