On my way back from vacation, I watched the movie “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” for a second time. I first watched it in 2012 before my first study trip to Japan. You can watch the movie for free if you’re an Amazon Prime member, by the way. The film focuses mainly on Jiro Ono, a now 90-year old sushi chef in Tokyo who has received the rare and coveted Michelin 3-star rating for his restaurant. As you can read in the transcript of the film [Jiro] is always looking ahead. He’s never satisfied with his work. He’s always trying to find ways to make the sushi better, or to improve his skills.Even now, that’s what he thinks about all day, every day. That reminds me of Lean thinking, especially the drive for Kaizen, or continuous improvement. As Jiro says, there’s always room for improvement: I admire how somebody like Jiro can do the same thing, follow the same routine, every day for decades, trying to perfect his craft. Later in the film, we also see Fujita, a tuna dealer, who talks about the need for continuous improvement and the self-reflection that’s necessary.

Even at my age, I’m discovering new techniques. But just when you think you know it all, you realize that you’re just fooling yourself… and then you get depressed. Do you ever feel that way? It reminds me of the “Dunning-Kruger effect” where beginners in a field overestimate their knowledge and ability. I see this a lot with Lean or “Lean Sigma.” As they say, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will: fail to recognize their own lack of skill fail to recognize the extent of their inadequacy fail to accurately gauge skill in others recognize and acknowledge their own lack of skill only after they are exposed to training for that skill Then, as you learn more, you realize how much you don’t know. This can lead to the “imposter syndrome.” “Psychological research done in the early 1980s estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds and other studies have found that 70 percent of all people feel like impostors at one time or another.”

Interesting thoughts for the practice of Lean and Kaizen, eh?I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please scroll down to post a comment. Click here to receive posts via email. Learn more about Mark Graban’s speaking, writing, and consulting. President Obama kicked off the first leg of his tour of Asia on Wednesday with some sushi diplomacy. He dined with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a revered and tiny temple of sushi in Tokyo called Sukiyabashi Jiro. The subterranean restaurant, with just 10 seats at the counter, was made famous by the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Obama emerged with a thumbs-up review. "That's some good sushi right there," he said. Thank you so much." 'Jiro Dreams Of Sushi': Perfection, Carefully Sliced If you've ever seen the documentary, you know why: The sushi Obama had was carefully crafted by 89-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono. "His sushi is the best in the world," says David Gelb, who directed the film. "For someone who has a taste for true, pure Japanese sushi, I mean it's a place you kind of have to go to."

But for the many of us who haven't been lucky enough to grab one those 10 prized seats, Gelb joined All Things Considered's Melissa Block to talk about what it's like to dine at such an iconic place. sushi cat 3 armorFor starters, the restaurant is hidden in the basement of an office building and offers only one item on its menu — the omakase course, which can cost between $300 and $400 per person. sushi miami beach 33141It consists of 20 pieces of sushi, prepared and served one at a time. sushi san francisco okoze"There are no appetizers, no rolls of any kind," Gelb says. where to buy sushi rice in abu dhabi

"It's purely his style of sushi, which is kind of the classic Tokyo style, which is basically just fish and rice and seasoning, maybe a soy sauce or a nikiri, which is a kind of sweetened soy sauce." where can i buy sand eelsAnd if you're fortunate enough to be one of Ono's costumers, don't even think about ordering off the menu — even if you are the president of the United States. aki sushi order online"The Jiro that I know would not change his sushi for anyone," Gelb says, adding that "he just gives you what he feels is the best of the day." sushi in toronto yelpAnd Ono really means the best. Every day, for instance, he massages the octopus he's planning to serve for an hour. "The octopuses that he gets are trolling the seafloor, eating clams and other delicious shellfish," Gelb says.

"And so he's getting the octopus that has the best diet, and then he massages it — or has his apprentices massage it, because he's getting on in the years — to bring out the best flavors." That's because to Ono, making sushi is more than just a job; it's an art form, an obsession, even. In the film, he tells Gelb that he'd wake up in the middle of the night, and in dreams would have visions of sushi. "His philosophy of work, where it's about finding a routine and mastering that craft, it applies to any kind of art," he adds. So you can imagine, eating in front of such a meticulous artist can get a bit intimidating. "The first time that I ate there, I was very nervous," Gelb tells Block. "I mean the man is a living legend, and he watches, and he observes the customers very closely, and so it can be a nerve-wracking experience." But, he says, the sushi is so good that the tension melts away. "The restaurant is very quiet," Gelb adds. "There's no music or anything. "There's just the sound of the fountain, and you kind of got into this sushi trance, and it's quite an amazing experience."