There’s no question that improving processes is a critical component to success in business. The challenge lies in being able to find that consistency of improvement in a way that allows for maximum productivity and minimal wasted effort.
But as continuous improvement professionals shouldn’t we be implementing these same principles into our own workflows? In my experience, we CI professionals struggle the most with implementing a consistent improvement strategy for ourselves.
Can you relate to this…
You may have be all too familiar with the following scenario; we set goals, milestones, and targets, but don’t have a plan in place to make sure we actually hit them. And then as a result they never come to fruition and we are left frustrated and exhausted.
We lose confidence in ourselves to be able to complete projects or tasks and give up trying to set goals eventually. Eventually we just let things take their own course
Month after month goes by and we see time slipping by but we don’t see our goals coming true or us feeling like we are connected the work we are doing. We lose hope and then just wait for the weekend to arrive and dread Monday arriving.
So why do we get stuck in this loop?
What I have found is that we are stuck in the middle of a business philosophy that is over 100 years old that doesn’t support or reward the idea of incremental improvement.
That business philosophy rewards maintaining a status quo or giant transformational change that results in a new status quo. But it does not reward the idea of incrementally moving in the direction you want to go.
Reason being is that moving in an incremental way sometimes seems a little unclear and you don’t have a lot of certainty of the results you are going to get. When we think about this in a personal sense this can seem really risky and a bit unnerving.
You may be looking for another way to approach this…
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a strategy we could use to improve our chances of success? The good news is that there is a strategy I have in mind.
I believe that by integrating kaizen into your daily routine you will have such a strategy. You can avoid missed milestones and targets, and achieve the success you desire by looking at them a little differently.
This, of course, assumes that you already have a clear picture of where you want to go and have a keen sense of your authentic self first.
This all may seem counter-intuitive, but the simplest solutions usually are…
You see, kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that can help us achieve our goals and targets by helping us move incrementally in the direction that we want to go.
From a personal workflow strategy this is all about making change for the better and by incorporating it into our lives, we can make steady progress towards our goals.
This is done best when you take small steps in the direction you want to go, not by waiting for a big transformational change to occur.
If you are looking for someone to help you on this journey, reach out I am putting together a cohort of CI professionals that are all looking to achieve that same thing.
The program starts March 7, 2022 and I only have 5 spots. Send me a PM today if you’d like to learn more.
#kaizen #continuousimprovement #personalkaizen #incrementalimprovement
Steve Beauchamp 