{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Curiosity Chronicle","title":"The Magic of Continuous Improvement","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":108,"description":"Kaizen is a powerful concept for unlocking growth in your career, startup, business, writing, or life.\nA short thread on what it means and the magic of continuous improvement...\nKaizen is a Japanese word meaning “improvement.”\nIn practice, the term is used to convey continuous improvement.\nIt is a dynamic process - ongoing, incremental, compounding daily improvements.\nThe origin of the concept of Kaizen is long, winding, and global in nature.\nIn the 1930s, Walter Shewhart - a Bell Labs engineer - had developed the Plan-Do-Study-Act System (PDSA) to assess the effectiveness of organizational changes in driving continued business improvement.\nShewhart had mentored a young engineer named W. Edwards Deming, who went to Japan after WWII as part of the post-war recovery efforts.\nDeming implemented and improved upon his mentor’s ideas and helped to drive the remarkable post-war economic growth in Japan.\nBut the concept of Kaizen began to build a mainstream following with the works of Masaaki Imai, a Japanese organizational theorist and consultant.\nIn 1986, he published a best-seller, entitled “Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success” and founded The Kaizen Institute.\nKaizen prioritizes small, daily improvements (rather than large, step-function leaps).\nIt teaches that progress and growth are the result of daily actions to drive the small improvements.\nIt teaches that progress and growth are achievable for anyone willing to put in the work.\nThe great James Clear shared a powerful visualization of the magic of Kaizen.\n“If you get one percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”\nThe math doesn’t lie. Kaizen - continuous improvement - is the way.\n“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu\nAs you embark on your own thousand-mile journey - whether in your career or life - always remember the incredible power of small, consistent, daily progress.\nAlways remember the power of Kaizen....","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/4nO1oo__jWE5MpZsRfwEO_6q4py16kwv8WwJybce4FA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzMxOTcwLzE2NzEx/MzU5MDctYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}