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    </div><p id="a2c3">Toyota has famously applied Kaizen to its processes and global organizational culture, even in its factories and offices outside of Japan. How has this worked for them?</p><p id="b1aa">Well, as the world’s number one car maker, I think that answer doesn’t need any further discussion! But Toyota’s story is known because Toyota is known.</p><p id="0b0b">The same philosophy, however, is deeply ingrained in the Japanese psyche, and the same principles can usually be seen permeating through most Japanese businesses.</p><p id="5b2a">The beauty of Kaizen in the workplace is that it’s not something that a CEO mandates, as a rule, to be followed.</p><p id="14c8" type="7">It’s almost an innate principle that is applied by anyone and everyone in the organization without any knowledge or training by simply asking and repeating one question: “How can I/we make this better”</p><p id="cda1">That’s it! Seriously, that-is-it… “How can I make this better?”.</p><p id="7f1c">By making this question a habit, before you know it, it no longer becomes necessary to continue asking. It's become the norm and more of an action than a thought. It’s a fascinating internal transformation when you start to strive for continuous improvement as opposed to striving for one-time perfection.</p><p id="ec17">But we need to be logical and think about what’s best for each situation as opposed to blindly applying an endless Kaizen effort.</p><p id="f22a">Some circumstances call for continuous betterment, for example, our health. If we want to live as long and as healthy as possible, then Kaizen should be applied indefinitely.</p><p id="2123">But if we want to get something to 90% or to an acceptable level, then go the Wabi-Sabi route and most importantly then, allow ourselves to be OK with that.</p><p id="0fac">If we don’t allow ourselves the ability to be happy and accepting of something that’s actually good enough when it’s called for, we’ll drive ourselves and those around us nuts.</p><p id="1dcb">Furthermore, the principles of Kaizen can apply in both our business and personal lives, so allow me to give an example of both here at Armstrong Moving.</p><h1 id="a388">Kaizen in Business:</h1><p id="0f27">Armstrong Moving is in the service industry.</p><p id="11ce">My role as Director of Quality means that I need to ensure that the Quality of our services is the best they can possibly be. But our team members are the ones on the front lines and in the back office doing all the

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work.So how can I contribute to our betterment? The answer is to ensure I continue to champion the Kaizen mindset that we have. I don’t have to constantly ask everyone “How can we make this better?”, because they are already asking themselves and each other that question.So as long as that continues, I’m positively contributing to our success. At Armstrong, Kaizen permeates, improvements are constantly made, and our customers continue to enjoy a positive move experience.<h1 id="48b6">Kaizen in Your Personal Life</h1>The Kaizen mindset at Armstrong trickles over into our personal lives and means that a lot of us are interested in making ourselves healthier.For example earlier this year, those of us wearing a Fitbit synced up and started ‘walking challenges’.It started with 3 of us, then after a couple of challenges grew to 10 members, and then some without Fitbits voiced a desire to participate.Everyone has a phone, and every phone has a pedometer, so we made an online Google sheet to track the daily steps of everyone who wanted in and initiated an all-inclusive new ‘workweek hustle’ walk challenge.The goal wasn’t to see who would win, the goal was to encourage everyone to have healthier habits.For me, this meant my colleagues pushed me to betterment through the spirit of enjoyable competition.They pushed me to walk as much as I could each day, to wake up earlier, explore my neighbourhood, enjoy sunrises and sunsets, spend quality time with my wife on the walks, listen to audiobooks to further educate myself…Kaizen and my colleagues helped to make me personally better with healthier habits, and I’m forever grateful to them for this.After a successful challenge, what did we do? Of course, we ‘Kaizened’ it and sent a survey monkey to ask everyone “How can we make it better?”. We’ve had some great responses and ideas, and with the new improvements, will initiate another soon.So, there is it, the 2,000-year-old secret sauce to Japanese success boils down to asking one question. I challenge you to give that question a try and make it a habit in both your professional and private lives.Perhaps we can then improve on the old sage, and say, “Practice makes Betterment!”Get more great stories and become a member of Medium. <a href="https://martingiles7.medium.com/membership">Use my referral link to sign up for Medium</a> You’ll get access to great content and I’ll receive a small fee as a thank you at no cost to you. And I do say thank you!</article></body>

The 2,000-year-old secret of Japanese success (in one word).

Kaizen: The Japanese Philosophy of Betterment.

It’s been said that the Japanese are driven by the pursuit of perfection.

But are they?

After living in Japan for 25 years, I say no.

Well, not quite…

My observation is that the Japanese are driven instead by the perpetual pursuit of betterment, and that has a very different meaning to that of seeking perfection. I see the Japanese therefore as ‘betterment-ists’ (if I may so boldly attempt to coin the term!)

Here are some of my observations about Kaizen which I believe can help anyone who applies this simple philosophy in their lives.

The Rules of Kaizen For Betterment in Your Life

Firstly, Kaizen says that perfection doesn’t exist.

If perfection existed, Kaizen would not. If perfection was a possibility, then any further efforts of improvement after ‘perfection’ would not be needed, and such efforts would, in fact, be futile…what would be the point?

But the possibility of even a 0.001% improvement is still an improvement and would thus be worth the focus and energy to pursue, as it would cycle in perpetuity and the compound effect would be significant in terms of overall enhancement.

So regardless of the size of the improvement, it’s worth working for.

Secondly, everyday Japanese are not ‘fanatical’ about Kaizen.

The Japanese recognize there is a choice to leave something as is and in an imperfect state.

In fact, at times imperfection can be regarded as being better or having even more beauty.

An example of this is more widely known as Wabi-Sabi which is seeing beauty in the balance of good and bad, or even one of my favourites, Kintsugi

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Toyota has famously applied Kaizen to its processes and global organizational culture, even in its factories and offices outside of Japan. How has this worked for them?

Well, as the world’s number one car maker, I think that answer doesn’t need any further discussion! But Toyota’s story is known because Toyota is known.

The same philosophy, however, is deeply ingrained in the Japanese psyche, and the same principles can usually be seen permeating through most Japanese businesses.

The beauty of Kaizen in the workplace is that it’s not something that a CEO mandates, as a rule, to be followed.

It’s almost an innate principle that is applied by anyone and everyone in the organization without any knowledge or training by simply asking and repeating one question: “How can I/we make this better”

That’s it! Seriously, that-is-it… “How can I make this better?”.

By making this question a habit, before you know it, it no longer becomes necessary to continue asking. It's become the norm and more of an action than a thought. It’s a fascinating internal transformation when you start to strive for continuous improvement as opposed to striving for one-time perfection.

But we need to be logical and think about what’s best for each situation as opposed to blindly applying an endless Kaizen effort.

Some circumstances call for continuous betterment, for example, our health. If we want to live as long and as healthy as possible, then Kaizen should be applied indefinitely.

But if we want to get something to 90% or to an acceptable level, then go the Wabi-Sabi route and most importantly then, allow ourselves to be OK with that.

If we don’t allow ourselves the ability to be happy and accepting of something that’s actually good enough when it’s called for, we’ll drive ourselves and those around us nuts.

Furthermore, the principles of Kaizen can apply in both our business and personal lives, so allow me to give an example of both here at Armstrong Moving.

Kaizen in Business:

Armstrong Moving is in the service industry.

My role as Director of Quality means that I need to ensure that the Quality of our services is the best they can possibly be. But our team members are the ones on the front lines and in the back office doing all the work.

So how can I contribute to our betterment? The answer is to ensure I continue to champion the Kaizen mindset that we have. I don’t have to constantly ask everyone “How can we make this better?”, because they are already asking themselves and each other that question.

So as long as that continues, I’m positively contributing to our success. At Armstrong, Kaizen permeates, improvements are constantly made, and our customers continue to enjoy a positive move experience.

Kaizen in Your Personal Life

The Kaizen mindset at Armstrong trickles over into our personal lives and means that a lot of us are interested in making ourselves healthier.

For example earlier this year, those of us wearing a Fitbit synced up and started ‘walking challenges’.

It started with 3 of us, then after a couple of challenges grew to 10 members, and then some without Fitbits voiced a desire to participate.

Everyone has a phone, and every phone has a pedometer, so we made an online Google sheet to track the daily steps of everyone who wanted in and initiated an all-inclusive new ‘workweek hustle’ walk challenge.

The goal wasn’t to see who would win, the goal was to encourage everyone to have healthier habits.

For me, this meant my colleagues pushed me to betterment through the spirit of enjoyable competition.

They pushed me to walk as much as I could each day, to wake up earlier, explore my neighbourhood, enjoy sunrises and sunsets, spend quality time with my wife on the walks, listen to audiobooks to further educate myself…

Kaizen and my colleagues helped to make me personally better with healthier habits, and I’m forever grateful to them for this.

After a successful challenge, what did we do? Of course, we ‘Kaizened’ it and sent a survey monkey to ask everyone “How can we make it better?”. We’ve had some great responses and ideas, and with the new improvements, will initiate another soon.

So, there is it, the 2,000-year-old secret sauce to Japanese success boils down to asking one question. I challenge you to give that question a try and make it a habit in both your professional and private lives.

Perhaps we can then improve on the old sage, and say, “Practice makes Betterment!”

Get more great stories and become a member of Medium. Use my referral link to sign up for Medium You’ll get access to great content and I’ll receive a small fee as a thank you at no cost to you. And I do say thank you!