This training room has hidden errors — can you spot it?

At first glance, the training room in the illustration below looks perfectly arranged — tables neatly aligned, podium ready for action, white screen positioned for visibility and of course, the sacred coffee-and-snacks station parked near the entrance like a magnet for the sleepy heads.

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You can’t see the projector? That's not an issue. Imagine it’s attached to the ceiling.Any manager and training facilitator would look at this layout and conclude: “All good. Nothing to improve.” Are you sure? Several months ago, I shared a version of this quiz with top management of Lyceum of the Philippines University during their strategic planning session.

It was a discussion starter for my presentation on Lean Education — the application of Kaizen for the academic sector. The idea was not limited to admiring a training room or a classroom that looks organized. It’s about sharpening the eye to spot inefficiencies hiding in plain sight. It challenges us to ask: Is the flow effortless? Is movement minimal? Is there anything we can improve without spending big money? This is where Kaizen outshines the typical “good enough” mindset.

Seeing the invisible

Consider the podium’s position. Is that the best location? The ideal setup is to place it at the audience’s left so the presenter stands on the audience’s left side of the screen which is called stage right in theater terms.

In cultures that read from left to right, the audience’s attention naturally starts with the presenter on the left and then moves to the visuals on the right. This creates a natural flow where the audience look at the presenter first.

Kaizen philosophy teaches that improvement is not about acquiring expensive tools or launching grand renovations.

It simply requires rearranging what you already have in a smarter way.