True North: Charting the Course

The North Country Trail and Manistee River Trail loop is approximately 20 miles and is my favorite backpacking trail located in northern Michigan. The first time I took my daughter with me, I printed her a map of the trail and brought it with me. I had hiked the trail many times prior to this trip but I wanted to be sure my daughter knew where we were going. When we got out of our car at Red Bridge trail head, her eyes lit up as she looked around at the beautiful forest around us. The buildings from the city were replaced with 75-foot-tall red pines. The sounds of the city were replaced with the babbling and burbling of the Manistee River as it snaked through the forest around us and under the bridge we would soon cross to begin our hike.  The smells of the city were replaced with the sweet perfume of the forest. As my daughter gazed out at the many trails leaving the trail head, she asked, “Where do we go from here?”

I pulled out the map I had printed off and I said with a smile, “It depends on where we want to get to.”

She replied, “Dad, I don’t care where we go.”

I couldn’t help but think about the scene in Alice In Wonderland when Alice meets Cheshire Puss:

‘Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. ‘Come, it’s pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where—’ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘—so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’

While standing next to the car with our backpacks lying next to us, I explained the importance of charting our course prior to setting out. If we do not first set our course, we will be walking with no end in mind. How will we ever know when we have arrived? If we do not know where we are going, we may miss things along the way that are important. How will we know we are getting closer to our “True North”? When reading a compass, you can always determine which way is North, and by knowing that, you can determine whether you are on path or off path. We may not know what is between us and our destination, but at least we will have a sense of direction.

True North is a key concept in lean continuous improvement. True North is a term used to describe the ideal or state of perfection your organization should be continually striving for. Will we ever arrive at our True North? Probably not, but that's alright because it provides direction for decision making. Lean is a journey; imagine all the amazing improvements and growth you will experience during a journey in the right direction! Without a True North, we could spend a lot of time getting pulled in many different directions and never getting any better. Opportunities for improvement will never end, does that mean we work on all of them as they present themselves? My daughter and I could have bounced around from trail to trail, walking here and there, and never really would have made it anywhere. It is a persistent practice toward a True North by all team members that makes organizations first class.

When I placed the map in front of her, we looked at the different points along the trails; a waterfall, an amazing overlook, and a suspension bridge. She pointed at the suspension bridge and said, “I want to go here.” 

If we didn’t chart our course prior to leaving, and choose our True North, we may have never experienced this amazing moment together…

...or we may have been lost in the forest or walking in circles for days!

As I stated earlier, its very rare that organization will ever reach their "True North", however, in this journey with my daughter, she was able to walk out on her personal "True North"!

So many organizations keep walking and walking and walking but never get anywhere. Take time to establish your personal and professional True North.

Some examples of True North:

• 100% Up Time
• 8 Second Response Time
• 0 Defects
• 100% Value-Add Activities
• One Piece Flow
• Security for All People
• 100% Customer Retention
• 100% Customer Satisfaction
• 6 Minute Mile
• 3 Day Work Week