What is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a Japanese technique that focuses on continuous and slow movement towards a goal. Kaizen technique helped the Japanese to develop very quickly and become a civilized and modern country. But how could kaizen change the principle of Japanese industry? This technique works on six basic principles. All these principles emphasize one word and that is “small”.

1. Asking small questions
   Kaizen mini questions provide a powerful way to program the mind. Unlike bigger questions that may lead to a threatening reaction, small questions can often be interesting. If your goal is too big or daunting, ask yourself very simply: What is the small and simple step I can take to reach this goal?
2. Thinking small thoughts
   Now that you’ve answered your question, it’s time to imagine yourself doing it. The principle of mental imagery states that the brain learns small increments better than large doses. If you isolate a task that you dread or worry about and then slowly imagine yourself starting to work on it, over time your mind’s attitude will change to a daunting task.
3. Doing little things
   Small questions and small thoughts ultimately require small actions. Employers usually entrust their executives with big tasks and have unreasonable expectations along with it. This method leaves both parties frustrated and defeated. Progress in the work should be done gradually and slowly. This applies to other cases as well. For example, you plan to go on a diet, but if you tell yourself that starting tomorrow, I will exercise for an hour a day and drastically reduce my calorie intake, surely nothing but failure awaits you. Go slowly, for example, you can add 5 minutes a week to your exercise.
4. Solve small problems
   It’s rare that someone can convince themselves to change by speaking negatively. Tell yourself that every mistake you made is part of a bigger problem. If you can tie your mistake to a bigger problem, you’ll give yourself more motivation to work on it.
5. Giving small rewards
   Most of the habits we engage in are actually motivated by some kind of reward. You should also consider small rewards for the small changes you make, appropriate to your goal. Although it may not seem true, small rewards are usually stronger sources of motivation than large rewards.
6. Identify the small moments.
   Sometimes little things can mean a lot. Sometimes people find that seemingly insignificant details lead to big results. For example, one of my clients had workers who were upset about not having access to their boss. They complained that they never know when their boss is in his office, and if they want to talk to him, they have to go through a layer of security first. We noticed that the factory boss uses a separate entrance to go to his office. This allowed him to get to work much faster, but it made him a ghost for the workers. We suggested that he use the path where everyone enters the factory and cover this extra amount. This small change had a big impact. Every day was accompanied by pleasant greetings and smiling faces. The head of the factory could solve small problems and give recommendations on the way to his office every day. Maybe the previous route would have made him walk less and arrive earlier, but it had a bad effect on the level of workers’ satisfaction. With a little precision, you can identify many small things in your life and work.

When you touch a warm surface, your fingers feel the heat, but you don’t react strongly. But if you touch the reddened surface, you react so suddenly and uncontrollably that you don’t even understand what happened.

Kaizen acts like a warm surface not a red hot surface, like a whisper not a shout. The things you do are very small and seemingly insignificant, but this one small step can change your life.