One Apple A Day #1089
By allowing disruption and accepting it as part of the journey, we create space for new learnings and ideas.
I wrote this sentence in my little journal while sitting under a tree outside the health precinct of a small rural village somewhere in India.
We were supposed to walk along the bank of the river Narmada this morning, but our plans got disrupted due to some difficulties of one of our fellow travellers.
So, we changed our plans, walked for a few kilometres to the closest doctor and waited for our brother to be back on his feet.
We promised ourselves to never leave a man behind.
Every now and then, one of us went in to check how things were proceeding. When it was my turn, I noticed a big poster on the waiting room wall. It was about the "5s campaign" run by the municipal corporation of Gujarat to increase the physical quality and work efficiency in urban health centres.
At that time, I knew nothing about the campaign, its purpose and its inspiration. I didn't know that 5S stands for five Japanese words.
But that poster got my full attention, and I had to write down the 5S and their key messages.
The five words are:
Sort, "When in doubt, move it out."
Set in order, "A place for everything, and everything in its place."
Shine, "Better cleanness, better health."
Standardize, "See and recognize what needs to be done."
Sustain, "The less self-discipline, the more room for improvement."
I immediately felt that this process was important to me. For the rest of the walk, I've kept it in my awareness, changing and adapting it to fit my messy way of working.
Under that tree, in the middle of nowhere, waiting to restart our walk, I realized that I had to thank the events that disrupted our journey for this gift.
By allowing disruption and accepting it as part of the journey, we create space for new learnings and ideas.