Kaizen

“Kaizen” is one of the coolest words ever, and not just because it sounds like the "Keyser" in "Keyser Soze." It’s cool because it means “continuous improvement” in Japanese. But not just any kind of continuous improvement. It’s continuous improvement that is perpetual, incremental, and engaged in by every person within an organization, from its CEO to the summer intern in the mailroom. The theory is that everyone has ideas on how to do things better, especially the frontline folks—the people that deal with something every day. So, to that end, everyone should be willing and able to make changes (or request that a change be made, if it’s a big ‘un) to help improve the flow and efficiency of the organization.

Kaizen is part of the Lean process made famous by Toyota back in the 1950s. The Lean process was originally all about constantly improving the manufacturing process by eliminating waste and streamlining processes. But kaizen isn’t just for manufacturing anymore.

So...what does it look like? Well, that’s the fun part: it can look like anything, as long as that “anything” helps us do what we do...better.

Let’s say we work in an auto mechanic shop, and every time we lift a car, we have to walk across the shop floor and flip a switch about twenty yards away. In this situation, kaizen might involve installing switches near each lift; this will save us time, which will save our company money. Boom, we’ve improved a process.

Or let’s say we’re an executive assistant at a top law firm. We work with five lawyers, and we notice that they each spend an inordinate amount of time coordinating their own travel and looking for good hotel deals. We might decide that it makes more sense to centralize travel arrangements, maybe by contracting with a travel agent or assigning an internal employee to book all flights and hotels. This would save the lawyers time, while also potentially lowering the firm’s overall travel costs, and boom, we’ve improved another process.

Look at us, kaizening all over the place.