Bilateral Symmetry, Standard Work, and "The Box"

All creatures great and small that have ever existed on Earth, from the lowliest insects to the mightiest carnivores, share one thing in common. Bilateral symmetry.  A left side and a right side that are mirror images of one another.  You might say it's nature's standard work, the one overriding design constraint to which all others are subjugated.

And if you knew nothing else about life on Earth you'd probably think this a pretty limiting constraint indeed.  And yet we have this incredibly vast richness and diversity of life all over the globe.  Bilaterally symmetrical creatures (including ourselves) survive, grow, and thrive in nearly every corner of the planet.  And in even the harshest and most remote environments, through millions of years of evolution, nature has never seen fit to evolve a non-symmetrical species.  For it is precisely because of this constraint that life is so diverse and adaptable.

Often the imposition of standard work is viewed as overly constraining, stifling to creativity, and inflexible.  And yet if properly applied the opposite should be true.  Standard work allows us the platform from which to solve problems, improve, and adapt.  Nature knows this and so does not violate it.  To do so would be unsustainable, like trying to walk with 11 toes.

The concept of standard work is effective precisely because it imitates nature.  This is why the Toyota Production System works so well, as beautifully described by H. Thomas Johnson in Profit Beyond Measure.

Others are getting the picture as well.  In The Myth of the Garage, the Heath Brothers dispel the notion that the way to stimulate creativity is to "think outside the box."  Instead they advocate re-defining the box.  As they put it, "A good box is like a lane marker on the highway: It’s a constraint that liberates."

And of course we can't forget Matthew May, whom I mentioned in my last post.  His 4th Law of Subtraction: "Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints."

So if you see standard work as simply something to do when everything's going well and are quick to toss it out or circumvent it the first time things get tough, keep the lessons of nature in mind.  Recognize that the truly sustainable path to improvement begins with a simple set of constraints.