Kaizen and Kanban: The Japanese philosophies you should implement to advance your career

Kaizen and Kanban, are two terms mainly associated with complex production tools and business philosophies. These concepts are mainly occupied in factories and industries to improve efficiency mainly taught to MBA students to prepare them for a managerial role. But there are considerable learnings that can be discovered from both Kaizen and Kanban which may make day-to-day life easier for us.

Let’s start with Kaizen, a philosophy that explains the importance of collective contribution and effort to achieve small and incremental improvements. In a business setting this looks like taking in the opinions of experts no matter their position in the organizational hierarchy, a more democratic leadership approach to managing a business or production line. The Japanese Company Toyota is famous for using this philosophy as a core principle which translates into their cars being heavily functional and long-lasting.

The factory production workers, for example, have the ability to inspect the cars at every line of products and make improvements as they see fit according to the specifications and they have the capability to halt production altogether if they find the problem major and may need fixing. A front-line worker having this much managerial power is unheard of in any industry or business. While this may seem like a hectic policy and slower production system design, not surprisingly, it generates results well beyond expectations .

So how can you implement Kaizen in your personal life? Look at the basics, it emphasizes taking into consideration every opinion of skilled manpower, therefore when taking any serious decision in your life you must take into account different perspectives to influence your perspective and to take various points of view into consideration. This will lead to better life decisions and is generally a good attitude to have to cultivate a learning and curious mind.

Ever seen sticky notes hanging on the wall in an organized manner in an office setting? That’s a Kanban Board. Kanban is a tool used to structure a production line, also a Japanese creation emphasizing full transparency of the work progress and phases of completion, a board structure which shows the timelines and amount of work completed and the remaining work. A clear comprehensive picture helps the team to reorganize and shift to necessary models as it demands and have a clear idea of how much effort a team needs to put.

Kanban can be used to organize your daily routines, studies or projects you may be working on. Kanban can organize your tasks easily and it can also increase your accountability.

All in all these bookish and industry-specific philosophies are not just limited to business managerial interpretations, but also are implementable in your day-to-day life. As an advanced and well-proven tool and strategy Kaizen and Kanban has a proven track record. You can trust that implementation of such strategies will be beneficial for your development.