I believe René Descartes may have gotten it backwards when he said, in Latin, “Cogito, ergo sum.” When translated this famous saying means “I think, therefore I am.”
I contend he should have said, “I am, therefore I think.”
Now, before the Philosophy police come for me allow me to make one thing clear…. I’m not attempting to enter into a philosophical debate here.
And while we could easily enter into a morale discussion about when life begins, or how we know we actually exist (Descartes contended that because we think, we are)… I won’t.
An Amazing Gift
No, instead of all this, I want to keep it real simple. You see, I contend each of us have been given an amazing gift. In fact, we’ve been given many gifts such as life itself. But the gift I’m talking about is the gift of thought and contemplation.
It’s this gift that can, so to speak, make or break us. It’s this gift that enables men and women to do astonishing things like brain surgery, invent the cell phone, and fly people to the moon.
And it’s precisely because of this gift of thought that companies such as Toyota have re-written the rules related to running a business.
The Real Secret
Contrary to what many assume, it’s not the tools of lean or six sigma that make companies like Toyota great. And, while it’s very important, respecting people isn’t the key driver either.
No, in my humble opinion, it comes down to one thing and one thing only. Those who master the ability to think and solve problems will ultimately win the game, set, and match.
My Maker Made Me to Think
So, yes, I think Descartes got it backward. I believe God is the first cause of life which means He’s ultimately responsible for me sitting here this evening typing this sentence. I also believe this same God gave me the ability, and I contend the responsibility, to think.
Stated another way, “I am, therefore I think.”
Do you agree?
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The main issue with Descartes is that it assumes that “all thoughts have thinkers”. Descartes never attempts to establish this in his work. He was in effect presenting the conclusion “I am” from a inference like:
all thoughts have thinkers, there are thoughts now, so the thinker of the thoughts must exist.
So all Descartes should have said was, there are thoughts now, but if he had said that, it would have been difficult for him to conclude I exist unless he assumed that all thoughts have a thinker. He’s saying, you can only be assured of your own existence even if you doubt all else. Descartes was only able to bridge the gap between a thinking human and knowledge gained in the world by first proving the existence of God and it is unclear whether anything of his argument remains of the proof of God is rejected.
Isn’t philosophy great!?
I do believe that all resources that are given to us by God should be engaged and invested not squandered. Our minds are a great resource. When we are responsible and give our best contribution everyone is improved, however as one of my favorite speakers says it “Where the mind goes the man follows”. Our minds are a powerful thing, not only does the mind percieve reality but can create a reality. Focus is a powerful mental tool, regardless of how shallow or deep the thinker. When we focus together, our ideas become a laser beam that can cut through any problem. I do enjoy philosophical discussion!
Nice thought, but I think it’s what you think aobut that is important, not just that you think. That is why something like Six Sigma is important. It gets us to think aobut things in certain ways, and also coordinates our thing among ourselves. The same goes for the assertion that people come first; it gets us “thinking” more about people.
A long, long time ago (not in a galaxy far, far away..!), an old Production Manager of mine told me something that struck home, way before I entered the dizzy realms of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma.
He said that when you employ a factory hand (we now call ours Assembly Specialists), you not only get a pair of hands – you get a brain too.
This kicked off what I now know as a Kaizen program, with all my staff being involved in the discussions regarding problems and brainstorming the solution(s).
To realise the fact that the “worker ants” understand the tasks and the problems they have to deal with on a day-to day basis is to respect that they have the potential to drive the solutions. This what sets the Toyota’s of this world apart from the rest.
Giving them the tools to use enhances this after it has been recognised.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE !
In the context of TPS/6 Sigma it should read:
I am, therefore I can think.
I can think, therefore I can change.
I can change, therefore I can improve.
Obviously, perfection is the goal of improvement, thus the root of perfection begins with thinking.
In the context of our Creator, I think He said is best when He said:
I AM
Since He is perfect, everything after that is immaterial.
He also created us in His image, so that one day we also could be perfected.
I believe His two greatest gifts to us are 1)free will or the ability to think, which results in our ability to realize we are not perfect, but should be and 2)a transformational process to become perfect (By the mysterious and wonderful gift of salvation made possible through His Son, Jesus Christ.)
Would it be so strange to say that the greatest gifts of the economic world are the 1)free market, which results in the realization that you must improve relentlessly to survive and 2)lean, which provides a transformational process to pursue improvement relentlessly?
Maybe that’s a stretch (and maybe the first time lean has been analogized to our Lord and Savior).
I guess we will have to THINK this one a little longer.
Chris, thank you for your powerful comment! I actually love your analogies. And thanks to everyone else for your excellent thoughts and comments.
Chris,
That was a beauty! And a totally new thought.
Before I saw this post, I had long thought (pun intended) of the importance of thinking, how it relates to continuous improvement in our lives and work, how it relates to God’s plan and how few people actually think as much as they could. Most importantly now, when the United States does not have enough manufacturing capability to survive and pay off its “debt”, we need to fix things. I helped Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation win the Baldridge National Quality Award in 1997, began my career at General Motors in Organizational Development (unheard of at that time – early 1970s) and now see the urgent need our country has. How do we manufacture as a nation again?