Decide as late as possible

I could understand eliminate waste. I could understand focus on learning. Well, I think I could understand the concept of Lean, described by wonderful Mary and Tom Poppendieck (www.poppendieck.com). Well, except decide as late as possible. Being the eager beaver I am I read the rule. And read it again. I saw all the undeciding, slow persons who gives me goose bumps. Is THAT the way to go? Man. Alternatives: try to explore what the mean or ignore the rule. Of course I ignored it. Well, so I thought. Until today.

I'm a planner. When I'm going on a trip you can be certain my bags are packed a couple of days in advance. And when the pals get blisters they know who brought plaster. On one ski trip with a previous work, four girls wore some of my things in one single day. I thought this was quite the opposite of decide as late as possible. But when we today discussed the last things for our work camp (work our asses off for three days/nights) I understood that what I was doing was planning, not making plans. What? Now she's gone bananas. Well, there is a big difference. Many of my girly friends makes plans för their giving birth. They decide on which medication, positions, music, etc etc etc. What happens? Well, there is a baby in the equation. And there is a physical mommy's body. They were never included in the discussions. So, when they gets involved (I believe it's called labour) things NEVER go in accordance to the plan. So, the mothers are disappointed. In the mommy group I was grouped into after my son was born, 60% felt that the birth was a failure. Did they have sick babies? Did they get sick themselves? No, but it didn't happen as they had imagine.

This is what happens when you make plans. Instead, what I do is involve myself in planning. I think about things I might need, what I could have difficulty getting, what is nice. And so on. So what do I do: I think about the different choices I might have and try to have everything that enables me to make the choice when it present itself. So I can decide as late as possible. Wonderful.