Kaizen, a Japanese method to positive change.
Posted on September 27, 2022 by Nate Weinstein , One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Kaizen is a transparent and practical model of adjustment involving continual improvement to reach success.
Kaizen literally means continual improvement. The approach was developed by Masaaki Imai, an organizational and management consultant over three decades ago with the publishing of his book, Kaizen: the Key to Japan’s Competitive Success. Kaizen has since been adapted to a number of useful domains in life alongside business management, psychotherapy and coaching just to name a few.
So the kaizen approach works to increase improvement via the elimination of waste. This is termed a bit differently in the helping professions, but has the same affect. Make the tasks small so as to increase the chance of success. Kaizen suggests that once we have clarity around what isn’t working and understand the habits that have formed to have led to this, by implementing change based on objective observation, we can determine and take the next small step that brings you closer to your goal. For example, if you are sure that you need to start working out, but have habits that have kept you from doing so, using kaizen, you determine what it is that you can do as a small step in the right direction. Once you gain success with this, the new behavior becomes a motivating factor allowing for the next small step toward success, and so on. If you just aren’t able to get to the gym in the morning, develop the habit of putting on your workout clothes first. It’s pretty amazing how developing just one small step in the right direction, eventually leads to meaningful change over time. From there you continue to build upon this new habit until you reach your intended goal. When we break things up into smaller tasks, we are more likely to gain proficiency over time, reaching small gains, which feeds back into self efficacy. This helps to create a positive feedback loop.
You want to reach the top of the mountain? It starts with one correct action, and that is stepping in the right direction. There will be obstacles along the way, but if you are learning to implement pragmatic shifts to your approach one step at a time, you will find that you can go through, over or around most if not all obstacles that in other times would have put a stop to your forward progress.
