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Using Kaizen for Employee Engagement and Improvement

QAspire

Kaizen is a Japanese term that means continuous improvement. It all sounds good on the surface, but the reality is that very few companies fully embrace kaizen. In companies that truly embrace kaizen, the bulk of improvement—from surfacing problems and opportunities, to designing, testing, and implementing countermeasures (a better word than “solutions”)—are done by the people who do the work. There are two ways to approach kaizen.

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The Spirit of Kaizen

CEO Blog

I read a book - the Spirit of Kaizen - Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time by Robert Maurer. The title says what kaizen is - the process of continually creating excellence or continually getting just a bit better. The same is true of Kaizen. For me, most kaizen revolves around those. The Spirit of Kaizen has a lot of little ideas for personal and business growth. Every sales person needs to practice Kaizen.

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Six Sigma, Kaizen And… Love? Bringing Humanity Into The Business Process With Glodean Champion

Steve Farber

The post Six Sigma, Kaizen And… Love? It is truly annoying – and expensive – to have a business process that does not actually work and just wastes up all of your resources. What can make it even duller is its. Read more.

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Disruptive Change vs. The Small Steps of Kaizen (Maybe not Either/Or, but Both/And)

First Friday Book Synopsis

We know of the value of disruptive change, described best by Clayton M. Christensen. Here’s the description (from Wikipedia): A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. But I […]. Randy''s blog entries

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2017 ASA Deming Lecture, W. Edwards Deming – A Kaizen Statistician

Deming Institute

Edwards Deming – A Kaizen Statistician, by Fritz Scheuren , NORC-University of Chicago. Guest post by John Hunter , author of Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. 2017 ASA Deming Lecture, W. In his presentation, Fritz provides a personal view of W. Edwards Deming the man and Deming’s ideas. That’s the way people understood Deming. As a critic, not as a person that gave you the opportunity to improve.

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Hansei and 6 Pitfalls to Avoid in Reflective Exercises

QAspire

Kaizen complements Hansei and ensures that lessons are executed. Also Read: Using Kaizen for Employee Engagement and Improvement. - – - – -. Improvement & Development Leadership Leading Change Leading People Leading Projects Process Improvement Quality Improvement Hansei improvement Kaizen leading change Quality Toyota Production System As individuals, teams and organizations, how much we learn from our past is critical for our improvement and future success.

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Guest Post: Begging For Leadership Won’t Get You A Pocket Full of Change

Lead on Purpose

They failed to suggest quality control improvement that is inherent in “Kaizen.” Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy of continuous incremental improvement in life that Toyota has incorporated into its leadership style. When the changes were made to remedy the workplace inadequacies, the result was a success, due in part to appropriate business process management practices, and an overall acceptance of “Kaizen”. Leadership Team Building Communication Kaizen Purpose success

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Uniting the Religions of Process Improvement

First Friday Book Synopsis

Bob's blog entries "Black Belts" Brad Power Business Process Management (BPM) Chemical company Air Products four process improvement "religions" General Electric Harvard Business Review blog Harvard Business Review’s Daily Alerts Kaizen Lean Lean "senseis" Lean Enterprise Institute Michael Hammer Motorola Shell Oil Six Sigma the Toyota Production System Toyota Uniting the Religions of Process Improvement

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Leading Thoughts for December 9, 2021

Leading Blog

Which is why, along with kaizen, PBNS—pleased but never satisfied—has been part of our culture since the beginning.)”. I DEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I.

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Innovative Companies Copy

Mike Cardus

Corporate Team Building creativity innovation problem solving kaizen facilitation process improvementIn Standardization is the first step to innovation , Alan Kay Wrote, “…every team is different. I think you have to take the principles and practices you mention, align them with the goals of the organization and decide where to place the emphasis.

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Jennifer Prosek: An interview by Bob Morris

First Friday Book Synopsis

Bob's blog entries 360º feedback a “culture of candor” a business “boot camp” AMACOM (a division of the American Management Association) an off-site professional development session that is dedicated to teaching the employees the business or focused on a specific topic Army of Entrepreneurs: Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce for Exceptional Business Growth “Army of EntrepreneursTM” model “kaizen” “truth well packaged" v.

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How Your Company Can Encourage Innovation from All Employees

Harvard Business Review

Kaizen, the Japanese management practice of continuous innovation, can be applied to knowledge work. Innovation Digital Article

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GC29: GamifiKaizen: Using gamification for continuous improvement | with Gal Rimon of GamEffective

Engaging Leader

GamEffective strives to be the “Fitbit of work,” taking the place of traditional performance management, feedback, and even continuous improvement practices such as kaizens. GamEffective strives to be the “Fitbit of work,” taking the place of traditional performance management, feedback, and even continuous improvement practices such as kaizens. Longtime listeners of Game Changer know that gamification isn’t about rewards and competition.

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Leaders Lessons from an Outward Bound Wilderness Instructor

Great Leadership By Dan

Business, particularly manufacturing has embraced the Japanese concepts of Muda and Kaizen , which have been widely adapted across industries as Lean. Muda is waste and Kaizen is the process of reducing that waste made most famous by Toyota’s Production System.

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How to Get Your Leadership Resolutions Back on Track

Next Level Blog

Practice what the Japanese call kaizen – continuous improvement through small steps. A new year brings with it the promise of change, but desire quickly gets crowded out by reality. Lists of resolutions are made and then fade. Part of the problem is the length of the lists themselves. When it comes to making meaningful change in how you show up as a leader this year, less is more.

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Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Book Review)

QAspire

Using Kaizen for Employee Engagement and Improvement. Ikigai is the Japanese art of living. I am a fan of Japanese way of thinking whether it is related to how they led the quality movement or how they exercise their craftsman spirit in day to day life.

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How to Boost Your Profits

Strategy Driven

The Japanese word ‘kaizen’ translates as improvement, and is the name given to a strategy that works on the principle that all employees work together to improve process incrementally. Kaizen is not a one-off experience, consistently aim to improve efficiency.

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The Network is Your Customer

CEO Blog

Now more than ever, Kaizen applies. I am a natural networker and connector. It is natural for me to try to connect people with other people who might be of interest. I believe in nurturing a network and have taken time to deliberately do that. See my blog entry on ways to network easily. So I was interested when a book The Network is your Customer - 5 Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age came across my desk it piqued my interest. But -that is not what the book is about.

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Is Your Company ‘Doing’ Lean or ‘Being’ Lean?

Strategy Driven

There was no value stream plan, so kaizen events were not tied into achieving the future state condition. It was clear they hadn’t updated their standard work to reflect changes in TAKT time or kaizen improvements. It seems as if every organization today is looking to “get lean.”

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In Review: The Outstanding Organization by Karen Martin

QAspire

This book also touches upon applicability of essential lean concepts including Gemba and Kaizen in building a high performance organization. In quest of excellence, an organization that grows has to deal with chaos. I recently read Karen Martin’s new book “ The Outstanding Organization ” that offers a simple yet effective model to create organizational conditions to combat this chaos and ensure better results out of improvement efforts. What Problem Does This Book Address?

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Toyota Under Fire

CEO Blog

Instead of firing employees like many other large firms were doing at the time, Toyota embraced its mantra of kaizen (Toyota’s firm philosophy of change/improvement for the better) and held company-wide training seminars (most impressively in factories it had stopped production in). I ran the Shelter Bay 10K yesterday. Hot day. 5:30 start. Slow time (54:58) put me right at 50% of the men that ran. At least I ran a reverse split (last half faster than the first).

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Leading For A Better Tomorrow

Tanveer Naseer

In regards to the future, Drucker advocated using this with kaizen, or continuous, ongoing improvement. The following is a guest piece by Bruce Rosenstein. How can leaders best shape the future of their organizations? Despite all of the competing demands in a leader’s day, it is important to be focused on the future as well as the present.

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Top Trends for Entrepreneurs in 2019

Strategy Driven

However, one of the most consistently successful is through the use of a Kaizen Burst. There are potential benefits for businesses of all sizes, and entrepreneurs would be wise to start looking at their own Kaizen Burst Event before their competitors do. Entrepreneurs need to understand the changing markets that they are involved in.

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Is It Fun Being Led by You?

Lead Change Blog

We got our black belts in six-sigma; words or acronyms like Kaizen, PDCA, TQM, QC and ISO became everyday parts of our work language. Few American presidents were more fun loving than Theodore Roosevelt. He hunted wild animals in Africa and, as a naturalist, started the U.S. Forestry Service. The Nobel Peace Prize winning president was a championship boxer at Harvard and the author of thirty-eight books.

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How to Boost Your Profits

Strategy Driven

The Japanese word ‘kaizen’ translates as improvement, and is the name given to a strategy that works on the principle that all employees work together to improve process incrementally. Kaizen is a valuable mindset to adopt and can dramatically reduce waste and improve a business’s profitability. Kaizen is not a one-off experience, consistently aim to improve efficiency. America is built on the spirit of entrepreneurship.

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Goldilocks, The Three Bears, And Effective Goal Setting

Terry Starbucker

I’ve always remembered something I read in a book many years ago about the Japanese concept of “ Kaizen &# – small improvements (hence, the little bear). Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Goldilocks…… I’ve done a lot of budgeting, planning, and goal setting over the course of my career. I started as a CPA back in 1982, and was always pretty handy around a spreadsheet (even when they were just 12-column green pads).

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The Failure of “The Livonia Philosophy” at my GM Plant

Deming Institute

Speaking of continuous improvement, my GM plant also had a very traditional “suggestion system,” not a Kaizen-style approach to improvement. The Livonia Philosophy (as written, not practiced) also sounds like Lean in the goal of utilizing of all people’s skill and creativity, as we practice in the Kaizen model. Guest post by Mark Graban. As I wrote about in my first post , my first job out of college was at the GM Livonia Engine Plant, outside of Detroit.

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ASA Deming Lecture by Brent James: Long Term View of the Healthcare System

Deming Institute

Edwards Deming – A Kaizen Statistician. Guest post by John Hunter , who founded curiouscat.com in 1996. 2010 ASA Deming Lecture – “Dr. Deming Consults on Quality for Sir William Osler” by Brent James , Institute for Health Care Delivery Research. Brent James has worked at Intermountain Healthcare for several decades. I wrote a previous post on this blog about a paper he wrote about using Deming’s ideas at Intermountain Healthcare.

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What Makes a Great Teacher? Leadership

Tony Mayo

High Standards and Big Goals Continual Improvement: Kaizen from The Toyota Way Inclusion of All Stakeholders Focused Effort Planning and Tracking Relentless Persistence Realistic Viewpoint without Complaint It was no surprise at all to learn that the book they’re writing about finding, training, and nurturing highly effective teachers is titled, Teaching As Leadership.

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Cliff Norman and Ron Moen Discuss the History of the PDSA Cycle

Deming Institute

Whereas in business… to stay in business you have to continually learn (continuous improvement, kaizen) but also you need to act. Cliff Norman and Ron Moen, of Associates in Process Improvement (API) discuss the history of the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) Cycle and their research on the subject in the latest Deming Institute podcast ( download the podcast ).

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Avoid Doing the Wrong things Righter…But, “By What Method?”

Deming Institute

Learning to do things “right” is important and all sorts of training exist for doing so, including Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, Plan-Do-Study-Act, Statistical Process Control, and ISO certifications to name just a few. Guest post by Dr. Doug Stilwell, Drake University.

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Possibility Maximizer: Management Improvement Carnival

Sales Wolf Blog

 The Management Improvement Carnival naturally features posts on how improve your management skills and systems within your organization, but also has a special focus on how this can be accomplished using lean management practices such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and even Hansei.

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Profound Knowledge from a Knowledge Use Perspective

Deming Institute

Edwards Deming – A Kaizen Statistician. Vincent Barabba presented the 2016 ASA Deming Lecture: Profound Knowledge from a Knowledge Use Perspective. Vincent Barabba led the US Census Bureau, founded Market Insight Corporation and authored The Decision Loom: A design or interactive decision-making in organizations (among other books).

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Great Leadership for Challenging Times

Great Leadership By Dan

Think task forces, committees, action learning, and Kaizen workshops. updated 3/23/2020 Here are the 10 tips for leading in challenging times. They may not be any no better or worse than the rest, but they resonate for me, and I sincerely hope they will for you too. Work hard and perform. Wow, isn’t that profound? I’m serious, though. As leaders, these are times that require sacrifice, hard work, and perseverance. This is how battles are won and great companies get turned around.

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Reliability: Another Dimension of Quality

Deming Institute

Edwards Deming – A Kaizen Statistician. Guest post by John Hunter , who founded curiouscat.com in 1996. 2015 ASA Deming Lecture by William Meeker – Reliability: The Other Dimension of Quality: William Meeker begins the presentations discussing his experience with W. Edwards Deming in relation to a paper by Meeker and Gerald Hahn. The core issue related to the issues around problems in how analytic studies are treated.

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Five Perspectives To Evaluate Your Experiences: Revise

Tim Milburn

The Japanese call this “kaizen&# or continuous improvement. Home About SPEAKING RESOURCES Archives CONTACT Five Perspectives To Evaluate Your Experiences: #4-Revise 0 Comments Most every professional athlete who reaches the top of his or her respective sport will tell you that it took a lot of hard work and practice to get there. Malcom Gladwell calls this the “10,000 hour&# rule in his book, Outliers.

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Reflections on Dr. Deming’s Hospital Notes – What Has Changed Since 1990?

Deming Institute

Lean organizations engage every employee, regardless of the letters after their names, in improvement through Plan Do Study Adjust cycles and a Kaizen improvement process. Mark also co-authored Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements , which was released in June 2012 and also a Shingo Research Award recipient in 2013. Guest post by Mark Graban.

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True North Can Really Be “Management by Results” in Disguise

Deming Institute

Example: meeting budget, achieving 95% performance in the country on all quality indicators and, having all our staff members on Kaizen events. Guest post by Mike Stoecklein. I hear a lot of talk in healthcare about the importance of defining “true north” for the organization. If you search the internet, you’ll find many definitions of true north and examples from organizations. Here are a few (all are from healthcare organizations): The company’s governing objective.

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Why Dr. Deming’s Work is So Important to Me

Deming Institute

Mark also co-authored Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements , which was released in June 2012 and also a Shingo Research Award recipient in 2013. Guest post by Mark Graban. While my work is usually associated with the term “Lean” and the lessons from the Toyota Production System, some of my earliest learning and inspiration for improvement came from the work of W. Edwards Deming.

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The Case for Investing More in People

Harvard Business Review

Companies that follow the Toyota Production System use Kaizen events to improve productivity on the manufacturing line. Both Kaizen events and Agile sprints are investments in innovation and human capital productivity. Steven Moore for HBR. “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything,” wrote Paul Krugman more than 20 years ago.

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Avoid the Improvement Hype Cycle

Harvard Business Review

To show how different it is, we have special words to describe them such as " Master Black Belt ," " DMAIC ," " Kaizen ," " A3 ," and " SIPOC.". For example, you could use "continuous improvement" instead of "kaizen." Organizations are overrun with improvement initiatives, from infrastructure overhauls to sales programs. And they often add new ones, spearheaded by new leaders who want to make their mark.

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It's Time to Rethink Continuous Improvement

Harvard Business Review

Six Sigma , Kaizen , Lean , and other variations on continuous improvement can be hazardous to your organization's health. While it may be heresy to say this, recent evidence from Japan and elsewhere suggests that it's time to question these methods. Admittedly, continuous improvement once powered Japan's economy. Japanese manufacturers in the 1950s had a reputation for poor quality, but through a culture of analytical and systematic change Japan was able to go from worst to first.

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Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?

Harvard Business Review

Call it "customer kaizen.". Right answers to wrong questions virtually guarantee failure. Innovators betting on "out of the box" thinking or "faster, better, cheaper" innovation paradigms for success all too frequently find themselves — and their customers — disappointed. Asking "how can we build a better mousetrap?" in an era of touchscreen and haptic virtuosity is not a recipe for success.

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