The Way of the Samurai: Steve Beauchamp Shares Key Lessons

*Watch the full playlist above.

Attaining Work-Life Harmony

People often talk about work-life balance -- having that balance between their work and personal life. However, looking at the context of the word, Steve would rather refer to it as work-life harmony; for him, it is about having activities that fit together.

Work-life harmony is trying to work while you can still fully live your life.

Nick: We often hear the phrase work-life balance, but you write and titled your book, work-life harmony, is there a difference?

Steve: For me there is. I think the interesting thing about words, I think all words are important. And the words that you use are very important. I think the context of words is really important, which is what I really love about the Japanese language in and of itself as a side note.

But the thing for me, work-life balance gives me kind of a mental picture of a scale, and you have like two sides. You have your work, and then you have your personal life on the other side. And you're constantly trying to find that balancing point of the two sides of the scale, right.

And when you take something off one side, and the other side gets lopsided. It's a never ending game of trying to balance the two. So I prefer the term work-life harmony, which, for me, I get a picture of like, I think the best way to describe it is like music.

So I'm a musician. I've played musical instruments most of my life, as you have. And so when I think about a chord in music, it can show up in a lot of different ways.

You have major chords, minor chords, you have diminished chords, you have augmented chord, you have all these different types of ways that music shows up, some of them sound really pleasant to the ears, some of them not so pleasant to the ears, but they invoke an emotion that comes with the sound.

And so when I think of work-life harmony, there's going to be times where I have these like perfectly resonating chords that just sound so pleasing to the ear, right? It's like, everything is just like sunshine and lollipops, everybody's happy.

So you have like, that kind of feeling that can be evoked from that blending of the two. And then you also have moments where it may not be super perfect, there may be some times where the harmony isn't as perfect as you want it to be, necessarily.

But for me, that's kind of where I see the difference. And when I think about work-life harmony, it's all about trying to work in such a way that I can truly live. Right? I don't live to work, right? When I'm not working, I'm not working, like I don't check my email, I don't respond to email, I don't do any work that's related to that at all.

Like, I compartmentalize that really well. And that's probably because I got burnt out along the way. And I write about that in the book, too. But I think for me, that's where the big difference lies in my mind is, it's finding those activities that can fit together in such a way that creates that resonance that really connects to your authenticity.

This is kind of where it connects to ikigai for me because it's about -- first you need to know who you are, though, in order to understand what that resonance is.

And so you first go down that road of discovery of well, "Who am I really at my core, and what are my core values, and how do they show up for me?" And and then you use that to really figure out what is this work-life harmony mean to me?

And how can I choose to do activities that create more of that harmony in my life rather than choosing to do activities that pull away from that harmony?

Values in Action Survey: What Is It?

In his book, Always improving: Lessons from the samurai, Steve recommends his readers take the values in action survey. But what is it? Steve explains that it is a simple survey that helps people understand their most prominent core values and strengths.

A tool that will make you understand who you really are

Nick: I found this really helpful, that you recommend the reader to take the values in action survey. Then for each virtue you go through, you associate certain values to that virtue in each chapter.

Now, I'm really familiar with the values in action survey. And as you know, I also use it but maybe our audience doesn't know what it is. So would you like to explain what it is?

Steve: Sure. So, in a basic sense, it's a really wonderful tool. I agree that you actually introduced me to and so that's why once I learned about it, I've been using it constantly with everybody that I work with.

And basically it's a very simple survey that helps you understand what are your most prominent core values and strengths. And they have determined that there's 24 key character, core values and strengths that kind of makeup everybody, and we all have some degree of these showing up in our lives.

And as you go through the survey, and you go through the different questions, and you answer these different questions in certain ways that helps shape which ones are more prominent for you, and which ones show up more easily for you in your life.

And I think the interesting thing about this particular tool is whenever you talk about core values with people, the first reaction that people usually have is oh, yeah, I know what those are.

Like, we always have that kind of reaction of like, oh, yeah, I know what my core values are. Because I actually had the same feeling when I was taking that for the first time, I was like, oh, I already know what this is.

But then after I got the results, I was actually quite surprised to see some of them show up in my top 10. Which I was like pleasantly surprised then, I was like, oh, I never really thought about how I showed up in that way.

And that really, like connected and resonated for me, and really helped me understand more of who my authentic self really was, and is.

Equity in the Context of Project Management

Steve believes that equity is essential in project management; it is all about providing an opportunity for everyone to have equal outcomes. In an organisation, people have different starting points on their skills, but providing opportunities for everyone may result in similar growth for every member of an organisation.

Equity is providing opportunity so that everyone has equal outcomes

Nick: You talk a lot about equity, under the theme of justice. So would you like to touch on this? 

Steve: So I thought it was important to focus a little bit on equity. This is something that's very important to me. And something that I always like to think about in the work that I do is how can I think about things from an equity lens. 

And I think it's probably helpful to first define equity. Because a lot of people think about equality and equity as being the same thing, but it really isn't. So the big difference between the two, equality is all about treating people the same way. And I think we all kind of understand what that means.

But equity, on the other hand, is providing opportunity, so that everyone has equal outcomes, no matter where they're starting from. So I think that we all know that in this world, or at least, I hope we all know, in this world, that we're not all starting from the same point. We all have different starting points.

And so looking at things through the lens of equity is how can I think about this in terms of like getting an equal outcome for everyone that's involved? And so when I think about that, and I think about how do I apply that lens to the work that I do?

So this is about thinking through, like, particularly for me in the work that I do is focus a lot on process and so it's, how can we think about creating processes that have equitable outcomes for the people that are engaged in the work and also the people that those processes serve?

Because there's internal and external customers all over the place and then there's also the people that are actually part of the process. And so when I think about equity and justice from a context of project management, that's kind of where I really like to lean in.

The Process of Learning Something New

In his book, Always improving: Lessons from the samurai, Steve talks about having courage is essential in learning new things because it can be hard at first, and learning itself is a process. He mentions four stages of learning that people undergo. Read on to discover these four stages of learning.

Everything is hard at first; there is a process that people need to go through

Nick: A quote, again, from Musashi is "It seems difficult at first, because everything is difficult."

And you quote, "It takes courage to want to learn new things, to say things that need to be said, and to stand up for something you believe in."

We all have a fear of failing, this resonated to me. Would you like to share your thoughts on both of these quotes? 

Steve: So I think the when I came across his quote, that really resonated for me. Because I've spent the greater part of my career as a trainer and training people on different things, or a mentor and coach. 

So the idea that somebody could say, well, this is just too hard, right? Well, it's like, everything is hard at first, right? And you have to recognize that there's a process you go through of learning, that helps things become less difficult over time.

And I talked about in the book, the four stages of learning. And real quick, the first stage is, you are unconsciously incompetent, right? Like, you just don't know what you don't know. And then when you start learning, you start picking up a little bit, now you become consciously incompetent, where you know how much you don't know.

From there, you transition into stage three, which is you become consciously competent, where you feel like you know some things, you feel like you have some success that's starting to happen. And then finally move into what's called unconscious competence, where you actually don't know how much you actually know.

And you've actually probably forgotten more than the person that's starting out, right? Because you just becomes just so easily flowing through whatever it is you're doing that it just comes naturally to you.

But before you get to that stage, you had to go through all of the other stages of learning where you forget how difficult things were at first. And so I think, when it comes to learning new things, we have to remember that it's going to be difficult at first.

But that doesn't mean that that should stop you from wanting to learn something new. So if you look at any of these virtues that I write about, and you think, oh, man, like, this is way too much, like there's no way that I can figure this out.

Well, just remember that everything that you've ever learned in your life has gone through this process. So it doesn't matter what it is.

The 5S Methodology Explained

Steve delves into the origins of the 5S methodology and explains each step in the traditional 5S process: Sort (Seiri), Set in Order (Seiton), Shine (Seiso), Standardise (Seiketsu), and Sustain (Shitsuke).

The traditional 5S approach

Nick: So let's touch on your book. It opens with the questions: Do you find yourself drowning in clutter, wasting time, and feeling overwhelmed by disorganization in your business? Have you tried various solutions but they just don't stick?

And if I'm honest, sometimes I would be saying yes to those questions. So I'm guessing 5S is the answer to these questions. And in your book, you offer a new 5S approach, which we will explore in this episode.

So it would probably be wise to first talk about the traditional 5S model. So can you break down the 5S model, and what that is?

Steve: I think maybe it's good to kind of go back in time a little bit to post World War II, Japan, back when the country was recovering from the devastation of what war brings. There was a group of folks working at a small, little automotive manufacturer that you might have heard of, called Toyota.

And they had a few individuals that worked there that really were prolific in how they thought about manufacturing, and one of the methodologies that they developed was what we now know as 5S. So 5S is not really a fancy kind of acronym, it's really just all the words start with the letter S, and so that's kind of where it came from.

And it's really been the backbone in the manufacturing world for a long time. And probably sometime in the 1980s is when it really started kind of spreading globally. So maybe it will be helpful to talk through like the traditional order of how 5S has been taught in the Western world. So it starts with the first S.

And for the sake of our listeners, maybe I'll break out both of the English and the Japanese at the same time. So the first one is Sort or Seiri, the second is Set in Order, or Seiton. Then you have Shine, which is Seiso, and then you have Standardise, Seiketsu, and then finally Sustain, which is Shitsuke.

So it's not an overly fancy or complicated kind of methodology. It's really about how to organize your workplace in a way that makes sense and really helps your workplace become just easier on the people.

I think the traditional way that it's been taught in the West, and how I was originally taught, too, is this idea of, well, you just go through this in order. It's just like a step-by-step, linear kind of path; we just start with sorting, and then we finish with sustain.

And I think the thing that's challenging about that is it doesn't really take into account how life actually happens in the workplace—it kind of makes you feel like, oh, there's this pressure to get to the end, where it's like this kind of project, kind of thinking.

I think that's traditionally how I was taught, and how a lot of people think about it. So I think that's kind of like a great introduction to traditionally what it's been known as.

Standardisation Fuels Continuous Improvement

Steve shares how he was inspired by Taiichi Ohno's insights and Masaaki Imai's book on Kaizen to understand the crucial role of standardisation in driving improvement. This inspiration prompted him to delve into why standardisation often appears only in the fourth phase of 5S, as he explores its foundational power in continuous improvement.

Standardisation as a fundamental principle

Nick: In your book, you offer an alternative, almost a cyclical approach. So what is your approach that you discuss in your book?

Steve: So you know, in my experience of teaching and mentoring this methodology in my career over the last two decades, it’s kind of what I alluded to, you learn that things rarely go the way you thought they were going to go.

I've watched a lot of teams struggle with the first two phases of that traditional approach of sorting and setting things in order, and for a long time, I couldn't really figure out why, and it bothered me that it was such a struggle. And it dawned on me, a few years ago, I was reading a quote from Taiichi Ohno, which is one of the founders of the Toyota Production System.

And he said: ‘Without standards, there can be no improvement.’ And around the same time, I picked up a copy of Masaaki Imai’s book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success. And in that book, he talks a lot about the connection between the improvement cycle, which is the Plan-Do-Check-Act or action, and the standardisation cycle, which is the Standardize-Do-Check-Action, also known as your daily routine.

So the way those two things interact with each other, you have this daily, day-to-day grind, basically, if you will, like, this is the work that we do on a day-to-day basis, and then periodically, be like, we actually need to make some changes and improve how we're doing this day-to-day. So that's how those two things interact with each other.

And you know, I started having this realization that there was an awful lot of conversation around standardisation as really a foundation for improvement. And then I started asking the question, why is it that we wait until the fourth phase of 5S to talk about standards? And it kind of got me going down this road of investigating and digging into a little bit more of the context.

Kanji is a really fascinating thing to me, and you and I have talked about this a lot in the past, this conversation we've had where it's just so much meaning can be found in just a few strokes of a brush, and that I find very fascinating.

And I'm also an avid learner, so I started digging into those kanji symbols that make up those 5S. And I think it's important to understand the original context of what things mean before you start applying it to yourself. And so I started digging into those and realized that there were some things I think that were missing along the way in that interpretation.

Advantages of the Revised 5S Approach

Steve explains the benefits of adopting a cyclical approach to the 5S model, focusing on continuous improvement rather than a one-time, perfection-driven mindset. This method aligns with the Kaizen philosophy and the SDCA (Standardize-Do-Check-Act) cycle, where establishing standards is key to effective execution and ongoing refinement.

A focus on continuous improvement

Nick: What is the benefit of this new approach you've formulated?

Steve: From my perspective, if you think about this more in a cyclical approach, as opposed to a linear, you know, project kind of style thinking, it takes a lot of pressure off of people, because then it becomes this, ‘oh, okay, so this is just what we're doing’, and our mindset is if we think about how we could potentially improve upon this in the future, rather than saying we have to get this perfect and we have to get this right the first time, that puts a lot of pressure on people.

So I think that's one thing that this different approach, I think offers. It's very much like the idea of kaizen, which you were just talking about, this idea of continually wanting to improve upon where you are and where you're going, whether that's in your personal life or in your business life. I think it's important to recognize that we're not static beings—we don't exist in this perfect equilibrium, we're constantly changing and constantly evolving.

And it also ties into the SDCA cycle very well. So this idea of standardization that feeds into the doing, or the spotless piece of keeping something clean. And also then transitioning into the checking piece, which is the sorting, setting things in order, and then you have your action step, which is the self-discipline.

And the thing that really occurred to me in writing this, too, was, how could you possibly sort and set something in order if you don't know what the standard needs to be?

Nick: Yeah, there needs to be a benchmark.

Steve: And further than that, why would you sort and set an order something that isn't clean? I mean, you wouldn't put your dirty dishes into the cupboards and then take them out and clean them afterwards, right? I mean, that seems kind of weird.

Nick: Well, you never know; with my washing, my my wife might tell me that's what I do. Anyway, I totally agree that's a good metaphor, why would you put something away that's dirty.

Steve: Right. And to me, it makes more sense to think about this from the context of, okay, let's set a standard, and then let's make sure that things are starting out in this clean fashion, and then we'll figure out how to sort and set things in order, and then we build that self-discipline to reflect and think about, is there any room for improvement?

And if there is, do we need to go back and adjust our standard? And then, continually just going back and over and over again through that cycle.

Any Business Can Benefit from the 5S Methodology

Steve explains how the 5S methodology can benefit any business, regardless of size or industry. He highlights the importance of establishing clear standards to drive effective improvement.

The 5S approach is universally applicable

Nick: So with this 5S approach, do you think I could apply it to my business? So you know what I do, I have a team of two myself. So what do you think?

Steve: Absolutely, I think any, any size business, and honestly, any type of business, could benefit from this kind of methodology and approach, because when you think about in your particular context, so you have a very virtual presence.

Like, everything is pretty much done electronically. Where are you storing all that electronic matters, it's all being stored in the cloud. Well, if you think about how you store things in the cloud, just like thinking about the podcast as one facet of the business that you have, you certainly wouldn't want to just have a dumping ground where you just put things without any kind of way to know what's what, because it would take you a really long time to find it if you had to go search for it.

Also, it may not be just aesthetically pleasing to just have things just all over the place. So if you think about setting that standard of, and taking the podcast episode as an example, you would have a standard for this is how we find a guest, this is how we do the recording, and this is how we do the mastering afterward, and so on and so on.

There are so many different facets to it that do apply no matter what context you find yourself in, whether it's virtual or physical. And I actually talk about that in the book, too, and I try to break it down in a way that no matter what type of business you find yourself in, whether that's a coffee shop or a bakery or a virtual presence, or manufacturing—doesn't matter, like these concepts are universal, and they apply to pretty much across the board.

Stop Wasting Time! 7 Types of Muda You Must Avoid

Steve dives into the concept of Muda (waste) in business, exploring how unnecessary actions or obstacles can hinder productivity and reduce value. Muda refers to anything that prevents you from efficiently completing tasks your customer is willing to pay for—whether it's time wasted, clutter blocking your workspace, or inefficient processes.

An obstacle to productivity

Nick: A word of which your book reminded me of, which is the Japanese word muda. So what is muda?

Steve: Yeah, so if you think about like a definition, could think about it in terms of, like, uselessness or pointless. Often in the business context, it's referred to as waste—these things that are not necessary, no matter what those happen to be, whether it's adding more time to accomplish a task, whether it's like physically having to move around things to get somewhere.

You can think about it in this context; imagine you need to get to your desk in your office, and you have all these boxes in the way, and so you either have to walk around them, crawl over top of them, or move them just to be able to get to your desk—well, that's just an example of waste, an example of muda.

It's basically preventing you from being able to accomplish, really, what is necessary, that you the customer is willing to pay you for.

Nick: Yeah, this was helpful, because I always associate the word just to waste, but it I learned from your book that it's obviously something that impedes process.

Steve: Yeah, exactly.

Nick: It's a waste of time and energy. So that's something to think about: how are you creating muda? And going back to file management, that does get to a point where I've got to stop and organize and delete files and find their appropriate places, and that can take a long time to solve.

Steve: Yeah. And, you know, there are really seven different types of muda, traditionally. There's a bunch of different schools of thought on how many there actually are. But I'm more of a purist, I guess, so I'm stuck on the seven.

But there's this idea, and it forms an acronym, so if you want to think about a way to remember it, the individual's name is TIM WOOD—so you have Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, and Defects.

So any time you have any form of muda in your process that falls into one of those seven categories, is really taking away from you being able to produce what your customer really wants, and typically not something your customer is willing to pay you for. They're not willing to pay for your defects, right?

I mean, let's be honest, nobody likes things that are broken or quality defect. And I unpack muda a little bit in my book as well, for those that want to dig in a little bit more on that.

For the full podcast episode, go to: Lessons from the Samurai with Steve Beauchamp