The Ikigai Podcast
The Ikigai Podcast
Achieving Success Through 5S Methodology with Steve Beauchamp
Are you seeking strategies to streamline your business operations?
Toyota, the renowned Japanese automotive giant, has developed various methodologies to enhance workplace organisation and boost productivity, with one of the most effective being the 5S model.
In this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, Nick is joined once again by Steve Beauchamp, who shares his innovative take on the 5S model and how it can play a pivotal role in optimising your business processes.
You know, in my experience of teaching and mentoring this methodology in my career over the last two decades it's kind of what I alluded to you learn that things rarely go the way you thought they were going to go and I've watched a lot of teams struggle with the first two phases of that traditional approach of sorting and setting things in order and for a long time I couldn't really figure out why and it bothered me that it was such a struggle. And it dawned on me a few years ago I was reading a quote from Taiichi Ono, which is one of the founders of the Toyota production system, and he said without standards there can be no improvement.
Speaker 2:Find your Ikigai at ikigaitribecom. This is episode 90 of the Ikigai podcast and Steve Bouchamp joins me today, and Steve joined me on episode 46, on which we talked about always improving lessons from the samurai, and you're returning, steve, to talk about business transformation with 5S, so it's good to have you back on the show yeah, thanks for inviting me back.
Speaker 1:It's it's hard to believe it's been that many episodes on the show, but it felt like it was just like yesterday when we were chatting about that other book and uh, yeah, so it's good to be back good to have you back here, and time I mean, that's more than two years probably.
Speaker 2:So you're right, time goes by quickly, but it feels like yesterday and steve, we have something to celebrate. You've written a leader's guide to optimize workplace organization, improve morale and increase productivity with a book called 5S Mastery. So congratulations. This is your third book now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, third full-length book. It's kind of crazy how I've just been getting into the practice of writing and it's actually become a source of e-key guy for me to just be able to sit and write and unpack what I'm thinking, and sometimes I'll share those things with other people, and sometimes they just kind of get tucked away into the you know recesses of the cloud and, and yeah, I think it's just, it's been interesting to be able to experience that and allow it to, like, you know, help me, like, communicate my thoughts, and then it really just yeah, it really is a source of ikigai for me and honestly, I would do it even if nobody read anything I wrote.
Speaker 2:So well, that's inspiring. I'm still writing and it's a bit of a struggle, so at times it feels like a source of ikigai, when I have those days where I feel the words are flowing and I'm freely expressing myself, yeah, and then other days I just can't seem to find the energy to write a sentence. So it's quite challenging. But I guess, yeah, it's the self-expression.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, even I have those days too, to be honest, and I think the great part about the whole thing is that you have other sources of ikia, right? So if you're like not feeling it, then you'd be like, yeah, I'm going to go over here and find something like go out to nature and just spend some time, like you know, walking in the trees or listening to birds sing or something like that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I agree totally. That's what Ken Moggy says is robust about Ikigai. If you have multiple sources, it doesn't matter. If you're not feeling it from one, you can, yeah, go out in nature, enjoy a meal, catch up with a friend, totally yep.
Speaker 2:So let's touch on your book. It opens with the questions do you find yourself drowning in clutter, wasting time and feeling overwhelmed by disorganization in your business? Have you tried various solutions but they just don't stick. And if I'm honest, sometimes I would be saying yes to those questions. So I'm guessing 5S is the answer to these questions and in your book you offer a new 5S approach which we will explore in this episode. So probably be wise to first talk about the traditional 5S model. So can you break down the 5S model and it's yeah, and what that is?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:So I think maybe it's good to kind of go back in time a little bit to like post-World War II Japan, back when you know the country was recovering from you know, the devastation of what war brings.
Speaker 1:And there was, you know, a group of folks working at a small little automotive manufacturer that you might have heard of called Toyota, and they they had a few individuals that worked there that you know really were prolific in how they thought about manufacturing, and one of the methodologies that they developed was what we now know as 5S. And 5S is, you know, not some, it's not really a fancy kind of acronym, it's really just all the words start with the letter S, and so that's kind of where it came from, and it's really been the backbone in the manufacturing world for a long time, and probably sometime in the 1980s is when it really started, you know, kind of spreading globally. So let's, you know, maybe it'd be helpful to talk through, like their traditional order of how 5S has been taught in the Western world. So it starts with the first S and, you know, for the sake of our listeners, maybe I'll break out both of the English and the Japanese at the same time. So the first one is sort, or Siri.
Speaker 1:The second is set in order, or seitan. Then you have shine, which is seiso, and then you have standardized seiketsu and then finally sustain, which is Shitsuke. So you know, it's not an overly fancy or complicated kind of methodology. It's really about how to organize your workplace in a way that makes sense and really helps your workplace become just easier on the people, right?
Speaker 1:I think the you know, the traditional way that it's been taught in the West, and how I was originally taught too, is this idea of well, you just, you know, go through this in order. It's just like a step-by-step, linear kind of path, while you know we just start with sorting and then we finish with sustain. And I think the thing that's challenging about that is it doesn't really take into account how life actually happens in the workplace. I think, and you know it kind of makes you feel like, oh, there's this pressure to like get to the end, right when it's like this kind of project, kind of thinking, and I think that's traditionally how I was taught and how a lot of people think about it, and so, yeah, I think that's kind of like a great introduction to traditionally what it's been known as.
Speaker 2:All right, so just to review. So we have sort, set in order, shine, and then after that we have standardized sustain, and there's this linear approach, sustain and there's this linear approach, and in your book you offer an alternative, almost a cyclical approach. So what is your approach that you discuss in your book?
Speaker 1:yeah. So you know, in my experience of teaching and mentoring this methodology in my career over the last two decades it's kind of what I alluded to you learn that things rarely go the way you thought they were going to go, and I've watched a lot of teams struggle with the first two phases of that traditional approach of sorting and setting things in order, and for a long time I couldn't really figure out why. And it bothered me that it was such a struggle. And it dawned on me a few years ago I was reading a quote from Taiichi Ono, which is one of the founders of the Toyota production system, and he said without standards, there can be no improvement. And around the same time I had picked up a copy of Masaki Imai's book Kaizen do check, act or action, and the standardization cycle, which is the standardized do check action, also known as, like your daily routine, right? So the way those two things interact with each other, you have this daily, you know, day-to-day grind. Basically, if you will Like, this is the work that we do on a day-to-day grind. Basically, if you will like, this is the work that we do on a day-to-day basis and then periodically be like ah, we actually need to make some changes and improve how we're doing this day-to-day. So that's how those two things interact with each other.
Speaker 1:And you know I started having this realization that there was an awful lot of conversation around standardization as really a foundation for improvement. And then I started asking the question well, why is it that we wait until the fourth phase of 5S to talk about standards? And it's kind of got me going down this road of investigating and digging into a little bit more of the context. And you know, I think you know kanji is a really fascinating thing to me. I know you and I have talked about this a lot in the past, just in this conversation we've had, where it's just so much meaning can be found in just a few strokes of a brush and that I find very fascinating.
Speaker 1:And you know I'm also an avid learner. So I started digging into those kanji symbols that you know make up those five S that I introduced a little bit ago. And I think it's important to understand original context of what things mean before you start applying it to yourself. And so I started digging into those and realized that you know, there was some things I think we were missing along the way in that interpretation. So that's kind of like how I got going down this road and you know, uh. But I think I'll just pause there for a second and yeah so yeah, so you've.
Speaker 2:You've actually got a diagram in your book. Maybe we'll include in the the show notes. That offers this cyclical approach. But I agree with you in terms of the power of studying kanji rather than just accepting, I guess, one person's best attempt to translate a concept or word. So when you do look at the kanji, it's almost like this epiphany, it's like ah, now I have a greater understanding of this concept and it can be used in various contexts and it has a deeper meaning. So would you like to touch on some of these words where you've explored the kanji and you've obviously discovered it has more depth to the meaning?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if you're like really paying attention a little bit ago, but you'll recognize that four of the S's all start with say right, which?
Speaker 1:is like in the English language we spell that S-E-I. To an English speaking person you might not really think anything of that, because you're like well, it's just the same thing, because you know, typically in the English language that you know is very, very much the same almost all the time. However, in the kanji you can have something that sounds exactly the same but is actually very different, but is actually very different. And if you look at the kanji for these words, they actually have two of them seiketsu and seiso. The first, kanji se, in that one actually refers to purity and cleanliness, and the other two, seiri and seitan, have this idea of order. And so then I started unpacking this a little bit more and discovered that I think we had the order kind of mixed up and I think we think about this in terms of, like this linear fashion instead of this cyclical idea that I like to think about. So you have this idea of standardization at the core of what we do and because you know the full word, say, ketsu isn't just about this idea of purity and cleanliness, it's that idea that it's holding everything together right, so that that like what is uniquely, you know, the thing, that like holds this all you know, if you are missing one piece, it all kind of falls apart kind of idea, and so you're having that at the center and then this the cycle.
Speaker 1:Part of it includes that idea of what used to be referred to as this shine. I think that kind of loses a little bit of the meaning behind it, and so I like to use the word spotless instead of shine, because it's beyond. You know, this idea of just like cleaning something. You know this idea of just like cleaning something. It's the how can you make this like as, as you know, as pure as you can, but also be functional and efficient at the same time? And then thinking about this idea of the other two uh, siri, tom, I discovered in doing some research that in most applications in Japan, these two words aren't necessarily done apart from each other. It's more of a simultaneous thing that's done as, like you do one thing, you're doing the other. Right, it's kind of like this it's understood that that's how it's done, but when it was like explained, I think, and translated maybe that was kind of lost.
Speaker 1:And so this idea of you know, creating order, you know, using those two from chaos is really kind of the idea behind it. And then finally have the completing the circles, this idea of self-discipline, and rather than just sustain, because I think sustain doesn't really accurately describe what you're trying to communicate through, what this word actually means. And so it's not just about sticking to a routine. It's about that continuous self-reflection and that effort to take action and improve things when you need, and so that's how I think about it in this cycle, rather than this linear approach, and also I think it puts a lot of pressure on people to think about doing this as like a linear one and done kind of activity.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think that makes sense. I'm always looking for ways to improve my processes and it's never linear. There's always a I mean for this podcast, there is this process that once it's recorded, I upload it, my team take care of it, they turn it into a blog post. Obviously, they upload the episode and over the years I've attempted to improve, you know, the quality of both the audio, the summary, the images, so it never feels like there's a linear approach to it. I mean, maybe per episode there is, but the overall process of doing the podcast it's cyclical because, yeah, I'm looking for a new guest and we repeat this process. I'm looking for a new guest and we repeat this process, but overall, I think we're always striving to improve each episode.
Speaker 2:So it's strange for me to think about this essentially as a one-person business owner with two virtual assistants. And I was going to ask you can we plan this to any type of business? But before I ask you, can we plan this to any type of business? But before I ask you that, what is the benefit of this new approach you've formulated?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, from my perspective, if you think about this more in a cyclical approach as opposed to a linear, like you know, project kind of style thinking A, it takes a lot of pressure off of people because then it becomes this oh okay, so this is just what we're doing and our mindset is, you know, if we think about how we could potentially improve upon this in the future, rather than saying we have to get this perfect and we have to get this right the first time, that puts a lot of pressure on people. So I think that's one thing that this different approach I think offers. And you know, it's very much like the idea of Kaizen which you were just talking about, this idea of continually wanting to improve upon where you are and where you're going, whether that's, you know, in your personal life or in your business life, right?
Speaker 1:I think it's important to recognize that we're not static beings, right, like we don't exist in this, like perfect equilibrium. We're constantly changing and constantly evolving, and so you know and it also really ties into the SDCA cycle very well, right? So this idea of standardization that feeds into the doing, or the spotless piece of keeping something clean, and also then transitioning into the checking piece, which is the sorting, setting things in order, and then you have your action step, which is the self-discipline. And the thing that really occurred to me in writing this too was how could you possibly sort and set something in order if you don't know what the standard needs to be?
Speaker 2:yeah, there needs to be a benchmark to follow and further than that.
Speaker 1:Why would you sort and set in order something that isn't clean? I mean, you wouldn't put your dirty dishes into the cupboards and then take them out and clean them afterwards, right? I mean that seems kind of weird.
Speaker 2:Well, you never know, with my washing, my wife might tell me that's what I do. Anyway, but I totally agree, that's a good metaphor. Why would you check, put something away that's dirty?
Speaker 1:Right, and so it. Just to me it makes more sense to think about this from the context of okay, well, let's set a standard, and then let's make sure that you know things are starting out in this like clean fashion, and then we'll figure out how to sort and set things in order, and then we build that self-discipline to reflect and think about, you know, is there any room for improvement? And if there is, do we need to go back and adjust our standard? And then you know, continually just going back, and you know, over and, over and over again, through that cycle, All right.
Speaker 2:So, with this 5S approach, do you think I could apply it to my business? So you know what I do. I have a team of two myself. So what do you think?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think any size business and, honestly, any type of business could benefit from this kind of methodology and approach. Because when you think about in your particular context so you have a very virtual presence, right Like everything is pretty much done electronically. Where are you storing all that electronic, you know matter? It's all being stored in the cloud.
Speaker 1:Well, if you think about how you store things in the cloud, just like thinking about the podcast as like one facet right of the business that you have, you certainly wouldn't want to just have a dumping ground where you just put things without any kind of way to know what's what, because it would take you a really long time to find it if you had to go search for it.
Speaker 1:Also, it may not be, you know, just aesthetically pleasing to just have things just all over the place. So if you think about setting that standard of and taking the podcast episode as an example, right, you would have a standard, for this is how we find a guest, this is how we, you know, do the recording and this is how we do the mastering afterwards, and so on and so on, and there's there's so many different facets to it that do apply, no matter what context you find yourself in, whether it's virtual or physical. So, yeah, and I actually talk about that in the book too, and I try to break it down in a way that no matter what type of business you find yourself in, whether that's a coffee shop or a bakery, or a virtual presence or manufacturing, it doesn't matter. These concepts are universal and they apply pretty much across the board.
Speaker 2:I can definitely see how it would apply to file management, and if I'm not careful, my desktop can be a mess of images, pdfs, video, audio and that bad habit of I'll just download it to the desktop. If I do that 20 times a day after five days I've got hundreds of icons on my desktop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you don't typically see those until you minimize everything and you're like whoa, what is going on here? This is kind of nuts. So, yeah, I can totally relate to that.
Speaker 2:So that actually might relate to a word of which your book reminded me of, which is the Japanese word muda. So what is muda?
Speaker 1:muda. So what is muda? Yeah, so if you think about like a definition, you could think about it in terms of like uselessness or pointless. Often in the business context, it's referred to as waste, right? So these things that are not necessary, no matter what those happen to be, whether it's adding more time to accomplish a task, whether it's like physically having to move around things to get somewhere, you know you can think about it in this context. Imagine you need to get to your desk in your office and you have all these boxes in the way, and so you either have to walk around them, crawl over top of them or move them just to be able to get to your desk. Well, that's just an example of waste, an example of muda. So it's basically preventing you from being able to accomplish really what is necessary that the customer is willing to pay you for.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, this was helpful because I always associate the word just to waste. But I learned from your book it's obviously something that impedes process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's a waste of time and energy. So that's something to think about. How are you creating Muda? And, yeah, going back to file management, that does get to a point where I've got to stop and organize and delete files and find the appropriate places, and that can take a long time to solve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know there's really seven. You know different types of muda. Traditionally, there's a bunch of different schools of thought on how many there actually are, but I'm more of a purist, I guess, so I'm stuck on the seven. But there's this idea and it forms an acronym. So, if you want to think about a way to remember it, the individual's name is Tim Wood, right? So you have transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing and defects, and so anytime you have any form of Muda in your process that falls into one of those seven categories. It's really taking away from you being able to produce what your customer really wants, and typically not something your customer is willing to pay you for, right Like they're not willing to pay for your defects, right?
Speaker 1:I mean, let's be honest, Nobody likes things that are broken or quality defect, right? So that's kind of like a and I unpack Muda a little bit in my book as well for those that want to dig in a little bit more on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know Japan's very big on not selling anything with the slightest defect that perhaps the average person wouldn't even notice notice. So their quality control is something they really associate to customer experience. And yeah, yeah, you, you know, you, I think I've watched videos of guitar makers and once the guitar is put together, if there's the slightest bump or scratch on the neck or the body, it's like we can't sell this one and it's like, wow, I'd buy it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, it's definitely. It's interesting because there's like that, you know, flip side to that perfection too, where there's like beauty in the imperfection, and so I think it's really fascinating how there's like those two diametrically opposed ideas that coexist in the Japanese culture, and I think that's really, you know, fascinating to me as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go. Yes, I mean, I remember even when I used to. I used to help Amazon sellers sell on Amazon Japan and I remember telling these sellers your packaging has to be as almost as good as your product and it's got to be strong and sturdy and it can't be made from flimsy paper or cardboard, because if it arrives with a dent or it's slightly greased or squashed, you're going to get complaints on on just the packaging, whereas in the west we probably wouldn't worry about that too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of thought goes into, I guess, all of these processes to create a service or product where it's, yes, standardized to this high level and I guess associated to that and to the elimination of Muda would be leadership. So would you like to touch on the role of leadership in 5S implementation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, and honestly, this, I think, goes, in my opinion, for everything in a business. But I think without any kind of leadership, you know, continuous improvement efforts are going to fail Right, and and that's, I think, that's true of any, any kind of initiative in a business. You can't just tell people to go do something and then expect it to come out exactly the way you want it to. I think you need to set that example right For the team to be able to follow. And you know, I think when there's that failure to do so, that's where you end up seeing those instances of oh no, just do as I say, don't do as I do, right, and that just creates this like well, what the hell? Like, why would I be okay? You know, being on a team working for a leader that doesn't actually practice the things that they're asking their, you know, setting vision and allocating appropriate resources to be able to accomplish tasks that you're asking the team to do, and you know that can be a bunch of different things in terms of resource.
Speaker 1:It's like being present and being a part of like developing policy and procedure for the team to be able to know what is the standard that we're working towards, and you know really being there to then remove those barriers that's preventing them from getting there. And you know really showing accountability and celebrating, also with the team. I think that's something that in the West, we're terrible at. I don't think we celebrate success nearly as much as we should. You know, I think there's this focus on doing more all the time, and I don't think we stop and recognize how far we've come. You know, and like taking a moment to just celebrate. That, I think is really important and, as a leader, if you're not doing that, chances are your team isn't going to either. Right, like it's not something you could expect your team to do without you setting that example for them.
Speaker 1:So I think, you know, when it comes to that leadership role, I think that's for me really where it kind of comes into play.
Speaker 2:One would think celebration and that communication of process success would be crucial to employee well-being. Like you want your employees to feel what they do is valued and that this is shared success and it's worth working here. We appreciate what you do, so we celebrate our wins. So that kind of points to the human element that you wrote about of 5S. So can you touch on that too, the human element in 5S?
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for asking. I think it's interesting to me how often we look at our processes and our businesses and we think, oh man, people aren't working hard enough or they're not doing the right things and I don't know why they're not doing the right things. And there has to be this respect for the people that are doing the work. If you're not stopping and celebrating and appreciating the people that are part of the team that are doing the work, chances are you're going to have a lot of turnover in your business because people aren't going to want to stay somewhere where they're not being. You know you're part of that team, like as the leader, like showing that, hey, you actually care about the people that are doing the work.
Speaker 1:And often, you know, people end up just becoming victims of their process and they are doing things not because they're trying to be malicious malicious and they're trying to have like bad intent. I think it's just their hands are tied sometimes and they end up having to do the things that the process is like dictating that they do. And I think you know taking time to show respect for people, building those standards so that people understand the expectation of you. Know, what do you actually need me to do here, right? I think, if I reflect on my career, the times where my leaders were very clear about what they needed from me, I think made my life a whole lot smoother in that role, you know so.
Speaker 1:I think that's where the human connection piece comes in. You have to recognize that these are people. These aren't like robots, right? And no matter how much AI is like rising up in the world, I think you're always going to need people, and so it's important to you know, recognize them and stay connected to them.
Speaker 2:So I totally agree and I think in this, in this age now, where we can outsource a lot of our work, we often don't get to know, you know, the people doing our work and we, yeah, we don't treat them as one of our team. Oh, you know, it's like you're just an outsource worker or we'll get it done at the cheapest possible price. So, yeah, even in my business, I try to be aware of that and I'm really lucky. I have a really good team of two and I celebrate the wins and I include them in some of my decisions.
Speaker 2:I ask for their perspective and it's yeah really brought us together and there's been long-term employees now. So I think the human element matters and, yeah, I think you see them as people first, before employees, yeah, yeah. So with all of this in mind, a practical approach, or practicality, is obviously really important. So how can we implement 5S into our business?
Speaker 1:I think you know it's important to internalize that quote that I shared earlier from Tai Chi Ono, right? Without standards, there can be no improvement. And I think if we recognize that, as you know, if you find yourself as a leader, in whatever capacity in your business and what you're being asked to be responsible for, I think it's your responsibility to understand, like, what does that standard need to look like? And that's your starting point, right? So figure out what that standard needs to be and then figure out, okay, well then, what process do we need to produce this standard that we're expecting? And everything starts to flow from there, right, so you can measure your success along that trajectory in a bunch of different ways. Like there's a I don't even know how many different kinds of variables you could think of to measure, but there's plenty out there, right? And? But if you don't start with a standard, everything else is meaningless. Like you could be measuring the completely wrong things, you know, and not actually achieving the standard that you're actually wanting to achieve. And so you know you. Then, from there, it flows into that definition of like, okay, well, what's necessary in order for us to produce this thing? And you know, you flow through of like those expectations.
Speaker 1:We talked about setting vision, you know, documenting how things should flow and how that process needs to behave, so that you can then build training from those documents, so that people are being trained in a consistent way. And then, lastly, is when you leverage technology. I think we've become very lazy in how we do business these days where we try to leverage technology first. I think if you don't understand what your process is and you try to leverage technology or maybe your process isn't awesome and it's creating a lot of defects and you leverage technology, what ends up happening is you end up automating a really bad process, and so I don't think that's a really great idea or approach. So get clear on the standard and the process first, and then allow that technology to you know, really take you to the next level, because then you'll have this ability to make the process easier on the people right, which then is creating that additional touch point of, like that human element piece.
Speaker 2:This really makes sense, especially when I read one of your subtitles of defining what's necessary. And if you get that wrong, I guess everything after that isn't going to really help your business. It will turn to muda, maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a pretty good chance that's going to happen. Yeah, and then you're going to call somebody like me to come and help you sort it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's something I'm going to try to be more aware of, like, okay, what's necessary here, what's the vision, what are my expectations? But, yeah, what am I defining here so I can see I could apply this approach to my business? And yeah, as you said, there's all this talk about leveraging technology, especially with AI. Now, but, before you jump on that, I've been quite slow with the uptake of that because I do have pretty good systems, I think. Yeah, I'm quite cautious to dive into what everyone's talking about just because everyone's saying, oh, it's going to change your business and you'll get everything done quickly. And so, yeah, this process, I think, is very helpful.
Speaker 2:And all these things was like oh, yeah, I document processes and, when required've even offered training to to my team. I, I take training and yeah, we have standard operating procedures. So I guess that's relatable to consistency checks. So I can definitely see how I could apply this to my business. And one, I guess one crucial aspect, and maybe related to defining what's necessary, is a Japanese word you write about called Hansei. So what is Hansei?
Speaker 1:So Hansei is a very critical part of that self-discipline phase that I talk about, and it's a self-reflective practice that's really encouraging you to change your life. But it's not just about asking simple questions and having simple answers, right, it's about thinking about these questions from the perspective of change and, like, in order for you to come to grips with the idea of wanting to change something in your life, you have to admit that there's a gap, right. So you have to understand that, okay, I'm here, you know, but I want to be way over here, like, okay, well, now we have this gap that you can be emotionally connected to, of like, okay, I need to close this gap and get closer to where I want to be.
Speaker 1:And you know, if you're not connected to the gap or the fact that there is a gap in the first place, you know you're not going to be invested in like actually getting there.
Speaker 1:And so it's really about a it's a very deep, meaningful conversation you're having with yourself. It's not just this like oh yeah, you know I need to like lose a few pounds or something. It's not, it's not that simple, right. It's like it's much, much deeper, like digging into that. And so, you know, I write about the five questions that I've found to be really helpful in developing that kind of practice for yourself. And it's starts with and, by the way, I recommend that you know, as a leader, you kind of go through these questions like at least once a week with yourself. And so, yeah, you kind of go through these questions like at least once a week with yourself, um, and so, yeah, typically at the end of the week is when I do this, so I'll, I'll sit down and I'll say to myself okay, well, what did I say? I was, I was gonna do that.
Speaker 2:I didn't do, uh, and if you want to do this on a daily basis you would.
Speaker 1:you would do this reflection at the end of each day and you could just be like, well, what did I say I was going to do today that I didn't do? And be honest with yourself, right, because sometimes we can gloss over that. But then the next one kind of like hits me pretty hard, sometimes Like, what am I proud of that I did today? Right, because you think about the contrast between those two is, like really important, I think, because then you can get real with yourself and and then you can ask yourself that question of, well, how did I lead the people that were around me and how did I follow? Because I don't think you can truly lead unless you know how to follow. Um, and then finally, like, looking to tomorrow, based on what I learned today, what will I do differently?
Speaker 1:And really, you know, applying in real time that like improvement cycle for yourself of like, okay, you know how can I do tomorrow differently than I did today? And recognize that it's a process, right, it's not a one and done kind of thing. It is, you know, just like, how a process operates. It never stays static, right, a process left unattended is going to shift and drift all over the place, and I think our personal lives and how we show up for others is very much like that. I think there needs to be intention behind it.
Speaker 2:I agree. And to reflect on these questions now, what am I proud of that I did today, so I'm proud that I had you on, steve. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And looking to tomorrow based on what I've learned today, what will I do differently? Well, I might ask myself these questions and look at implementing 5S into my business. So, yeah, I've definitely learned a lot. There's a lot here to, I guess, unpack and look into. So if our listeners want to do that, they could purchase your book Survive S Mastery a Step-by-Step Leader's Guide to Optimize Workplace Organization, improve Morale and morale and increase productivity. Where can people purchase your book, steve?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so August 30th, which is a few days away from when we're recording this, is when it'll be available. It'll be available as paperback, as a hardcover or an ebook, and if you, you know, just search in the search bar in Amazon, you'll be able to find it. Just by searching 5S Mastery, it'll show up pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:So Awesome, well, congratulations, you've given me some motivation. I'm halfway through a book and I need to uh, yeah, get onto finishing that. So thanks again for coming onto the podcast. And finally, where can people reach out to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there's two ways. Probably the easiest way is uh, and you can find a link to my profile on the Ikigai tribe website in the coach's profile, and you could also email me directly. Steve at stevebushompcom, and I read all my email, so it's not being read by some random, uh, outsourced person. I read all of them and respond to all my emails, so if you want to reach out to me there, you can do that as well.
Speaker 2:So Awesome. Well, thank you again, steve, for joining me, and we will have you back, perhaps when you write your fourth book. Is there another book in the works?
Speaker 1:There is actually, um, I haven't fully decided, uh, decided which direction I'm going to go, but I'm in the process of thinking that through It'll be one that's closely connected to this book that I just finished. You know, my first two books were very much connected to each other. This next book is a very different kind of direction that I went uh with this book, and the fourth book will be very much connected to this one. I just haven't fully baked it out just yet but it's, it's in the works for sure all right.
Speaker 2:Well, I look forward to hearing about that and hopefully, who knows, maybe one day we'll do a book launch or something together.
Speaker 1:That'd be cool. We should totally do that. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:All right, buddy, good to chat with you and speak to you soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right on. Thanks for having me on the show. Appreciate it, my pleasure, steve.