Team Unity – the Tightrope Walk for Corporate Culture

The quickest way to feel out of place in Japan is to stand along the right-hand side of a moving escalator. It is a mistake that, if you make it, will last only as long as you enjoy the feeling of strangers directing sidelong looks of disapproval at you. That’s because in Japan, the accepted way to board an escalator is by standing as far to the left as possible, leaving a clear path along the right for anyone who needs to make haste.

At an individual level, this is a small token of social courtesy. But taken at scale it is a phenomenon to behold, distinctive enough to leave an impression this past fall when I visited the Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF), one of the largest, busiest manufacturing technology shows in the world. At JIMTOF and around Tokyo, everyone toes the line on this unwritten rule, which reflects the country’s cultural and historical (but increasingly debatable) identity as a collectivist society.

The practice recalls another concept with which readers of Modern Machine Shop are probably familiar. Kaizen — broadly interpreted as “change for the better” — also requires buy-in from all stakeholders to be effective. Kaizen is equal parts philosophy and actionable plan, and the practice can serve as a model for lean manufacturing. At its core is the notion of team unity, the sine qua non of kaizen, which demands that employees at all levels of a company have agency in the decision-making process.

But let’s pause quickly here for a reality check: While kaizen is a familiar practice to some industries in the U.S., it has not been widely adopted by corporate America at large. The staff of Modern Machine Shop does not practice it. Not intentionally. And if this magazine’s entire staff attempted to ride an escalator at the same time, we’d scatter across every lateral inch of the thing, etiquette be damned.

It makes you wonder: Would our lack of etiquette in this example, our display of individualistic behavior, suggest we are less effective as a team? Would it mean that we are less caring or thoughtful toward our friends and colleagues?

Of course not.

Any of us may bend toward kaizen’s principles naturally in our work lives. We may feel aligned to a common cause with our colleagues and be receptive to divergent points of view. It would be extremely rare, though, to work with an entire team who feels aligned in these ways.

I am dedicating the first installment of this column, “The Setup,” to my friends and colleagues — to the team that creates the magazine you’re holding or the website you’re reading. In the 20-plus years I’ve spent in journalism and publishing, I have never worked with a team as unified toward a common cause as today’s Modern Machine Shop editors — a group dedicated to the mission of informing and reflecting the metalworking and machining industry across the United States and beyond. It is a mission that has endured with this publication for nearly a century.

In this issue you’ll find contributions from each of Modern Machine Shop’s staff writing editors — Julia Hider, Evan Doran, Nate Fields and Eli Plaskett — who in some cases traveled across the country to write about topics ranging from precision grinding to Swiss-type machining, measurement and inspection, cutting tools and shop management software. Behind the scenes, Managing Editor Chris Pasion is our conductor, our information engineer whose work touches every section of the magazine — all in addition to being an ace photographer whose images have already graced our covers.

Finally, Modern Machine Shop’s bullpen of columnists has never been stronger, from our newest writer John Miller to industry veterans such as Mike Lynch and George Schuetz, as well as our own Peter Zelinski, whose column “The Z Axis” thankfully isn’t going anywhere, despite his changing role with the magazine. (Which, appropriately enough, you can read about in this month’s installment of his column.)

Looking ahead, I invite you to help Modern Machine Shop improve by sharing your voice and ideas. Do you know about a shop that is innovating and outpacing the competition? Do you have a story idea? A suggestion? Compliments or a bone to pick? Please reach out. Because the real legacy of Modern Machine Shop is and always has been the machinists, the shop floor supervisors, the GMs, the engineers and the shop owners driving our industry and our country forward. In other words, it is you.