Kaizen: From being Good to Best

Kaizen: From being Good to Best

Percy Jal Engineer
Percy Jal Engineer
    Kaizen: From being Good to Best     Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy centered on continual self-improvement by making small, consistent progress. The word Kaizen in Japanese translates to “change for good”.  Instead of complex changes, Kaizen focuses on small gains through small positive changes over time. With patience, perseverance and persistence in areas of our daily, weekly, and monthly processes can lead to significant improvements.  This blog explains the core principles of Kaizen and how it leads to beneficial change in our personal and professional life. Adapting the Kaizen mindset can help us enhance our finances, relationships, career, and more.

Applying Kaizen to our Areas of Life

The best part of this methodology is applying continuous improvement to all walks of life – work, home, health and more. Start by working on areas where we want positive change and growth by following habits that incrementally boost each area of your wants and desires.

Not Perfection but Consistent Progress: 

With Kaizen, we focus on constant improvement through better habits built incrementally over time. Kaizen principle is about sustaining progress through gradual improvements. Kaizen takes regular progress through minor changes and not making many sweeping changes at once. For instance, going on KETO diet losing 10 Kg may work short-term but can lead to unwarranted side effects on our health. With Kaizen, we would replace with proper healthy diet in consultation with dietician and lose weight steadily through proper diet control options to meet and suit our physiology. Kaizen looks at celebrating small gains to stay motivated when change feels slow.

What gets Measured gets Managed

Make sure to track improvements, and make them transparent. Establish metrics & targets by setting a benchmarks. Select your KPI’s and target thresholds. Watch out the progress that helps build momentum to better positive gains. In today’s digital world there are Apps to log activities like exercise and spending for easy tracking. Draw simple charts to quantify improvements over time. Numbers and graphs make understanding of progress clear. Review metrics vs. targets regularly to assess results and being on track. “Figures on the most important areas of management are unknown or unknowable” –   Monitoring performance will motivate us to meet our goals and objectives faster and sustainable. There will always be deviations and if not meeting the benchmark the methodology provides room for improvements. However, it is important to evaluate and measure the performance achieved against intended results timely and periodically. For example, the Sales Consultant wants to achieve higher target levels. They sets a goal to attain the level 100% first for three to four months and track the consistency of achievements. Achieving threshold consistently will boost the morale and self-belief.  After six months, when they review their sales progress and lead to over achieve more than  100% month-on-month that’s called excellence. This new results will motivate them to increase their monthly benchmark to larger targets and lead to promotion or making more money as incentives.

Monitor Progress

Plan to monitor regularly and learn from opportunities and experiences. Assessing our target threshold limits and determine to seek what made it possible and where changes can be beneficial for improvements. Keep continuous review for changes to any areas of improvements. Monitoring and controlling this new habits leads to being better. Patience and having intent to achieve the goals and objects is the key. Resist deviation or giving up at short notice.. Kaizen is an endless journey of gradual advancement, not a one-time tactic to achieve results. The Japanese Kaizen philosophy displays that small change happens gradually through small positive steps over a period of time. Evaluating & measuring quantifiable metrics to monitor improvements will lead to sustain results and healthy mindset.  Be aware of the unconscious surrounding and deliberate on results achieved. Embracing Kaizen will provide a strong roadmap for continuous improvement through small, repeated practices over time. Kaizen helps compound minor gains into experiential significant results. Embracing the mindset of lifelong improvement through steady progress can help you achieve ambitious goals and live a flourishing life.

Conclusion

The Japanese philosophy of Kaizen is to start with small enhancements to your daily habits. Monitor and evaluate your progress to have a leg-up on completion by aligning your efforts with the most impactful growth opportunities.  Stay alert to capture the growth opportunities and progress thru incremental advancement step-by-step. Embracing this methodology will lead you to a lifelong mindset for improvement through steady progress helping you achieve ambitious goals and live a happy life. 
Copyright © 2023 Percy Jal Engineer | for Blue Ocean Corporation | blog
 
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