Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that focuses on gradually improving productivity and making the work environment more efficient. It is a business philosophy. It supports changing from one employee to the next at any time. Kaizen focuses on small changes and can involve quality control, on-time delivery, standardized work, the use of efficient equipment, the elimination of waste, and anything else aimed to improve. The main idea of implementing the Kaizen methodology into the workplace is that small changes now can have big future impacts. Kaizen translates specifically to change for the better or continuous improvement. In our lives, we do not need to use the Kaizen methodology in the business world. We can apply it every day with anything we do.

Kaizen is a mantra we can instill into our minds. It is one word, two syllables. Easy to remember and easy to adopt. With any passion, goal, or pursuit we are chasing, using Kaizen as our bedrock helps us refocus and keep pushing. On days and weeks when we feel lost and where we feel our work is doing nothing, thinking of the principles of Kaizen help to center our mindsets. We realize that we are not wasting our time. We are not failing to improve. We are steadily making small improvements in the now that will pay off in the future.

Adopting the Kaizen methodology in our lives helps to change our personal identities. We become people that think in long-term time horizons while also focusing on finding small, niche, ways to improve in the now. Kaizen gives us peace with the idea that we have to chip away consistently to realize benefits in the long run. We are no longer people who expect greatness tomorrow. We become people that do not expect greatness. We become people who realize greatness is not to be expected, but to be uncovered and discovered through constant iterations and rebuilds.

The spirit of Kaizen is in all of us. It is a practice that needs to be honed and practiced until it is how we see life. There will not be an instant change when adopting Kaizen. But after a month, after 6 months, when looking back at the person you once were, you will hardly recognize the mindset they had. The new you is different. Finding and adopting Kaizen is a journey we must aim to begin. By becoming one with the philosophy of Kaizen we become one with the idea of improvement. Kaizen. Continuous improvement.