1. Winning Serena Software’s Help Desk Haiku contest… …with continuous improvement or “kaizen” thinking.

2. What is Kaizen? A Japanese word meaning “change for the better” Concept originated with Toyota Production System (Continuous improvement)

3. Challenged myself to use Kaizen thinking to improve haiku writing process to win. Enter the "Help Desk Haiku" Contest for a chance to win an iPad2!

4. Idea #1: Read the rules (Constraint discovery in haiku process) a. 5,7,5 syllables b. #helpdeskhaiku c. No duplicate tweets d. Creative, humorous, original help desk experiences

5. Idea #2: Manual syllable counting with fingers Endless ringing line Fax machine with wrong number Praying it will stop

6. Idea #3: Record haikus in document to prevent duplicate entries Convent Help Desk call Nun spills drink onto PC Water into “whine”.

7. Idea #4: Add movie themes Gollum on the line Old Tolkien ring network hung “Lost my precious” file Feels like Star Wars Desk “not the ‘droid you’re looking for” Get an iphone Luke!

8. Idea #5: Haiku Syllable checking Haiku below broke rule-improved quality using online syllable checker Doc screams “saving lives!” “Need my password changed right now!” Calls from funeral home

9. Idea #6: Predictive analytics (Can I measure haiku quality somehow?) Discovered Serena VP re-tweeting my haikus! Followed on Twitter

10. Idea #7: Last haiku tweeted, top of document Reduced motion waste Starbucks strikes again Laptop takes coffee bath needs Decaffeination

11. Idea #8: Build haikus in online syllable checker first Help Desk Queue is full tickets backing up…We need support laxative

12. Idea #9: Reality show themes It’s Help Desk Hustle callers “bump and grind” us We’re Dancing with the Scars!

13. Idea #10: Visit Serena booth at Fusion11 to see what I could learn. Realized I wasn’t following @Serena_Software as specified in the rules! If you continually improve, you will fix major quality problems you miss at first.

14. Idea #11: Start with the last line of the haiku & work backwards: “Raiders of the lost Ark” Calling Doctor Jones Agent saves pix file from purge Raiders of lost art

15. My winning entry: Help Desk horror flick: rogue tech kills main router in, “Silence of the LANS”

16. Final Thought: Anything you do is a process that can be improved. Think Kaizen. Dan Lafever, Copyright 2011 Twitter @Kaizeneer Email: dan.lafever@att.net