Kaizen in the New Year

How I Memorized the First Chapter of Proverbs, Organized Over 1500 Documents and Prepared For a Baby in Less Than 17 Days.

It may sound like an exaggeration at first, and recalling what I've been able to do in less than 3 weeks has shocked me. So much, so I had to share my simple secret... maybe, the title gives it away.

Let me start by saying - I've never been great at memorizing anything. I'm big picture and not detailed. I'm good with the abstract, not the bits and pieces that make the whole. I've also been extremely disorganized from my earliest memories. It's been a struggle to keep things in order and a constant effort to manage the mess. While filing papers and keeping the books come easy to some (like my father, aunt and sister who have all been accountants), I struggled with the family business. It seems like the creative mind is a messy one and I would be plighted by this my entire life.

So, how did I turn it all around?

The short answer - I didn't. I didn't try to become super organized. I didn't try to memorize an entire chapter of the Bible. No, rather I focused on something entirely different. I focused on the smallest step that I could take to accomplishing my goal.

Rather than committing a large amount of will power and energy to doing something big, I did something so tiny it would be impossible to say no to.

This approach is called Kaizen. It's a Japanese principle meaning "Change for Better" or "Continuous Improvement."

It was first adopted by Toyota after World War II through the work of Edwards Deming and Masaaki Imai. And by following the principles of continuous improvement through a series of small changes, Toyota was able to build one of the fastest auto production lines worldwide with incredible quality standards.

These small changes were sustainable and quickly standardized. As I was looking out at 2018 and what goals I wanted to accomplish, I realized that any big sweeping change like many New Year Resolutions would quickly go out the window.

This is what Dr. Robert Maurer describes in his book "One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way." Want to run a marathon or just lose some weight? Commit to marching in front of the television for 30 seconds each commercial break. Want to floss consistently? Commit to flossing one tooth before you brush your teeth.

Big changes rarely work... it's physics really.

Imagine rolling a boulder up a hill. One day you decide you're going to push really hard and the boulder goes up a few inches maybe even a foot or two. You celebrate and stop pushing and down comes the boulder. All your progress comes crashing back down on you. That's what happens with many of our goals. We make one big push and then stop, get distracted or get worn out.

The Kaizen approach would be to commit to moving the boulder at least one centimeter a day. You're consistently pushing the boulder and never letting up. In this situation, physics kicks in again and inertia happens. Your boulder picks up speed and you get a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little stronger. Soon, pushing the boulder is easy. You're doing it not one centimeter per day, but 10 or 20. And you're doing it consistently.

Getting back to my personal triumphs. I made these simple commitments -

1. I would memorize one verse each morning by reading it ten times.
2. I would file away one document each morning.
3. I would check one prep item off our list each day.

These simple goals allowed me to get started. And sometimes that's the hardest part. Once when I got started, I sometimes didn't want to stop and continued to work at it. Inertia. Its a snowball effect.

As we continue through 2018, I encourage you to figure out goals in either your personal or professional life to try Kaizen on. Commit to doing the smallest micro goals and let inertia take hold.

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One of my goals this year is to write articles to share my thoughts and insights on LinkedIn. My simple commitment is to write for 10 minutes each morning. I appreciate any and all feedback.

Cheers!

Alex Moy