We are all very aware about the need of keep in a constant evolution, in synchrony with the environment.

Change can be challenging and destabilising, however there is no option but to embrace it, as we already told you in Disruption in the time of Cholera.

Therefore, there are many systems helping organizations to get more agile and responsive to changes. We recently told you about the netarchy system; distilled from the collective intelligence principles, netarchy is based on a mutual collaboration and trust, where everybody have the same chances and opportunities to suggest solutions, improvement, and changes.

Always improving

This time, we are going to tell you a bit more about the Kaizen method, also known as Continuous improvement.

It could be summarized with the italian proverb “piano piano si va lontano”. In fact, Kaizen stands for improving by doing tiny, tiny changes but in a very constant way. We could define it as a process to assess, plan, implement and evaluate.

The term Kaizen comes from Japanese (改善), and means “good changes” and it was developed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, invited once by Japanese industrial leaders seeking for the country’s reconstruction after the World War II. Consequently, this philosophy is very associated with the industrial sector, although it can be applied in any aspect of our lives.  

Kaizen (改善) in Japanese means “good changes”

Be Kaizen, my friend

Deming, following his experience in Japan, realized some procedures that would help people to effectively improving:

• Break down barriers between departments
• Promote education and self-improvement
• Set transformation as a common goal
• Supervision is to help people to do a better job

These are just some of the insights he developed, but Kaizen is much more. To summarize it, we can say that it is more convenient to adopt small but constant changes, rather than a major change.

Hence, we won’t look at big changes with fear and sloth (human being is resistant to change by nature to a greater or lesser extent). Small actions, done in a constant way, will represent less of a challenge, and we can embrace them almost in a unconscious way. One day, we will surprise ourselves realizing that we are actually doing the improvement we found impossible some time ago.

Which improvements would you love to see at your company? How would you promote change? Which steps would you propose to your team to obtain your goals? Now you can set all the changes that would make your company amazing (and explain how you would proceed) with Nextinit. Try it for free ;).