It is unfair to accuse people of insanity when they haven’t been given the time to observe their work, breakdown the methods into its components, identify the variables and set standards. It is very difficult to account for all variables and do things exactly same way over and over again. What we think of as “doing the same thing” only accounts for the human factor. Unless we seek out and stabilize these change points, we should expect that doing the same thing over and over will at some point deliver different results. But even when we reliably perform the same process over and over, variation in the information, materials, environmental conditions and other change points can create different results. A lean thinking axiom is that a good process will bring good results. On the other hand, over time as we do the same thing over and over, entropy will set in and results will suffer. Repetition can lead to mastery if for no other reason that we become able to do the same thing with less mental effort, less hesitation and fewer errors. Even if we follow the same method, our muscles, our minds and the nervous system that connects them gets better at executing those instructions. As we do something over and over again the same way, we practice, learn, and improve. Crazy or not, we need to change how we think and behave if we want to make a lasting change in the results we achieve.Įven if doing the same thing over and over again is delivering good results for us, it is not totally unreasonable to expect that results will be different after further repetitions. Are your current methods getting you the results you want? Then why not try something different? No? Are you crazy? Instead of this dialogue, we put this definition on the screen and let the audience come to the conclusion that they are insane on their own. Do you want better results? Of course you do. In lean and other change management contexts this definition of insanity is often used as an argument in favor of doing things differently.
Einstein, known to have a sense of humor, may have appreciated the irony. People repeat this definition of insanity over and over, as if expecting this will make people more rational. This definition seems too narrow for the broad range of things covered by insanity, for a man of Einstein’s intelligence. Albert Einstein is often credited with observing that insanity is doing the same thing over and over a again and expecting different results. Insanity is thinking or behavior that is unreasonable or irrational.