Kaizen
Posted: March 23rd, 2009 | Author: Travis Hill @ RightThought.net | Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »Kaizen (Japanese for “improvement”, or more literally, “good change”).
Kaizen is the idea that of making small, incremental improvements. This is done to for many reasons, but mostly to prevent the large swings in progress and withdrawing that so many of us are accustomed to. Kaizen was implemented as a workforce productivity tool to help workers keep a consistent pace in the forward movement of a company. However, this concept has been carried over into personal development as well. The method has been used by Toyota, Anthony Robbins, and Six Sigma.
This idea keeps us focused, balanced, and in control of our emotions, as it prevents us from becoming to excited about progress or sad/angry over drawbacks. It prevents us from rushing into things and taking a more rational, non-attached look at problems in order to gain better perspective.
*in order to keep the idea of kaizen in my mind, I have a personal journal with the japanese kanji for kaizen on the front
Can you recommend how to begin to implement Kaizen in everyday work and life?
The first thing that came to mind to implement it is, throw multitasking out the window. Slow down and focus on tasks at hand to make sure they go well. This makes sure that the task/goal actually gets you to improvement.
However, I would recommend attacking your goals with the 80/20 Principle to figure out which goals/tasks actually CAN move you forward rather than just taking up time. Easier to focus and take things slowly when you don’t have as much on the table.
80/20? I’m not familiar with that. Can you explain?
Christine,
The 80/20 Principle (or the Pareto Principle) is one that says 80% of our results come from only 20% of our output. It’s not exactly 80/20, but the idea is that most of our results, successes, etc. come from only a small percent of what we actually do. Using the 80/20 idea allows us to look at our goals and determine what the best 20% of actions would be so that we can get the best results. By “trimming the fat”, we can get our desired results of what we want with minimal, streamlined output.
I would highly recommend The Four Hour Workweek as Tim Ferriss does a great job of giving personal examples of how to apply this rule.
Thank you. That is an intriguing concept and one with which I was not familiar. Likely, it is much easier said that done. My guess is that if one can accompish the 80/20 Principle life can be richer, more rewarding, and more manageable. I would love to be able to accpomish that! I will certainly look for the book.
Такова жизнь. Ничего не поделаешь….
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