Take Your Work Home With You (or Kaizen is More Than a Work Principle)

One step at a time does it

Tue, 02/22/2011 - 05:00

Kaizen. Across many industries in many countries, this term is thrown around as a “standard practice.” Continuous improvement—the ultimate goal of business everywhere, right? Find ways to get things done quicker, cheaper, more efficiently… and then implement those goals into an everyday routine.

But how many people shed this line of thinking along with their work boots (or lab coats or hard hats) before heading home at the end of each day? Who actually pays attention to the fact that this is a way of life for the Japanese, not just a way of conducting business? How many actually apply this “business term” to other aspects of their lives and try to make continuous improvement apply to their personal lives as much as their work routines?

One influential follower of the kaizen principle, Masaaki Imai, once said, “Kaizen means improvement. Moreover, it means continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life.” Since this practice is already being taught in working life, it’s just a matter of taking those same lessons and applying them to every other area of your life.

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Comments

Kimber: Excellent article. Just to add: How many times do we clean up the messy room or cluttered cupboard only to do it all over again a week later? Why, because we didn't do it "right-the-first-time". We didn't think things through in the first place or in a systematic manner but we were just in a hurry to get things done. The very basics of "prevention' & "Kaizen" should be taught throughout our schools - grade school through High School.

Submitted by jeffdewar on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 19:59

Everything you said can be applied to one of the most frustrating aspects of home ownership--those pesky home improvement projects.  My toolbench is a mess, yet it is my core tool that enables efficient execution of numerous maintenance and improvement tasks.  Yet I don't devote ANY time to its continuous improvement, let alone its tidiness.  

Thanks for the nudge.  Well done Kimber.  

I love that you are exploring the process of relationship on a principle level. 

 

 

 

 

 

If you think about all the other sciences, quality included, there are many established principles.  A great example is controlling process via a combination of documentation and training.  A quality system principle we all agree on.  Math, metallurgy, quantum physics, etc we know the universe runs on principles in every corner, whether we fully understand them or not.

 

 

 

 

 

Where are the principles when two people interact with each other?  Whether a professional or personal relationship, it doesn't seem like we all have the same kind of common understanding of very many principles we can use to make that interaction productive and/or fulfilling.

 

 

 

 

 

What's more accurate is that we pretty much just hook up our lips to our psychology and see what happens, assuming our needs should be met.

 

 

 

 

 

From a quality standpoint, improvements are only improvements if they address a root cause.  To find a root cause you need to see what's happening.  Learning to see, or an awareness of what's happening seems like the starting point.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe that's one of the relational principles we should all agree on?  I wonder how many more there are? 

 

 

David

 

 

David Smithstein, Founder and CEO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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