-Written by David Whittier
This weekend my wife introduced me to the idea of Kaizen, and it’s fascinating, both in its etymology and how the idea is so important to success, in emergency management or any field.
At its most simple, Kaizen means “continuous improvement”. The concept came to the fore shortly after WWII, when W. Edward Deming went to Japan from the US to help the country rebuild its devastated infrastructure. Recognized by many as the father of the Total Quality Movement, Deming taught:
- Better design of products to improve service
- Higher level of uniform product quality
- Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers
- Greater sales through side [global] markets
He introduced what is now known as the Deming Continuous Improvement Cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act, and encouraged the question: what extremely small step can I take to improve the process or product?
Deming’s concepts were adopted with enthusiasm, and this dedication to quality and improvement was a big contributor to Japan’s rebirth as a leading technological and industrial nation. Total Quality Management became Kaizen, and in 1986 Masaaki Imai introduce the concept to the West in his book “Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.”
When we examine the Kanji characters for Kaizen it reveals something fascinating. There are two characters: ‘kai’ means change, ‘zen’ means good. The character ‘kai’ is composed of two parts: on the left is the character for ‘self’, on the right is a picture of a person’s back after being whipped. The character for ‘zen’ also has two parts: the top refers to sheep or lamb, the bottom refers to an altar.
So, a more in-depth interpretation of the Kanji word gives us a more subtle interpretation. By making a sacrifice or undergoing discomfort as an individual, one can use that sacrifice to increase the greater good. This idea of subordinating one’s own needs or desires for the benefit of the many is a key idea in Japanese culture.
What does that mean for emergency management? We should commit ourselves to continuous improvement: write our plans, exercise them, either in training or activations, check to see what worked and what didn’t, and revise the plans for the next cycle. No improvement is too small. We should also understand that in emergency management we always work as part of a team. We don’t have to physically whip ourselves, but emergency management can be a difficult, stressful endeavor, and by looking after the mission and the team before ourselves, we will be successful.
