A few years ago, after I gave a speech about lean at a meeting of the Transformer Association (like the kind on the telephone poles providing electricity to your home), my then 6-year old son, Ben, asked me if I’d met Megatron.

His question caused me to chuckle at the images we assign to our language. In lean lingo, the word “transform” is frequently used; I wondered what image the word conjured in others when used in that context.

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