Are you familiar with the term “kaizen”? We’ve mentioned it on this blog a few times over the years and it comes up in my work with clients on an almost daily basis. It’s a Japanese word (in which it is written “改善”), with a literal translation of “good change,” or “change for better,” but it is most commonly used to mean continuous improvement; often – though not always – through small, incremental tweaks rather than sweeping change (think evolution, rather than revolution).
One activity I use a lot with clients – ranging from c-suite executives all the way to middle schoolers – illustrates the concept of kaizen well. Inside a circle of rope are a series of numbered pads; the group’s goal is to touch each numbered pad in sequence as quickly as they can (within certain rules and parameters – only one person in the circle at a time, only touching one pad before exiting, etc.) over a series of five rounds. After each round, the group considers how they used their time, and what tweaks they can make to their strategy to improve their time for the next round. Knowing they have five rounds from the very beginning, they create targets for themselves to improve each round. (It’s worth noting that when I have run this same activity without introducing the concept of kaizen and without limiting the number of rounds to five, groups are quick to say they’re satisfied with their time after the second or third round and don’t want to try again.)
Unconsciously, the group’s five rounds often mirror the five phases of 5S methodology commonly associated with kaizen: Sort (seiri, 整理) – in which they discuss their roles and find their numbers; Set in order (seiton, 整頓) – in which they often rearrange the numbers, or themselves; Shine (seisō, 清掃) – in which they remove distractions and simplify; Standardize (seiketsu, 清潔) – in which they settle on their final strategy; and Sustain/self-discipline (shitsuke, 躾) – in which they optimize their agreed upon strategy. While 5S methodology is mostly a workplace organization practice (which we will come back to in a future article), it clearly has a relevance beyond that too.
I recently stumbled upon a new podcast that had surprising things to say about the concept of kaizen, without ever using the term. With the WGA strike now entering its fifth month, five late night talk show hosts – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver – began a podcast together to raise funds for their hundreds-strong staffs affected by the strike. Often viewed as rivals, it was nice to hear that this group had been joining each other on Zoom calls on a regular basis even before the strike (although slightly disheartening to think that no non-white non-male voices were included). On the episode I heard, they reflected on the intense pressure that was put on their talk shows’ respective first episodes, and the realization afterwards that the next day they had to do it all over again. One of them said the hardest moment came not during the first show or even the first week, but the middle of the second week, when it hit them that this was a daily slog that – if they were lucky – they would be doing for years, and maybe even decades, to come. What their first show was like – which was usually messy in an attempt to be revolutionary – became unimportant compared with making small changes to improve future episodes over the course of years. Small tweaks to their intro music, how they sat, their set design, how they prepped guests etc. – the kinds of “Atomic Habits” articulated by James Clear – were the things that led to their ongoing success over time. To put it another way, where they were at any given time was less important than where they were going next.
So how can the idea of kaizen be relevant to your work this week?
This Week’s Tips:
Implement the kaizen approach in collaboration with your team. In the kaizen activity described above, the team works together over a series of iterations. In your work team, suggest a case study: bring forward a task that you work on as a team (or that you work on individually) and together, walk through the process step-by-step. Give everyone space to ask questions about the process, and/or ask them how they might approach the process differently. Perhaps others might have ideas you hadn’t thought of. Over the next week or two, implement their suggestions, and then come back together to share the results. At that point, invite other suggestions (people will invariably have come up with other ideas following the first round), and implement them. You might find you even get into a team routine of addressing one case study from a different person during each meeting.
Try this out this week, and let us know how it goes – we’d love to hear from you. As always, you can subscribe to our feed here, or sign up for our weekly newsletter to get these articles directly in your inbox.
Building Bridges Leadership 