Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement. 

The Japanese actually have a word for it-Kaizen. Margaret Rouse describes Kaizen as, “an approach to creating continuous improvement based on the idea that small, ongoing positive changes can reap major improvements.”

As I considered this idea, and did a little more digging I learned that this philosophy has to do with believing that everything can be improved. The logical conclusion would be that just because the status quo is working doesn’t mean that it couldn’t actually be better. 

What I found ironic, though, was that just minutes before writing this post I voted in our local school board election, and used a completely different way of thinking. I went ahead and voted for an incumbent reasoning that since things were going well in my school district why would we need a change?

You know the old adage, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Now I’m not saying that change just for the sake of change is always the best course of action. However, the more I thought about it the more I began to think that maybe bringing in some new blood onto the school board might not have been such a bad idea. 

 Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to look at something in a new way, and being open to change is one way to bring about improvement. 

Through Kaizen this improvement is not accomplished over night with broad brush strokes, but rather it is done through a series of small steps. These incremental steps can be less intimidating than radical change. 

Sometimes when we are too quick to change things people have a tendency to dig in their heels. Even though something might actually be a better way to do something, we still cling to the belief that, “we’ve always done it this way.”

As much as I like to convince myself that I’ve got it all figured out I’m kind of glad that I really don’t. Allowing myself to question my actions helps me to continuously grow in knowledge and wisdom. 

It will be interesting to see the results of the election. Will more people have thought like me or will there be more willing to take the small steps of Kaizen in hopes of improving an already “good enough” status quo?