Knowledge Base · Foundations
What is kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word for changing something for the better. Put into practice, it means small improvements made continuously and involving everybody, from frontline staff up to the chief executive, instead of huge projects that try to remake everything in one go. A suggestion raised in a huddle, a suggestion box that gets read, or a clearer script for customer calls all count as kaizen.
The appendix glossary treats kaizen as a philosophy of gradual, methodical betterment that draws in the whole organisation, from frontline workers to the CEO, and gives the word two renderings: "change for the better" and "continuous improvement". Chapter 1 stresses what kaizen is not: large, disruptive overhauls that try to replace everything overnight.
It gives each person in an organisation permission to spot the small problems and chances they see in daily work and put them right. Chapter 1 illustrates that with ordinary moments: somebody in a morning huddle proposing a tidier way to organise shared files, a suggestion box whose contents are read and acted on, and a minor edit to a customer service script that leaves the experience clearer and kinder for the caller.
That is why the glossary describes kaizen as the culture underneath every other improvement tool: people in every corner, always hunting for a better way. On its own a single tweak looks trivial. Repeated daily, by people close to the work, those tweaks compound into a different culture, one where problems are named early and fixed while they are still small.
“change for the better”
Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Appendix
Related questions
- What is continuous improvement?
- What are the "Big Three" simple tools to start continuous improvement?
- How do small improvements compound over time?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 1 (Understanding Continuous Improvement) and the CI glossary in the book's Appendix.