Have you heard the saying that sometimes our strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses? It’s true. You see, sometimes we rely so heavily on our strengths that we use them in a super-concentrated fashion, which isn’t necessarily effective. Or, we might rely on them so much that we forget we need to work on them to keep them sharp, and our performance falters.
Over the past several years, I’ve worked in several manufacturing environments in which I’ve been exposed to the Kaizen process. Kaizen is often included in lean manufacturing processes as a way to simply and fine-tune how people do their work. It has been very successful in Japanese companies. Essentially, Kaizen focuses on making continuous, incremental improvements or changes. It’s effective because of its focus on small changes. As you are no doubt aware, when faced with a big change, we are often daunted, overwhelmed, fearful. Small changes don’t seem to evoke the same levels of stress and fear.
So, consider how this approach might be applied to you. What if you took a Kaizen approach to growing and improving in your areas of strength, learning or strengthening new skills, and more clearly defining your strategy and action plans?
Do you think you could implement this kind of approach to your personal growth?
What benefits might you enjoy?
Would you be less likely to be caught unaware when the winds of change blow in your direction?
Let’s put it into action and find out. Today, pick a strength, skill, or strategy to which you could make small, incremental changes to each day over the next week. Track your activities and your progress each day.
Consider this, if you can make a 1% improvement each week, you would have improved your performance by 52% over the course of the year! That’s huge! Take it one step farther…what if you could improve by 1% each day…that would be a 365% improvement over the course of the year! Again, monumental change, but made in small, doable steps.
I can’t wait to hear what you’ve come up with and what your results are!
