The term Kaizen comes from Japanese, meaning constant improvement. In terms of management, it is a philosophy and methodology, which started to be applied in Japanese companies after the Second World War to streamline their production processes. It caused, for example, the success of Toyota. Today, it is used in other industries as well and especially in large companies the principles of Kaizen are commonplace. Kaizen focuses on individuals and small teams to help them achieve maximum efficiency.
The main principles of Kaizen include:
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Think about how to achieve something, not about why it is not possible.
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Do not look for perfection. Start with a change now and build on it in the future.
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When something does not work as expected, give yourself the time to understand the causes.
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When you get into a difficult situation, learn from it and apply the experience in the future.
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Measure your successes and failures to know whether and how you improve.
Projecttimes.com summarized practical steps to integrate the Kaizen philosophy into the everyday work of project managers.
Start with mindset
After coming to work, take 30 seconds to reminde yourself that today you have an opportunity to find ways to work better. Review your plan of things to do today. Encourage the same mindset in your team.
Document performance
Project teams usually measure the time devoted to each activity and use methods such as "earned value" to measure their progress. Set meaningful performance standards together with your team and measure them repeatedly.
Evaluate progress at the end of the day
Quickly go through the work that you and your team have mastered at the end of each day. Think about what went well and what did not. Take notes and suggest options what to do otherwise. After few days meet with the team to find out what other people think and agree on at least one thing you can change immediately.
Try new ideas
Search for and try interesting ways to improve the quality and efficiency of your team's work. Involve the ideas of others and after some time get together again to evaluate your success.
Share the experience
Keep in touch with other project managers, whether in person or via the Internet.
The principles of Kaizen work best in small teams. If your team is larger, you can divide it into smaller groups for the purpose of practising the Kaizen techniques.
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