Kaizen: The Secret Weapon of Successful Companies and Individuals

A year ago I, along with two business partners, launched an online training business focused in the niche of “lean manufacturing”.  We primarily sell our products to businesses and individuals looking to reduce operating costs while also increasing productivity.

We’ve done very well and our business continues to grow which is exciting… but this article isn’t meant to toot our own horn.  Instead, I’d like to introduce what I feel is the most important word companies and individuals interested in success need to know – kaizen.

The Kaizen Blitz

The word kaizen, which rhymes with dry pen, literally means incremental or continuous improvement.  Many “lean thinking” organizations practice something called kaizen events which essentially consist of a small group of people coming to together for 3 to 5 days as they “blitz” an area of their business in hopes of making it better.

Done right, kaizen blitzes are extremely powerful.  I’ve personally seen 80% productivity increases take hold in less than 4 days.

More Than An Event

But, I’m guessing many of you work alone or in very small teams, so the kaizen event may not be as applicable to you as it would to a company of 5,000 employees.  Does this mean kaizen is an irrelevant concept for you?  Absolutely not.

In fact, kaizen is much more than a rapid improvement initiative.  Kaizen, taken in the right spirit, is a way of thinking and working that challenges the idea that we’re as good as we can be – or need to be.  The kaizen mindset forces us out of our comfort zone and demands we ask a simple question, “How can we do it better?”

4 Kaizen Ideas for Web Video Producers

So how does this relate to you, the web video producer?  How can you practice kaizen?  Here are 4 tips I’d like to propose.

1. Learn something new each week. If you go through an entire week without learning at least one new skill – even a small skill – you’ve missed a major opportunity.  So, do your very best to learn something new each and every week.
2. Tidy up.  One of the “foundations” of lean is something called 5S which is a method of creating a clean and orderly workplace that exposes waste and makes abnormalities immediately visible.  Done right, 5S will drive your personal productivity through the roof – guaranteed.  Here’s a free video to introduce the 5S concept if you’re interested in learning more.
3. Benchmark others.  Every TV show, commercial, or Hollywood blockbuster you watch offers the perfect opportunity to benchmark and learn from professionals.  Keep a notebook beside you and jot ideas down as you see them.  In a few weeks you’ll have a plethora of excellent tips and tricks you can use in your videos.
4. Polish an old video.  If you’re anything like us… every video you produce gets a little better.  As such, those videos you produced 2 years ago might benefit from a little TLC.  Go back through them and make enhancement.  Improve some of those key frames, use the new After Effects skills you just learned, or improve those hideous lower thirds that make you cringe every time they appear.  In short, make something you’ve already done better.  That’s kaizen!

What do you think?

I am always interested to learn how folks in other industries view the concept of kaizen.  So, I’m curious, do you practice a form of kaizen already?  If so, how’s it working?  If you don’t practice kaizen, do you think you could benefit from it?

About the Author: Ron Pereira is the managing partner of Gemba Academy LLC.  He’s been teaching people about kaizen and other aspects of continuous improvement for more than 15 years.  He can be reached at academy at gembaacademy dot com.