Happy Third Birthday

“Bon anniversaire, Jaded Julie.”

“Last year you sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in Italian, so this year it must be French. Happy birthday to you also, Curmudge. The first Kaizen Curmudgeon posting was on May 23, 2007, so we’ve selected that as the blog’s birthday. Our fictional names were conceived somewhat before that, weren’t they? Like most facts, it has probably escaped from your memory; but if it hasn’t, please tell me where my name came from.”

“In Lean terms, Jaded Julie, your name was simply the result of an ‘aha moment’ when I was comparing Lean with other programs back on February 15, 2007. I would like to think of it as a stroke of genius, but realistically, it was just an incidental inspiration.”

“Are real—not fictional—people conceived as the result of an ‘aha moment,’ Curmudge?”

“The process is more complicated than that, but sometimes it’s not given any more forethought than I did.”

“Since we don’t have any birthday cake to share with our readers, is there anything we can give people to make their having clicked on our URL worthwhile?”

“There always is, Julie. Back on October 29, 2009 (101 Curmudgeons) we told our readers the dates where they could find our discussions of the topics covered in our first 100 postings. Let’s continue from that point up to the present date:

Medical Home—November-December 2009

Volunteering—January 7, 2010

Communications—January 22 & 28, 2010

Lean in Construction—February 2010

5S and Kanban—March 4 & 11, 2010

Culture of Elegance—March 25, 2010

Mistakes—April 1 & 8, 2010

‘Invisible’ People—April 15 & 22, 2010

Checklists—April 29, 2010

Hospitals in Appleton—May 13, 2010

Medical Home Teamwork—May 20, 2010”

“Hey, Curmudge, don’t forget Curmudgeon’s Wastebasket that we started back on January 10. As I understand it, that’s for Kaizen Curmudgeon drafts that were ‘deep-six’ed’ as well as controversial topics that you just found interesting.”

“That’s it, Julie. But postings will be irregular. When Kaizen Curmudgeon requires lots of time, nothing will go into the Wastebasket. And speaking of time, I’m going to take some time off. As they say in the theater, Kaizen Curmudgeon will be ‘dark’ next week.”

“You’ve earned it, Curmudge. But at your age, don’t forget to turn the lights back on when you return.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon