The Beauty of Kaizen

During my concussion recovery, different health providers recommended various supplements.

I blindly started a couple of new ones all at once….forgetting how sensitive my body is to foreign entries (Maybe I can blame my concussion for that!). I also reduced the amount of one and stopped taking another.

“Looks like something disturbed your sleep last night,” my Oura app told me the next morning.

I couldn’t agree more. I won’t get into the details here as that’s not what is important here.

The downside was I couldn’t pinpoint the cause. There were too many factors.

I immediately stopped taking the new supplements and found my body back at its current equilibrium.

Does this story remind you of anything?

Anyone not heard of Kaizen? 

Small, isolated and easy to implement changes.

If I can’t isolate the change, then how can I assess the benefits of the change? Or the downsides?

The short answer is: I can’t!

I have witnessed too many teams or organisations making changes without stopping to consider the impact on other teams or users, which then leads to more problems and more changes required. Or they make wholesale changes which throw the entire organisation off balance. 

In my world, it would be better to make changes which only impact me or my team (if I had one), but to hold off on making any changes which might impact others until I have the time to assess the potential change with my users or other stakeholders.

I can totally see the beauty and the value of Kaizen.

Can you?

Photo: Canva