Parents and teachers support children who work hard. It has been found that the way this support is given can improve or reduce a child’s abilities. Psychologists at Columbia University in the United States are conducting an experiment on this support, specifically “praise.” The experiment begins with 400 fifth-grade children at a public elementary school taking a low-difficulty test. Regardless of their scores, the children are told that they got 80 points or more. The children are then randomly divided into three groups. One group was praised for their abilities, saying that they were “smart.” The other group was praised for their efforts, saying that they “tried hard.” The third group was not praised at all. The results were unexpected. The group that was praised for their abilities gradually began to avoid difficult studies, and their grades subsequently declined. The group that was praised for their efforts took on even more difficult studies and improved their grades. It turns out that the way you praise can affect a child’s motivation and results later on. This experiment showed that praising in the wrong way can actually be harmful.
The idea that praising a child will make them more positive and grow steadily seems too simple. If praising is the only good thing, then failure is acceptable as a challenge. But if you praise everything, the child will not be able to analyze the problem of failure. Because they are praised even when they fail, they cannot analyze the problem, and so they will not be solved or improved. Teachers and adults are required to praise the behavior of “doing it” and the feeling of trying, and to give further advice as necessary. Children who grow up with such advice will be able to turn failure into strength, turn regret into strength, and overcome regret.
Toyota’s Kanban system boasts high productivity. In order to operate this system at a high level, it was created as a result of many people’s repeated failures and ingenuity. If each worker did not have the experience of this accumulated failure and ingenuity as a skill, the Kanban system would not have been possible. This is also evident from the fact that more than half of the companies that have adopted the Kanban method have failed. Because there is no clear-cut solution, it is better to gather ideas from various sources, repeat trial and error, and gradually move towards a solution. Nowadays, trial and error approach is required, that you gradually practice the method that suits you and improve it.
