The Spirit of Kaizen: Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time

by Robert Maurer, Leigh Ann Hirschman

Discover the power of KAIZEN to make lasting and powerful change in your organization “Maurer uses his knowledge of the brain and human psychology to show what I have promoted for the past three decades―that continuous improvement is built on the foundation of people courageously using their creativity. Kaizen is much more than a world-class management practice; it is a technique to remove fear from our mind’s mind, enabling us to take small steps to better things. The process of change starts with awareness and desire in our minds and then leads to action and change in the physical world. Readers of this book will surely fi nd new ideas and encouragement to make improvements in personal health, performance at work, and their own well-being.”
―Masaaki Imai, Chariman, Kaizen Institute KAIZEN : The Small-Step Step Solution for You and Your Company Today’s businesses love the idea of revolutionary, immediate change. But major “disruptive” efforts often fail because radical change sets off alarms in our brains and shuts down our power to think clearly and creatively. There is, however, a more effective path to change. Change that is lasting and powerful. Change that begins with one small step . . . It’s The Spirit of Kaizen ―a proven system for implementing small, incremental steps that can have a big impact in reaching your goals. This step-by-step guide from renowned psychologist and consultant Dr. Robert Maurer shows you how to:

Genres: Business, Self Help, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Psychology, Productivity, Personal Development

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert Maurer, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist on the faculty of the UCLA and the University of Washington Schools of Medicine. He is the founder of the Science of Excellence, a consulting firm, and travels extensively presenting seminars and consulting on kaizen to diverse organizations, including corporations, hospital staffs, universities— even the U.S. Navy. Dr. Maurer lives in Spokane, Washington.

Reviews

[Maciej Nowicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Spirit of Kaizen talks about the continuous improvement process. Generally speaking, it’s about taking many tiny steps over an extended period of time which lead to huge results. It is more than Six Sigma where some companies may have conducted improvement projects a few months ago and now they might take it easy thinking maybe in a couple of months from now we are going to take a look at something new. Kaizen is self-discipline and the commitment that everybody has to present. So as soon as you completed one project a day ago you should be starting to do something today and so every day is a challenge to find the better way of doing your job. The pursuit of operational excellence never ends.

The book is not a typical lean book going through best practices in building the most efficient companies. It is more about neuroscience, behaviour, psychology, common sense and then it moves to operational excellence which is all about getting work done better, quicker, cheaper, while delivering superior value to customers. This book is perfect for anyone looking for a quick read that will provide you with sound advice and specific business examples of continuous improvement that you can easily transfer to whatever goals you are trying to accomplish.

In order to achieve operational excellence, you need to have business processes that are:
- effective and efficient at delivering added value
- tools and methods for design, enhancement, and control
- the right mindset and behaviours where everybody wants to and is able to be operationally excellent
-company-wide alignment of strategies, priorities, and decisions

The term ‘Kaizen” comes from the Japanese language. Loosely translated, it is “change for the better”. Here and there it is also called a lean event, a rapid improvement event, a continuous improvement or a WorkOut, but they are all describing the same thing. Essentially, it’s about taking unnecessary activities out of the process to streamline and make it more efficient. Kaizen is a well, structured and facilitated approach to improve a work area, a business unit, a process, or even an entire value stream.

When it comes to tools, interestingly Kaizen does not... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/the-sp...)

[Bob Wallner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often give 5 stars to a book, but spirit of Kaizen definitely deserves that grade.

When I purchased this audiobook I was assuming it would be another lean book that reviews the 8 waste, making dramatic changes, and other things closely associated with Toyota production system.

How wrong I was! This book is 1 part psychology, 1 part neuroscience, and 1 part common sense. Other than a couple small examples Toyota production system and lean are not even discussed. Dr Deming is credited with bringing thinking to Japan where it has been received with open arms.

This book is loaded with suggestions for both personal and professional small steps for improvement.

I believe this should be in every continuous improvement library.

In summary, the spirit of kaizen reminds us the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time and sometimes you may need to throw away the first bite.

2/8/20
My fourth time reading this book and I always seem to get a nugget of something out of it. I have been too big and too vague with my recent personal kaizen. I need to replace "eat better" with a kaizen suggestion. "Eat 1 less gram of carbs per day". Make small and painless changes.

[George Girton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short: loads of fun :-). Several really great ideas. Chief among them the human mind cannot avoid considering the question once posed, no matter how small. It is not necessary to answer the question but merely to put it out there.o

[Kevin Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

While brainstorming and searching online for a better approach to achieve my goals this year, I stumbled upon the Japanese word Kaizen. It’s a simple concept that we’ve all heard before - taking many small steps over an extended period of time leads to big results. Ever since discovering this word, I have been making a conscious effort to incorporate this approach while trying to create a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle. This book is perfect for anyone looking for a quick read that will provide you with sound advice and specific examples that you can easily transfer to whatever goals you are trying to accomplish. I listened to the audiobook and immediately ordered a hard copy that I plan to use as a reference. I work in a high school and feel so motivated to help young people by educating them about Kaizen strategies and the ease of adding them to your regular routine until new habits can form.

[Anton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat dated but very actionable. 4*+

Related books:
- Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- High Output Management

"The Spirit of Kaizen: Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time" by Robert Maurer is a book that emphasizes the principles of Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. The author introduces the concept of Kaizen as a way to make significant and lasting changes in one's personal and professional life by taking small, incremental steps.

Maurer explains that Kaizen encourages individuals and organizations to focus on making small improvements consistently over time, rather than attempting large, overwhelming changes. He provides practical strategies and techniques to implement Kaizen in various aspects of life, such as health, relationships, work, and personal development.

The book emphasizes the power of taking small steps, as they are less intimidating and easier to maintain. Maurer discusses the role of fear and resistance to change, providing insights into overcoming these obstacles. He offers practical advice on setting achievable goals, overcoming procrastination, and building new habits through the Kaizen approach.

Furthermore, Maurer illustrates the application of Kaizen in different real-life scenarios and shares the success stories of individuals and companies that have embraced this philosophy to achieve excellence. He emphasizes the importance of a supportive environment and the role of positive reinforcement in sustaining progress.

Overall, "The Spirit of Kaizen" serves as a guide for anyone seeking personal or professional growth. It offers practical tools, inspiring stories, and a mindset shift towards embracing continuous improvement through small, manageable steps.

[Vlad Otrocol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is really good, it resonates with atomic habits. I already knew about the kaizen concept even started practicing it a bit, but the book really makes you understand the importance of it and inspires trust in the method. It convinces you that a lot of the times small improvements are faster and more reliable in the long term than big changes. Life is not a sprint, it's a marathon.

[Kevin Orth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of big, huge, in your face, larger than life. This book affirms my bias for smaller, quieter, incremental, bite size adjustment, change, and improvement.

Tremendous, earth shattering, ground breaking, mountain moving improvement is possible - the way we get there is one small step at a time. We are more assured success in our big initiatives when we focus on the means, small details along the way, and make changes in tiny increments.

[Marco Barreiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that really shows you how important are the small things, because even the longest run starts with just one first step.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book isn't strictly clinical, but is written by a psychologist and largely overlaps with his other great Kaizen book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, hence my categories. Dr. Maurer's insight is really helpful to read after having a managerial role for a year, and heading into a new one now; I hadn't had this thought before, but there is a lot about Kaizen in the workplace that dovetails beautifully with Alison Green's approach on Ask a Manager, which is such a beacon of workplace sanity in late-stage capitalism. To summarize, which risks making this approach to personal and professional excellence sound less sophisticated and wise than it is, using Kaizen principles entails always looking for the smallest steps and most sustainable approaches to change, which is both psychologically healthy for individuals and the larger ecosystem of workplaces, and how to maintain gains over time. It's the opposite of "disruption," and I wish a lot more people had the patience and long-range vision to utilize these principles. I'm certainly going to be trying to.

[Reynaldo Ted II (Trewaldo) Peñas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overcome your fear and anxiety of bringing about change with this book.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to the essence of Kaizen.

[James Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the distinction of being the only book I have ever purchased 5 different times.

As a creative professional, I was introduced to the agile methodology through what is called SCRUM. I despised it, and pretty much everything about it as a very narrow sited solution to a very particular group of professionals of which I was not. However, it was my current companies mandate, that we transition to SCRUM. I looked and looked for books that could help me understand my place. The Spirit of Kaizen gave me what I was looking for.

My issues weren't with agile, or the agile methodology. My issues were solely with SCRUM, which is more like the 'coke' of carbonated water. It's a specific brand and method of applying agile. True agile methodology is much more fluid, much more beautiful in its simplicity.

This is a great book and an easy read. It almost has to be for me to have purchased it so many times.

[Michael Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaizen, a Japanese word meaning "good change" is a business concept centred on continual positive improvement. The genius is that the change being talked about is small, incremental, and non-threatening. Big change triggers panic or fear and leads to paralysis. It's hard to get an organization or individual on-board for a big frightening change. Kaizen, by contrast, focuses on the tiny step in the right direction. And it is surprising where those tiny steps can lead.

This is a business book, and the examples are all drawn from that world; however, the concept can easily be applied to many aspects of one's life - money management, personal relationships, career goals, fitness - so much so, in fact, that it can be read as self-help. A great book for anyone needing to take charge of a situation and move forward.

[Gavin Morrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is aimed at managers and business execs but anyone can benefit from applying the practice described inside.

It teaches a rational, scientific approach to solving problems by:

- breaking them down into smaller, more manageable chunks
- training the brain to start thinking of solutions by asking the right kind of questions
- allowing us to stay creative, simply by reducing the stress that inherently blocks creative thought

Will definitely read again!

[Piro · Rating 1 out of 5]

Few anectodes on how author managed to increase productivity and overall basic mental health of clients by telling female CO's to smile more and ask their staff about their weekend.

Yes, do teach peoplepeople to be kind to others, but stop wrapping it around kaizen philosophy.

TL;DR Small steps. That's it, saved you a read.

[Pctrainer98 · Rating 5 out of 5]

One small step... The idea of making very small changes to have a LARGE impact is empowering to me. I listened to it twice before it was due. I believe the Tipping Point will have a similar bend. Looking forward to listening to it soon.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing too surprising for me; a good, quick read through familiar territory. One of the mental blindfolds, “don’t mess with success,” spoke to me in my current moment.

“Those glossed-over mistakes are the seedbeds of irrelevance. They are lost chances to sharpen, to focus, and to remain competitive. Avoiding this “don’t mess with success” mentality is a centerpiece of Pixar’s pre-service training. Pixar’s management makes a point of acknowledging new hires that joining a successful organization, especially one that has a string of commercial and critical successes, can be intimidating. Management then explains that Pixar relies on these new employees to continue its history of success, not by merely repeating what worked before, but by bringing their suggestions, complaints, concerns, and questions out in the open. This mindset is reinforced at the completion of each film, when everyone is gathered together to list five things that worked well in the movie, and five things that need to be improved. The encouraging message? Nothing here is ever perfect, yet we strive for perfection.

Another small insight that I can use right away is the power of small questions:

No matter what the topic, the brain is compelled to pay attention to small questions. You can try to command your brain, “pay attention to the statues,” but it’s much less effective… Ironically, the smaller the question, the more likely you are to get an answer. A large question such as “how can I reduce payroll by 20%” has a paralyzing effect. Large questions turn on the fear response, alert the amygdala, and shut down the cerebral cortex, but if the question is small, the amygdala stays quiet, unthreatened. Ask the question repeatedly, and the brain absorbs the question without getting overwhelmed, and in its own magical way, it will eventually pop out an answer.

This is a short, straightforward book with credible authors, written with a minimum of business jargon or booster-ism. It would be good to re-read on a regular basis; I suspect I would take away different immediately-usable ideas given different life and job circumstances.

[Forest Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise behind the Spirit of Kaizen is not new. Basically, the idea is that small actions, done regularly, can have large consequences. You know: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step"

But Kaizen goes further than just reaffirming the idea that large achievements are made up of a lot of small actions. Maurer opines that it is, in fact, better to take small, manageable steps towards larger goals to prevent our fear factor from impeding our progress. He doesn't just talk theoretically, but uses plenty of examples from his own work. In one example, a client wanted to become more physically active, but was overwhelmed with the work it would involve so never tried. He put her on a daily program of just moving her arms around for one minute. This eventually lead to bigger and more beneficial physical achievements for her. Slow and steady progress, even if very small, is better than no progress at all.

He doesn't just talk about personal goals and progress, but also shares stories about working with professionals and corporations to increase productivity, morale and cost-savings through small but regular actions. In some cases, just moving the water cooler to a different location was enough to change the climate of the workplace for the better.

In a society where we are so often looking for a big extreme makeover or to disrupt and shake everything up, it's nice to read that small actions can be, in some cases, even more effective.

Ultimately, Kaizen is about making lifelong lasting changes, which seems like a healthy approach. I found this a useful reminder to recognise the power of small actions and to get motivated to take some myself.

[Boni Aditya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read the book end to end, the author has some good points to make but he has not said something in this book that hasn't been said before.

This is a habit-forming book and the genre falls squarely into atomic habits, or The Power of Habits or MindSet.

If you have read any of the books mentioned above you will realize that the book is a trite, i.e. a simple repackaging of old ideas in a new book.

Habit Engineering with Kaizen, might be a new technique, the author has some cool ideas like mind sculpting, but the author only picks and chooses, i.e. he only talks about use cases where kaizen can be applied carefully avoiding use cases where kaizen would fail miserably.

In fact the author does not talk about KAIKOO, the opposite strategy of Kaizen, also in the Japanese literature where they put all the force into a focal point to get something done very quickly in an all or nothing fashion. The truth is that in the real world there are no absolutes. In some cases Kaizen works and when kaizen don't work you need to use kaikoo, the wisdom lies in determining which case requires which strategy.

The advice is very repetitive the same thing told over and over again across various domains, marketing, sales, culture, personal habits, food habits, health etc.. after a while it become really irritating.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. The main thrust of it is that revolutionary change can come about as a direct result of miniscule incremental change, both at work and in our personal lives. That's basically it. That's Kaizen in a nutshell. The title isn't lying. The book could have been much shorter.

With that said, there were some interesting things here. I'm always interested when I see content overlap coming from disparate areas. So, I guess many books I read fall under the general heading of human performance, but specifically Kaizen is referenced for business practices and the other books it shares overlap with in this regard are usually branded as self-help books. The overlap in this case was visualization as a tool for success in business and life. Getting the mind accustomed to successively more intense formulations of uncomfortable situations, like speaking in public, etc.

[Li Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very quick read. Most of the concepts are not net new. The one I learnt is around mind sculpture, derived from guided imagination. Mainly it's visualization.

When you need to make a change, there are two basic strategies you can use: innovation and kaizen. Innovation calls for a radical, immediate rethink of the status quo. Kaizen, on the other hand, asks for nothing other than small, doable steps toward improvement.

Dealing with difficult people - Thinking of the person as suffering from a brain tumor may reduce your distress. Complimenting them every day gives you incremental deposit of the relationship. Blessed are your enemies, for they allow you to grow. A receptive and respectful management can unleash the creative energies of an organization.

[Alex Chen · Rating 1 out of 5]

jfc i wonder if there are any self help books that are actually any good

if any consolation reading this book (and others) has given me an idea to write a parody of self help books

the problem, as always – canned insights, over-reliance on cherry-picked anecdotes, and, finally – at the end of the day, you just kinda have to get up there and do what these books ask you to do; reading about it puts it off indefinitely. i don't think anybody doesn't seriously know about the techniques used in this book (viz., start small and try to improve your position step by step); the problem is with the implementation – and reading about it will never help you execute

[Alexandria Blaelock · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can have big scary innovative change, or you can have good change (kaizen) which is a change so small it sneaks past your flight/flight trigger. In fact, sometimes the step is so small it's just imagining a difference. And then you move on to the next small change, and then over time, you've accumulated a big change. Like continuous improvement only different.

The book is aimed at managers, but the technique of asking "What one small thing can I do today..." can be applied to small business as well as personal projects.

[Chris Weatherburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small book as the title suggests about Kaisen, main recommendation is to keep asking small questions. Keep going, pursuing small but steady gains. Over time these really add up to great benefits. In addition actively seek feedback from all to engage in structure dialogue. Praise those that bring forward issues that need addressed. Highlight suggestions as to how these could be beneficially dealt with and keep reassessing these processes over time.

If you like this review please check out my website with more of my book reviews: www.chrisweatherburn.com

[Sarah Dutkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read full of lots of ideas on incorporating kaizen into your life - both professionally and personally. As the subtitle suggests, this book offers many small steps that you can take in your life to be a more excellent life. From working with teams - morale boost, cost cutting, create new products - to personal - steps to improving your health, this book offers how to change your life with a lot of small wins rather than taking the pendulum swings of change. Highly recommended if you're going through a funk in life and need a reminder that a long journey begins with its first step.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting that this philosophy originated in the US and then migrated to Japan, obtaining its name. Overall the recommendations in this book seemed reasonable. I liked the idea that big change triggers a fear response, whereas small changes don't. I like the idea that you should ask yourself questions and then let your brain mull on them in the background, and that answers may come with time. It seemed a bit of a stretch to talk about Kaizen for health purposes in the work setting - to me this seemed overreaching.

[Agne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's really short. Although the points that are made are topical, it's a bit superficial. A few examples about eating and working out were memorable, but not much else. It also says very, very little about kaizen in organisations, it's mostly about improvements in personal life/success with a few passing mentions of organisational change, which interests me much more. So I guess you can skip this if you want to understand Kaizen better as a whole.

[Niket Sheth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. A must read for anyone who is stuck in business or personal life. This book tends more towards a business solution book than a personal guidance self help book. It takes all the concepts and gives timely examples. Although the solution and the steps provided to follow seem too little or too small for a huge change, this thing works on an psychological level and makes you think differently. A good breezy read. Recommended.

[Alla Boulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Maurer's One Small Step Can Change Your Life first before reading this book, which revisits and summarizes a lot of the same ideas. I like the real life examples of people making small improvements in both the books and appreciate the wisdom of small steps, small thoughts, small wins, small problems, and small solutions. A must read for anxious, frazzled people who want to get a grip on their well being.

[Marko Horvat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaizen je nešto što sam koristio do sada iako nisam znao da se tako zove ta strategiija. Idealan način za napraviti velike promjene u svom životu pomoću najmanjih koraka od doslovno par sekundi dnevno. Stvarno sam uživao čitajući ovu knjigu i siguran sam da će mi puno koristiti sve što ću iz nje iskoristiti.