(Note: We are headed into the summer months, and therefore I thought I’d write on a topic with a lighter touch, to ease my way into the typical hot Texas weather. All in good fun, so I hope no one takes offense at my “old school crankiness” humor.)

My wife and I were headed home from a wedding a few months back. I was driving while my wife was on her phone looking at Facebook. As we rode along, my wife suddenly asked me, “What does ‘Living in the Flow’ mean?” Someone had used this phrase in a Facebook post she saw. I’d never heard this term before, and replied, “You’re the high school teacher, I thought you kept up with the latest slang kids use.” She said she’d never heard this phrase before.

As we pondered what “Living in the Flow” could mean, my wife said, “Perhaps it means something like going with the flow, living life in the moment, and taking things as they come; not worrying, but letting life happen.” My response was typical of my sarcastic humor, which usually results in only amusing me. I said, “Sounds like some kind of hippy commune thing.”

My wife, being clearly the better and kinder half of our marriage, said, “Perhaps it has something to do with following the flow of where the Holy Spirit leads, and submitting to God’s will.” I conceded this was a better answer than mine, for many reasons. But I came back with my own definition and said, “I’m a Lean guy, and when I talk about ‘flow,’ I’m talking about streamlining processes and making activity flow smoothly. For me ‘living in the flow’ means making everything flow in sync and harmony so operations work without deviation. I help create flow.” My wife just smiled and said, “Now who sounds like a hippy.” Fair enough.

But the phrase gave me plenty to think on. After all, I had a four hour drive from Boerne, TX back to Houston to ponder things. I think “Living in the Flow” is actually an ideal way to describe the implementation of Lean. Think about it. In Lean we talk about one piece flow, process improvement, continuous improvement, and other things that are efforts to continuously design our processes so they do not have to stop. We strive to develop our processes so they move/flow continuously in a way that meet the demands of the customer.

As practitioners of Continuous Improvement, we should all be striving to help our processes, whatever they may be, to flow steadily and continuously. You have to be flexible and change as demand changes. The more I thought on this, the more I began to like the phrase “Living in the Flow.” In fact, I think I will consider incorporating this phrase into my training where possible. Besides, “Creating Flow” is one of the five principles of Lean Thinking. It seems to make sense.

In writing this article, I decided I might want to do a little due diligence and go out on the internet (because you can believe everything on the internet) and see what I could find on the phrase “Living in the Flow.” The very first thing that popped up was a book about “Living in the Flow.” In reading the overview, I came across an enlightening section. It read: “Living in Flow requires us to take each moment as it comes and BE within it. What are we feeling? What are we feeling right now? This is the most important aspect of being – it is our emotions. Is it happiness, is it anger, is it joy, is it fear? And we look from our non-polarized eyes and see it without judgment.”

I was right to begin with! It IS some kind of hippy commune thing! Oh well. Whatever the source, I still like borrowing the phrase for looking at Lean implementation. Going forward, I’m living in the flow – the Lean way. Keep cool this summer.

Jeff Adams is the author of “7 Essential Skills of Leadership, How to Lead Your Organization to Operational Excellence,” which can be purchased here. Jeff holds multiple certifications in continuous improvement methodologies, including Lean, Six Sigma, and QRM. More information about Jeff and services offered can be found at www.continuousleadership.com. Online training is available here.