Kaizen

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
A standing meeting that always runs long	Lets the meeting keep the same shape. People stop preparing because nothing about it ever changes.	Changes one part of the meeting this week, such as the timebox or the order, and watches the next few sessions before changing anything else. Protects the time the meeting is supposed to save.	Redesigns the meeting every few days. The team spends more energy on the ritual than on the work the meeting should unblock.
Handing work to the next person	Passes a messy draft and assumes they will clean it up. The same gaps appear again one step later.	Removes the defects they would not want to inherit, and names the one leftover risk. Leaves the next person real work, not a cleanup they did not plan for.	Polishes every edge before anyone else can see it. The handoff is late, and the next person has no time left to react.
A workaround the team has used for months	Treats the workaround as the real process. Never checks whether a cleaner path is now cheap enough to take.	Keeps the workaround through this week's deadline, then makes a small change that removes one painful step. Does not wait for a full rewrite.	Stops the week's delivery to replace the whole workaround. The original work slips, and the new path is only half built.
Reviewing a teammate's draft	Approves it to stay out of the way. Leaves known gaps for someone later to find.	Flags the few issues that would hurt the reader or the next step, and lets the rest go. Says what the bar is so the next draft starts higher.	Rewrites the draft in their own voice. The author spends the rest of the week on taste, not on the substance that still needs work.
A problem that was fixed and came back	Applies the same patch and moves on. Does not ask why the first fix did not hold.	Restores the immediate path, then spends a short block on the condition that let it return. Leaves a note so the next person does not repeat the shallow fix.	Opens a rewrite of the whole area. The original problem stays open longer, and other work waits on a redesign nobody needed this week.
Picking what to improve this week	Says the team is too busy to change anything. Next week looks exactly like this one.	Chooses one friction the team actually felt and makes a small, reversible change. Guards delivery time so the improvement does not become the project.	Starts several improvement threads at once. Meetings fill with process talk, and the customer-facing work slips.
Showing a new person the current process	Walks them through the current steps as if they are finished. Does not name the rough edges or invite a better way.	Teaches the path that works today and points out one place it still hurts. Asks them to try a small fix only after they can do the job.	Hands the new person a redesign of the process in their first week. They cannot yet do the work, and the old path has no owner.
The day after something ships	Closes the ticket and does not look at what was clumsy in the last mile. The same scramble will happen next time.	Writes down one step that was harder than it needed to be and does a small cleanup while the memory is fresh. Does not reopen the whole release.	Holds a long wash-up and starts a quality program. The next release waits while the team debates standards.