Standards and The Lewis & Clark Expedition

When does standardization fail? Is its real purpose a uniform and static outcome? Or is there a more dynamic result? In this week’s show, Gwendolyn Galsworth (visual expert and your host) shares her view that standardization provides us with a platform for discovery—a jumping off place for the next iteration. We are mistaken if we take a standard as an unalloyed good. If we do, our pursuit of excellence is short circuited. The goal of excellence is not a static replication of the current definition of good. In the same vein, we are sometimes surprised to learn that the Japanese educate their children in the art of discovery: how to think. Not where to find the answers but how to find them. This is exactly what Shigeo Shingo demonstrated when he sat in front of a machine for five months in order to discover the first pivotal steps in quick changeover. Tune in this week as Gwendolyn contemplates the commonalities between the Lewis & Clark Expedition and our modern pursuit of excellence.