Wednesday, April 22, 2009

If you want an improvement culture, 20 expressions to avoid

From 40 Years, 20 Million Ideas: The Toyota Suggestion System:

  1. Everyone understands that!
  2. We've never done that before, there's no point in trying.
  3. I tried to do that before, and I know it won't work.
  4. This isn't up-to-date enough.
  5. Is this within the budget?
  6. There are just too many plans being made -- I'll take a look at your opinion when I have time.
  7. Let's talk about this some other time.
  8. Let's wait a while and see how things turn out.
  9. Why do you want to change? Aren't things going okay now?
  10. There is a rule on this, so it's no good doing it that way.
  11. I don't think that's technically feasible
  12. This idea is really off the wall, the manager will never agree to it.
  13. That's just not done at this company!
  14. That might work somewhere else, but not here!
  15. The real world is more complicated than that.
  16. You don't really understand the situation, do you?
  17. Your suggestion is good, but the company can't afford it.
  18. This will create problems later on.
  19. Even if I give you advice, there's still no way.
  20. What is this suggestion? Can't you make it a little better?
Via Mark Graban

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