Ongoing improvement doesn’t just happen… improvement takes the right kind of effort.

Some years back I came across a Japanese word called “Kaizen” which, loosely defined, means “continuous improvement of working practices and personal efficiency”. I liked the word immediately. Besides being able to encapsulate a large meaning into one word (which is productive in itself), the Japanese must have a prior insight into personal efficiency (otherwise why bother to coin the word).

I did a bit of digging, poking and unearthing to see if I could find evidence of the origin of this descriptive word. Turns out, that it’s a combination of two words “Kai” and “Zen”. The former means “change”; the latter means “make better”. The two together literally mean “make a change for the better”.

The Toyota Production System originated this philosophy and turned it into a mindset. This mindset was intended to apply to a large business. To continuously make small incremental steps to improve every day, every employee was required to make 3-5 suggestions to improve processes every month (great idea, wouldn’t you agree?).

In the source article I found they listed 3 rules for employees to help make suggestions. The suggestions should:

1. Add no people

2. Add no space

3. Spend no money.

Pretty tough order to fill. Most of our solutions regularly break at least one of these rules.

Violating any one of the rules adds cost and dissolves the “Kaizen” effect. The underlying message of the rules really means getting more out of your existing resources. Every single day.

We can take this concept and apply it on singular level, down where the rubber meets the road.

I have 5 suggestions.

1. Think about how you’re doing things now. Go so far as to write them out.

2. Pick one thing you feel you would like to improve upon.

3. List 3-5 action ideas you like to test against this norm.

4. Over the next few days implement one change at a time.

5. Review. Did it work?

For example:

1)  I made a shopping list of things I’d like to improve long term.

2)  I settled on writing; more and better.

3)– a.  I determined to write 400-500 words every day (about the length of easily digestible article).

—- b. I copied in longhand some pieces of writing I thought were exceptional. (If you haven’t tried this before let me just say for now… it works!).

—- c.  I started a journal to get better at expressing random thoughts.

—- d.  I set aside one hour of time first thing every morning for writing. That helped a lot. Rather than banking on having some time in the evenings, I had a set time of day to write.

4)  I added these elements one at a time over a short period to build the habit. Don’t add more than one at a time. Remember the idea is… incremental change.

5) The result? I went from years of writing virtually nothing to habitually writing every day and enjoying the whole process. I’ve completed many writing assignments, used my writing skills to improve my marketing materials, and to creating the article your reading now. The best part? It didn’t cost me money, space, or extra people. Yet the skill will prove priceless over time.

Even though I’m still far from an accomplished author I’ll continue to develop my skills daily through use. I set some goals that will force me to stretch further. A book project, video scripting, and writing more content for article directories are on the horizon.

Depending on your circumstances your list will likely be a lot different than mine. Identify an area or habit you’d like to change, improve or adopt. List  some small ideas you implement easily.  Do one at a time and make it habit over a three or four weeks (more on habits in another article).

Challenge yourself and commit to kaizen methodology for long term growth.

Reference source article :http://www.gembutsu.com/newsletters/newsletter8-07/WhatdoesKaizenmean.htm