Kaizen is Japanese for “incremental improvement” and that’s what I accomplished yesterday with the bulletin boards outside the Tanada Club.
Nobody really had time for them. Posters were faded, curling, and falling. Visitors weren’t getting the information they wanted. Most of the stuff was old and not relevant. The giant poster drew the eye but was it the most important thing?
I asked the staff what information they wanted people to have. What action would they like visitors to take? What did people ask about most often? The clearest request: encourage visitors to support the NPO by buying rice or making a donation. There was already a poster outlining the rice subscription and single purchase options, but it was cluttered with details.
I reworked that poster into two simpler versions dividing the rice subscription from the single rice purchase and delivery. Mariko-san made a Google Form and we added a QR code to let people order right there on their phones. No more filling in and faxing!
(If you live in Japan and want some tasty Oyama Senmaida rice delivered to your doorstep, please order it here!)
When our boss saw the new posters, he commented about the photos, “That’s not our rice” and he’s right! I used stock photography and it’s probably Thai rice. Ishida-san has a keen eye. I hope that our visitors don’t. We will do a photo shoot with our rice at harvest time. Incremental improvements….
In addition to talking to the staff, I also observed visitors coming up to the building and the bulletin boards. I listened to them ask questions. Most of them were looking for wayfaring. Is this the restaurant? How do we get to the restaurant? Is the restaurant open? Where can we go to eat? People are hungry!!
A map and some details should help folks answer their own questions. Of course, that’s not going to completely cut out the wayfaring questions, but it should help a little bit. And on the busy days, even a little bit is good.
Some visitors are interested in what we actually DO at Oyama Senmaida, so I added a section featuring “a year in the terraces” timeline, plus a new panel to highlight the taiken hands-on workshops we do almost every day with schools.
It doesn’t tell the complete story, but anyone who looks at the bulletin boards now gets a a sense of the highlights of what we are doing.
And as I get a better idea of what everyone focusses on – staff and visitors – and what new questions come up now that there are some self-serve answers available, I will be able to practice kaizen and make the display better.
