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'All This Talk About Improvement — Does It Mean We're Slow?'

Imamura here. There was a period at vertical farms when the word “improvement” carried a slightly ominous ring on the floor.

The One Sentence That Stopped Me

“All this talk about improvement — does it mean we’re slow?”

A floor worker said that to me in the work area of a vertical farm, under the blue-white glow of the LEDs. Her face was serious. No hint of a joke. I stopped what I was doing and spent a few seconds looking for the right words.

Improvement. Efficiency. Speed up work. Cut labor costs.

Maybe those words are right in themselves. But on the floor, they can land as “move faster” and “process more.” At many vertical farms, while the CEO keeps chanting “Boost profitability!” like a mantra, the support resources don’t grow — only the quotas imposed on floor workers do.

Watching the words “Speed up work” and “Cut labor costs” written on the whiteboard, it starts to feel like the pressure is growing faster than the lettuce. This sounds like a joke, but on the floor it isn’t very funny.

The Resistance to “Improvement”

At one morning briefing, a manager announced with evident enthusiasm: “Starting this week, we’re stepping up our improvement activities.”

In that instant, the expressions on the floor workers’ faces went flat. The small talk that had been going on a moment before stopped, and the only sound that came through clearly was the rustle of gloves under the LEDs. I understood immediately: this wasn’t welcome.

It wasn’t distrust of improvement activities exactly — more a reflexive rejection of the word itself. Understandably. The “improvement” activities that facility had run up to that point had consistently meant, from the floor’s perspective, “work harder.”

Improvement activities are supposed to reduce the burden on floor workers. To create an environment where people can work with less effort, more efficiently, and above all more safely. And yet somehow that core intent rarely reaches the floor.

At a facility I worked at, improvement proposals always had columns for “Purpose,” “Effect,” and “Benefits.” But most of what got written there was aimed at upper management. For the people on the floor, the question “But what’s in it for us?” went unanswered.

What Was Actually Needed: Dialogue

One day, I asked a veteran floor worker directly.

“Why are you unenthusiastic about improvement activities?”

The answer surprised me a little.

“It’s not that I dislike improvement itself. But just being told from above to ‘do improvement activities’ — that doesn’t motivate me. If you listen to what we have to say and think it through together, I’ll cooperate.”

I see, I thought. What they wanted wasn’t a top-down directive. It was dialogue.

Looking back, I realize I’d been leaning too heavily on “improvement” as a convenient word. Even if you mean well, if the people on the receiving end can’t see what’s in it for them, it’s just additional work. Work that lands on an already busy floor. No wonder the faces went flat.

Bring the Numbers and the Benefits

The following week, I made up my mind and walked into the morning briefing with a chart visualizing floor data.

“This improvement will speed up work by 30% and reduce overtime by 10 hours a month. Annually, that’s ◯◯ yen in savings. I’ve already submitted a proposal to management to put part of those annual savings toward worker bonuses.”

While I was saying it, my hands were sweating slightly. If this doesn’t land, we’ll be back to “management doing whatever it wants and calling it improvement.” Numbers. Overtime. Bonuses. Get through to them. That’s what I was thinking.

The reaction on the floor shifted. Someone even said: “In that case, I’ll cooperate.” It wasn’t that improvement itself was disliked. They just hadn’t been able to see what it was for, or what they’d get back from it.

Improvement isn’t something you do once and finish. Just as plants grow day by day, improvement activities only deliver results when sustained. And just as important is continuing the dialogue with the floor.

“How did the improvement we just implemented actually go?”

“What if we tried it a different way?”

Continuing to pick up those voices is what raises the quality of improvement over time.

Improvement activities only deliver their real effect when management and floor workers move forward together. From my experience, “listening to the floor and walking forward together” is the single most important thing that makes improvement succeed.

Like the plants growing under LED light, the people on the floor — given the right environment — will think for themselves, take action, and deliver real results. Skip that step, and what grows isn’t lettuce. It’s distrust.