Organizational change in business, like any other change, is perceived to be difficult. We turn to business books and literature for tips and quick fixes on how we can change negative experiences to positive ones we desire. Most of these tactics are employed to shock ourselves or our colleagues into meaningful action. The results in most cases are short-lived.
If you’d like to make a change – one that sticks – Kaizen is a natural, graceful technique for achieving long-lasting change and maintaining excellence.
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a business concept of continuous improvement, seeing improvement as a gradual and methodical process. The idea of Kaizen was conceived in the West but was then adopted by the Japanese companies who saw the technique as an extension of Japanese values and attitudes toward incremental change. In 1951, the ESS group had a training film to introduce the three TWI “J” programs (Job Instruction, Job Methods, and Job Relations). The film was titled “Improvement in 4 Steps” (Kaizen eno Yon Dankai). This was how “Kaizen”, as a business improvement methodology or concept, was introduced to Japan.
Kaizen is known to be the influencing factor for the success of Japanese companies in the second half of the Twentieth century and has since been popularized around the world in several industries, from manufacturing to healthcare. The overall objective of Kaizen is to introduce small and meaningful changes that will result in bigger impact in the future.
There are five steps involved in Kaizen including:
1. Know your customer
2. Let it flow
4. Empower people
5. Be transparent
Why is Kaizen Important in Self-Care Oriented Leadership?
Kaizen can be used to bring more harmony into your immediate environment and improve your wellbeing, so that you have more energy to face and fight the problems of the world. A research study concluded that when interventions occur in a context where employees use kaizen, and when kaizen boards are explicitly used to manage psychosocial work environment issues, there are positive intervention outcomes in the form of employee well-being.
Changes introduced through Kaizen involve all employees. When the employees actively participate in making meaningful change within the organization, they get higher job satisfaction. As a result, they feel more empowered and engaged. Businesses benefit from Kaizen through:
1. Lower Rates of Burnout
Working towards a bigger goal gives employees a sense of purpose, making them feel that their contributions matter.
2. Improved Mental Health
Kaizen connects the team members in a meaningful way and strengthens the employee relationship. Building social connections at the workplace, where people spend most of their day, leads to better mental health and wellbeing.
3. Higher Productivity and Better Performance
Kaizen, like any other goal-setting technique, gives people a way to measure their progress and performance, boosting their productivity.
4. Better Employee Retention
Kaizen not only increases efficiency and productivity but also demonstrates management’s commitment to listening to and valuing employee input. As employees see their suggestions being implemented and their contributions recognized, they feel more engaged and satisfied with their work environment. This sense of involvement and ownership nurtures loyalty and motivation, reducing turnover rates as employees are more likely to remain in a supportive and evolving workplace where their voices are heard and efforts appreciated.
There are a lot of problems in our professional and personal lives that are out of our control. While we cannot control the outcomes, Kaizen is a great way to reduce sources of stress and bring about new, exciting and incremental improvements.