Oh, so that's GCI!

Oh, so they call it Guided Continuous Improvement.

I have had many colleagues and recent Disciplined Agile students comment on my focused commitment to their success. They have said that I “go above and beyond” to make sure their DA journey is the best it can be. Recently one certification candidate wrote, “Thank you so very much for your dedication to our success! I am inspired to follow your example and strive to delight each of my clients the way that you’ve delighted me. You are a shining example of how to live the DA Principles!”

This made me think about why I am this way. What makes me so determined to show up and be there for my DA Students? Why is this my commitment to my way of working?

Here is the story. This all is going back to my dear Mom. She had a passion to teach us that we need to leave things better than we found them. This applied to visiting someone's home as an example. We were to always clean the bathroom and the room in which we stayed - even if it was not clean to start with. Strip the bed of sheets, gather the towels up and take them to the laundry room. Offer to wash them and remake the bed and replace the towels.

Mom liked to address her daughters with "young lady," especially if there was something important to communicate. I can still hear her say, "Young lady, it is your job to leave things better than you found them." And frankly it is a guiding practice that I have applied all my life - though as a child, teen, “young lady” it was a nuisance to me. She also taught and reinforced "if it's to be, it's up to me." She would tell us it does not matter if we feel like it or not, we need to get up, and get going, and do the right things. And by the way, “do the right things until the stars fall.”

In my business - now for 19 years, I have noticed that others simply do not care to, or do not take the time to make sure things are done right or made right along the way. As I reflect back, I have always believed and lived a mindset of always learning and always doing better. This as we now know is indeed Mom's flavor of Guided Continuous Improvement." (She was Kaizen before it was even cool.) It is all part of the phrase I have come to call "Betty's Beliefs."

Thanks Mom for guiding me then and still guiding me now. Hope I am making you proud as I carry on these practices you have forever imbued within me. With much Love from your middle daughter.

PS. Thanks Devin for your inspiration.