ABSTRACT
The first problem in what we call improvement is to get a grip on the status quo. The most magnificent improvement scheme in the world will be worthless if your perception of the current situation is in error. We have a tendency to think that fictitious “facts” are real. I mean by this that either we do not try to grasp the real facts and simply hypothesize facts using guesswork, or we inadvertently ignore changes over time and assume that things are the same as they used to be — we ignore changes that occur over time. Too frequently, such mistakes lead us to confuse fictitious facts and real ones.
