Editor’s note: This article, as well as part one from last week, discusses topics covered at greater length in a new streaming-video training series, “Enhancing and Sustaining Lean Improvemen

I was teaching a class and asked participants to create a control chart of an indicator that was important to them. A lab supervisor presented me with a chart on the number of procedures her department performed and told me that it wasn’t very useful.

I started out my day with a quick chat with a colleague about a client project she is working on. It concerns calibration, and I could hear the tone of a righteous lecturer creeping into my voice.

“For every person who will say yes, there are 20 who will say no. For a positive response, you must find the 21st person.”
—The Theory of 21