Lean@home is inspired from a nearly 100 year-old concept in which you find sustainable solutions to your own unique problems. It is a toolbox to start making changes.
Because what does an economically privileged family in a house have in common with a recently arrived immigrant family in a housing project? What does a forty-something couple with four teenagers in Nice have in common with a gay couple in New York City? A lot more than what may appear to be the case on the surface. We have a tendency to focus on differences rather than on what unifies us. We may not have the same dreams—but we all have dreams. We have varying privileges in terms of resources—but we have all probably experienced an actual lack of time, money and energy. We may all have different views of climate change and pollution, but we and future generations are equally dependent on our environment. We have needs—fundamental and developmental needs; we have problems, we have things we want to change.
Lean@home can help most people make the changes they need, create flow in their daily lives, and have more harmonious homes.
What lean living is not
To avoid misinterpretations, it is important to describe what lean living or lean at home is not. It is not a fast, efficient method to create a home resembling a production process, where family members are internal customers. It is not a path to a dreary, practical, stripped-down, unimaginative, goal-oriented home where you do not live in the present moment. It is not a way to see your house or apartment only as something to be refined, endlessly tinkered with, repainted, renovated and improved. Nor is lean@home about immediately satisfying every need, or perceived need, that you, your partner, or your children may have. The home is everyone’s responsibility; even two year-olds can participate on their terms. Determine what your actual needs are and prioritize them. Focus on the ones that are significant.
Lean living is not like the emperor’s new clothes. Some business leaders reject lean at first, on the grounds that everything the philosophy involves should naturally be practiced already. But once they actually start working with it, patiently and intentionally, they see the potential and the point. Nor is lean a pure streamlining philosophy to optimize your productivity or performance. Some workplaces are invaded by quacks who, whether consciously or unconsciously, grossly misunderstand and manipulate lean. They take streamlining to the extreme, they don’t involve the true experts, and then they move on and destroy the next workplace.
If you just use the tools, you will lose the soul of lean. If you just use the philosophy and skip the tools, you won’t achieve results. But remember: you don’t have to do it all at once. You don’t even have to do it all in one lifetime. See lean living as a smorgasbord, and focus on your most important streams first.
Lean Background
Lean has been spreading across the world like wildfire since the late nineteenth century, when Sakichi Toyoda in Japan began establishing Toyota Industries and developing lean philosophy. Lean has then inspired hospitals, prosecution offices, and service companies. And now it has come to the organisation we can impact most, our own home.
In the family and in the home, we wear on one another’s love, trust and self-esteem; we put a strain on the environment and on ourselves, and many people waste resources—both time and money. Lean curtails that wastefulness. Persistent work with lean can dramatically reduce waste and create a more sustainable, harmonious home—and ultimately, a more sustainable society.
Our closest relationships help us evolve as people, but they can also cause us to come to a standstill, to get stuck in established roles, or to give up what we really want from life. Lean helps us do the best we can and live our dreams. All that’s required is love, intention and perseverance.
Do you have what it takes?