Palmer: And then the process gets easier and easier as you do it. And then finally, you get more comfortable doing it.
You get more comfortable. You reach the next level. You move forward stronger. Things change …good change. I do not live in constant fear that something is going to happen to my daughters. I have learned to let them live their lives…mostly. I very rarely cry myself to sleep in grief as I once did. My heavy emotions …and the humor I use to disguise them… are tempered. I cannot point to any single moment when things started to get lighter… but they did.
That’s Kaizen.
Translated literally to good change. One percent better everyday. It’s not a lightning strike. It’s a steady but light rainfall.
The beauty lies in both its gentleness and its accessibility. All of us can improve by one percent. We can make one small adjustment. We can take one more step. While the improvement may be barely noticeable day to day, stay the course. When I look back over months of conversations, my own unfolding is undeniable. When I consider each walk’s transcription another layer is revealed. Kaizen has been in the very fiber of these walks.
It directly showed up in the seventh walk with Rose Helm as we discussed supporting teachers and students.
Rose: How are we going to support students right across this spectrum of learning, which we’re saying has always been there and it’s the right thing to do …if we aren’t supporting teachers to be able to do that?
As these walks have proven to do, we circled around to an answer: Incremental improvement. Small, good change. Kaizen.
Rose: So what is that Japanese theory? I think it’s Kaizen, where it’s the idea of… What’s the next step you can take? They do this with people who are starting a weight loss journey or intimidated by an exercise regime. What is one thing you can do? Can you stand up a little bit more today? For five more minutes…or whatever.
Nineteen walks later, Ashley Battle toured me through the Boston Celtics Auerbach practice facility. There, painted boldly across a steel beam overhead: Kaizen.
Brad Stevens had brought this philosophy to the team during his coaching tenure as a fundamental shift in how they approached their game. As Nicole Yang of the Boston Globe captured it: “When implemented in sports, kaizen de-emphasizes the game’s outcome. Instead, it centers the process. Stevens regularly encouraged the Celtics to stay “growth-oriented,” with a focus on striving for daily improvement. The right process, defined by consistency and incremental progress, will eventually lead to the right results, he preached,”
Walking beneath that beam, I knew I would write this blog.
We may not be able to pinpoint the exact moment when everything shifted—but it will shift. One more rep today than yesterday. One more mindful step. One more genuine question. Then you’ll look back after a month… a year…or even twenty-one years, and see the quiet, persistent magic of Kaizen …yes, some days will feel like setbacks and you may very well lose your footing in that quicksand, but you are still making progress… good change.
That’s Kaizen.
Liz Hofreuter
Founder GEN-Ed
Not your typical researcher or consultant, Liz connects lived experience to transformative leadership. To uncomplicate leadership and education, every story matters and she is just getting started.
