Be a Kaizen Black Belt

Such would be the warning in times past when confronted with the threat of physical harm from angry giants you have unwittingly spilt beverage over or roof pounding road-ragers itching to pound you for failing to yield to their large four by four.

Thanks should be due in part to the vast body of work of martial art artistes, Bruce Lee, David Carradine, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chang and the like did to raise the martial art profile in the late sixties and early seventies.

Thanks to martial arts popularity it allowed one to bluff one's way out of danger thanks to the premise that in fact, really quite weedy looking chaps could appear to gain neck breaking status purely by uttering those lines and therefore extricating themselves from the promise of a thorough pasting by threatening superior physical specimens.

Now, in the new millennium there is a new bluff on the block, feeble puniverses trembling before buff bullies can utter a new phrase to confound the potential thugs, 'Don't thump me, I've got a black belt in Kaizen!'

So what weird and wonderful method of pain delivery is this Kaizen business all about? Do you batter your opponent with lashed bamboo sticks, num-chuck them into submission with flailing metal or turn your hand into a deadly weapon and perform the four fingered death tickle? Well, actually none of the aforementioned, this is a management training article, remember?

Kaizen's only link to martial art is the fact that it originates from the Far East; Japan and The Toyota Motor Company to be precise. It is in fact an advanced change technique and ultimately a means to change processes and therefore the business culture, for the better.

Kaizen means 'change' or 'break apart' as in 'Kai' and betterment or goodness as in 'zen'. The Kaizen process requires a period of three to five days, called a Kaizen Event with six to eight leaders giving 100% dedication to it, sequestered from their daily work. Back-ups are put in place for team members who carry out important functions that can't be placed on hold for the duration of the Event. The structured degree of focus and team commitment is one reason why Kaizen Events are so effective.

Core team members must include a representative sample of the people who actually do the work, as they are the ones who know best how to improve the process. Management may be included in the team, but only if they serve as active members and view their role as equal to any other team member. Most importantly within a Kaizen Team, rank has no privilege and there is no veto power from outside the team. For the greatest degree of success, the team should also include at least one pair of "outside eyes" to contribute objectivity to the targeted process. Selecting the core team is potentially the most important Event planning activity. Careful consideration of team candidates will ensure that no function involved in or touched by the process is left out and that the team consists of people who are both independent thinkers and team players.

The members then go about the business of pulling systems processes and methods to pieces much the same as a four year old with lego bricks to see how things work or fail and then reassemble the process into a more successful format.

For Kaizen to work the team must be empowered to make it's own decisions To help the leadership buy into the arrangement, the Kaizen Team gives several briefings throughout the Event with the executive sponsor and the leaders of the areas that will be affected by the change, if they aren't members of the team. These meetings enable the leadership to ask the "what if's" associated with the proposed process changes and provides the Kaizen Team the opportunity to educate the leadership on process discoveries and reasons for the proposed changes.

Kaizen Events are low-cost activities. The phrase "creativity before capital" describes the general spirit of a Kaizen Event, where the Teams objective is to eliminate process failures without expending much capital. This approach has several advantages over this culture's typical habit of prematurely throwing more money at the problem such as automating a process, in the hope that it will go away, before discovering and eliminating the fundamental failure that's causing the problem.

Holding regular Kaizen Events creates a cultural shift in organizations so that implementing rapid change becomes the way the organization operates on a daily basis. There is a transition period between operating the traditional way and embracing the Kaizen approach, the workforce needs to be adequately prepared for Kaizen Events.

Five elements need to be communicated broadly:

• Why is the organization pursuing change?

• What the organization expects to gain from the Kaizen approach

• How a Kaizen Event is structured

• How the workforce will be affected

• To whom they should direct their feedback regarding the Kaizen approach

Not all processes are good candidates for Kaizen Events, but most are. The essential trait is that the process is narrow enough in scope to allow adequate measurement of the current state and improvement within a short time frame. Even with proper scoping, a process selected for improvement may need to be even more narrowly defined after the Event begins.

The Kaizen philosophy is two-fold:

1) incremental improvements often lead to quantum results, and

2) if you wait for the perfect time to improve a complex process, it'll never get improved. Once the improvements are selected, they are designed and implemented rapidly.


Kaizen Events provide an excellent return on investment, in terms of both money and people. A properly planned and executed event typically provides measurable improvements ranging from 30-80% in one or more of the following six aspects of organizational performance:

• Reduced costs
• Increased revenue/improved cash flow
• Faster throughput/turnaround times
• Higher quality
• Greater customer satisfaction
• Greater workforce satisfaction

Kaizen may well be at odds with the 'old school' culture of keeping everything as it is and not rocking the boat. But for businesses looking for dynamic improvement and ultimately greater profitability it may well prove to be more than a just a quirky Japanese import.