Kaizen: How To Build Continuous Improvement Culture?

I was recently contacted by the Kaizen Institute to write an article about Kaizen itself, or to be more precise, how to foster a culture of Kaizen within the organization. In the following blog post I will share my thoughts, along with a few extra details.

There is plenty of material available about Kaizen and Kaizen culture.

If you are a beginner on this journey and would like to find more basic information about Kaizen, I would strongly recommend you the following: 

• Kaizen : The key to Japan's competitive success by Masaaki Imai
• One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
• Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking: The Scientific Thinking Mechanism by Shigeo Shingo
• Toyota Kata by Mike Rother

This article was written based on my personal experience, as well as that which I have identified as critical for creating and improving the working culture within the organization. All of the following is based on my previous experience, where I have witnessed the concrete financial, employees and customer experience benefits.    

Kaizen as an Internal Force

Every improvement is the result of a change. This new desired state is reached either by changing something or someone (including yourself of course). To quote Shiego Shingo (one of the world's leading expert on manufacturing practices and the Toyota Production System): "Improvements usually means doing something that we have never done before."

If you have ever asked yourself about a good way to lose weight, stop smoking cigars or just get rid of any other bad habit, perhaps you want to read this article. ??

I will, naturally, focus more on Kaizen within the organization. This, however, could be used in both areas (personal and organization-wide).

Kaizen was originally introduced by Japanese companies decades ago. Toyota has been one of the most famous examples. You may find many books which reference Kaizen to this company. Kaizen was one of the reasons which ensured sustainable growth on the market.

In order to successfully utilize Kaizen, we should first consider how it works on a personal level.

So how does it actually work?

Kaizen represents an internal force which enables everyday development in order to achieve our goals in any part of our lives. Therefore, we should have everyday goals, as well as measurements to follow and make sure we are on track.

First we should have a vision – a desired state, a description-based state of the desired outcome.

The next step is to make a long-term goal which drives you towards the desired state. It should tell you if you are on the right path. Depending on the complexity and level of challenge, you can have more milestones.

Please take a look at examples in Table 1.

Last, and most important, are easy to reach daily targets. Set targets which will not take you out from your comfort zone. It is only important make small, but daily improvements.

In this way we are developing ourselves in a way which is not easy to notice in our everyday lives. Daily improvements are small, but in the mid- and long run you will be surprises how noticeable they are.

By setting up these daily targets we are actually learning how to improve ourselves. We learn how to become better and therefore get and/or improve skills necessary to deliver positive change. We will reach our long-term targets, as well as our vision, only once we accumulate enough skills.

Why is it so important/critical to have these daily targets?

Daily targets are important because it’s hard to get rid of habits. For example, it would be very hard to stop eating chocolate if we consume it every day. Since we enjoy chocolate so much, it is very easy to hardwire the habit to eat chocolate.

In order to change this, we need to instill a new habit of eating less chocolate. Since this is an opposite process, it needs to happen slowly. Step by step, day by day, with “very easy to reach” targets.

This way we get into the habit of improving every day. If sustained long enough, that habit turns into an internal force which drives our development. It also supports us to constantly make one more step. 

All of this is done with little effort on a daily basis which further increases probability of sustained success.

You may find more about this here.

How to Create this Internal Force (“How to Kaizen”)?

What do I need for Kaizen? 

Constructive SELF-CRITICISM is at the heart of Kaizen philosophy. It is an initiator for potential identification. It also provides you with a “set of eyes” so you can be more realistic and get better and more accurate conclusions.

If you see yourself as the ideal one, perfect in anything you do, the potential to develop and improve yourself is very low. If any!

It is essential to distinguish between constructive self-criticism and destructive one.

·        The former focuses on areas within your control, such as changeable behaviours and actions, specific topics, etc. For example: “Instead of driving too fast, I should consider leaving on time”

·        On the contrary, destructive self-criticism focuses on general non-changeable attributes or that which makes you feel bad. An example of this would be: “I am a bad person who drives too fast, I will hurt someone…”  

To make it simple, constructive self-criticism is an optimistic view, while destructive self-criticism is a more pessimistic (blaming) view.

Pair self-criticism with self-compassion and you will be on the right way.

“I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas.” Albert Einstein on constructive self-criticism

Lack of FEAR is the next condition to be met. So far I have not seen that an organization has reached an advanced level of Kaizen culture through treats, punishments, etc.

Our brain has evolved to primarily focus on threats around us in order to ensure basic survival. Therefore, there is no or very little room to think about improving ourselves whenever all our mental resources are occupied by survival.   

Based on this, keep in mind that if you tend to lead by fear, people usually choose one out of the 3F. They either Fly, Freeze, or Fight.

Fly would mean people leaving your organization and moving to a new one with a better environment (you can bet that the best ones will choose this since they have the most options). No good and capable people means no improvement.

Freeze would mean that people reduce their activities to the absolute minimum in order to avoid making mistakes. Sorry, but there can be no personal initiative in that case.

Fight would mean that people are trying to “beat you” at the game using all available means. It’s either you or them. Again, there is no room for improvement initiatives in that case.

“He who has great power should use it lightly.” - Seneca

Intrinsic Motivation is also important since it puts you in the state in which you feel comfortable to engage yourself. It can create a habit of enjoying success.

Kaizen philosophy insists on making small, but constant steps. You feed your motivation by reaching goals on a daily basis. In that state of mind, personal initiative is quite desired. Therefore, you have much higher chances of self-development.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” - Vince Lombardi 

Focus on what matters is the last, but certainly not the least important piece. It is very important to understand the relation between your long-term goals and what you want to improve on a daily basis.

I don’t think anyone has lost weight by eliminating cucumber and cabbage out of their diet. More likely you will need to focus on sugar or fats, perhaps both, but also sports and exercise!

In order to improve something you need to understand what’s causing the current state. Only then can you put yourself in the problem-solving mindset.

I was fortunate to attend classes held by Mr Jeffery Liker and would highly advise you to learn more about the Kata coaching approach.

“Focus on doing the right things instead of a bunch of things.” – Mike Krieger

Everything sounds nice, but how to do Kaizen in my company?

Obviously it would be too expensive to hire one psychotherapist per employee. Fortunately, the answer is not so hard –the key is GOOD LEADERSHIP.

Each leader, based on their role, has the potential to create a context which supports right behavior, all of which is necessary for the Kaizen culture. Leader’s behavior, way of thinking, and how they communicate with the people strongly create and shape shared beliefs, values, understanding of social norms, etc.

It is of high significance that the entire organization simultaneously receives inputs to build and foster constructive self-criticism, without fear, and with self-initiative, as well as to reward success and to focus on what matters.

There are various ways in which philosophies impact the Kaizen culture. For practical reasons, I will organize them into two categories. The first one is an empowering way of thinking, while the other blocks our thinking.

If you are a leader, ask yourself which way of thinking do you feed within your reports. Do you empower or block critical Kaizen elements?

In the tables below you may find both types when talking about constructive self-criticism, lack of fear, and intrinsic motivation.

Constructive self-criticism: 

Lack of fear:

Intrinsic Motivation:

Developing an empowering way of thinking in relation to your reports is not a project, nor can you dedicate a specific time schedule to it. It is more about how you lead your people. Each conversation that you have with them is an opportunity to “feed” one of these two opposite ways of thinking. 

As a leader, you also need to ensure that things we do matter. Keeping the right focus is equally essential. Therefore, you need to establish key figures and a high level of transparency. 

In the end, the leader is responsible to deliver good results. They should pay attention on this.

It is important to mention that there are no expectations to have a Kaizen mindset and habits of improving within 2 months by simply allotting plenty of resources. This is not a sprint race, but rather a very long and never-ending marathon. Hence, the most important thing is to maintain the right course longe-term.

How can I impact if I have a role in Lean Management?

Defining the right role of the Lean Management department is essential in ensuring its effective support.

The key is to invest your time in making small, incremental improvements to the point it becomes part of daily tasks for everyone within the organization (not only within your department). In order to do so, you need to support leaders at all levels.

There are different tools for which I found important to introduce to all leaders. By doing this, you may systematically provide support to leaders so they can build and foster the Kaizen culture. The list of tools could be rather extensive, but below are the ones I utilized the most:

·        A3, A5 templates (ensuring PDCA problem solving)

·        Visual Management

·        GEMBA

·        Kaizen circles

·        Trainings and active follow-up on 5S, SMED, VSM, Kanban, etc.

·        Improvement suggestion system

·        Sharing best practices

·        Benchmark visits of companies with a high level of Kaizen culture

By introducing and utilizing these tools, I am helping leaders to build context in which it is easy and very desirable to make improvements. This is also done to implement such daily changes not by doing more tasks, but rather by changing the way they are performed to begin with.

Production facilities where I presented this context were able to significantly increase improvement initiatives as well as number of people leading the way. As a result, this further delivered more value to our customers in regards to costs, quality, and on-time delivery.

An important aspect within the Kaizen culture is not just customer satisfaction, but also employer satisfaction. By involving everyone in the problem-solving process and improvement initiatives, the respect for people is increased. Imagine yourself coming to work to execute pre-defined tasks without being able to express ideas on how to improve them, which in turn could make your work easier and faster.

To summarize, this is my message to all Kaizen practitioners - ask yourself every day what you did to support all leaders from your organization to build and foster the Kaizen culture. If you do this long enough there, are no doubts you will find your way, but only step by step, and over a long period of time.

KEEP CALM AND KAIZEN IT