The 7 Steps to Kaizen

Kaizen: The Water and Fertilizer That Makes Lean Grow

Here’s something beautiful about Kaizen that most people miss: it’s not big three-day events. It’s not elaborate systems. Kaizen is the water and fertilizer that makes the soil able to take the seeds. The seeds are Lean. The ground is the company and the people. And Kaizen is what makes everything grow. It’s a love of the customer, pride in your work, and acknowledgment and honoring of your people.

And if you understand that, you’ll understand why small, continuous improvements beat big events every single time.

The Pain of Trying to Do Everything at Once

Let me tell you a quick story here. For instance, we have a boot camp trailer, and in it we have all of our supplies and things. And at the end of the boot camp, it takes so long to pack everything up and put everything away that we rely a lot on the audience to help us. And they do a great job, but in that environment that I have placed them, it’s very hard to get it right.

So, in the past, we just piled things. They were super messy. Then we got bins, but things were in the wrong bins. And then we got labeling, but people weren’t used to it. And then this last time, I went through and improved everything so much that I think we can pack up the simulations and the boot camp trailer so well and so Lean that it’s just done in like thirty minutes.

And if I tried to create that whole system all at once, I would just get so overwhelmed, I’d just give up. It’s one thing at a time.

So, if you saw us at boot camps three years ago, you’d be like, “These guys are a mess.” If we roll up now, you’d be like, “Dang, these guys are Lean.” If we roll up in two years from now, it’s going to look like we’re from a different planet. Because literally everything will have a spot, everything will have a place, everything will be labeled, everything will be Leaned out so well. But you have to start somewhere. So, I think small improvements are better.

Here’s the problem most people face. They see the gap between where they are and where they want to be, and it’s overwhelming. So they either try to fix everything at once and burn out, or they give up and do nothing. Kaizen fixes this. It says: improve one thing today. Then improve one thing tomorrow. And keep going. In three years, you’ll look like a different company.

What Kaizen Actually Means

You’ve heard me talk about the things that I learned in Japan, where a really prominent executive, Mr. Yabe, who was in charge of the Seven-Minute Miracle, drew seeds which represented Lean or TPS, the Toyota Production System. And then he drew the ground and said the ground is the company and the people. And he said Kaizen is the water and the fertilizer. It’s what makes the soil able to take the seeds. And the seeds aren’t bad, and the ground’s not bad, it just needs to have water.

And he said Kaizen, to him, it’s not the exact definition, but it’s a love of the customer, pride in your work, and third, acknowledgment and honoring of your people.

And I thought that was beautiful. Kaizen, if you take the translation of the word, it literally is to make better. And if, out of the research that I’ve done, if you take the word to make better, it’s not big Kaizen events, it’s not three-day events. Kaizen can be Paul Akers’ little two-second Lean improvements, they can be a little bit bigger, they could be more structured, and they should be to optimize the whole, not just sub-optimize in the wrong spot, if possible. But the bottom line is you’re always making things better.

And what are we making things better for? We’re making things better for the customer, we’re making things better for the quality of the product, and we’re making things better for our people. Isn’t that beautiful?

Here’s what this means practically. Kaizen isn’t a program. It’s not an event you schedule once a quarter. It’s the daily habit of making things better. It’s Paul Akers filming his two-second improvements every morning. It’s the foreman adjusting the tool cart layout so the crew doesn’t waste motion. It’s the superintendent reorganizing the gang box so materials are easier to find. It’s small. It’s continuous. And it compounds.

The Seven Steps of Kaizen

But there are seven steps that I wrote down from the book Toyota by Toyota that I really want to focus on.

Step One: Assess the Improvement Potential

When you’re going to improve something, and this can be small, in fact, I would recommend that it’s small, you have to look at the potential, the improvement potential. And there’s a couple of things there. Can it be improved? And the second one is, does it need to be improved?

Like, for instance, if you’re in a manufacturing facility and you’ve got this killer piece of equipment that produces six thousand parts per hour, but everything else on your line or in your production pod produces at one hundred parts per hour, you probably shouldn’t be improving that six-thousand-parts-per-hour machine because it’s already so efficient that in the overall scheme of things, it actually needs to sit idle most of the time.

And the other thing is, can you improve it? And there’s probably more categories there, but definitely look at the improvement potential. And there are some times where even if it looks like it can’t be improved and you need it to be improved, you’ve got to dig deeper and find a way.

Step Two: Analyze the Current Method

You can’t make an improvement unless you have standardization and stability. So, analyze the current method. Make sure you fully understand what is happening right now.

Here’s why this matters. If you don’t understand the current state, you’re just guessing. You don’t know what’s broken. You don’t know what’s working. You don’t know where the waste is. So, before you improve anything, study it. Observe it. Map it. Understand it. Then improve it.

Step Three: Generate Ideas

And I do this horribly. I just go right into the solution. “Hey, let’s do this.” But if I’m going to be a better leader, I need to go ahead, I get to go ahead and generate ideas and ask for ideas from the group and utilize the wisdom of the team.

This is respect for people. The people closest to the work know the work better than you do. Ask them for ideas. Don’t dictate the solution. Collaborate. Generate multiple options. Then pick the best one together.

Step Four: Make a Kaizen Plan

So, once you have the ideas, make a plan. This is what we’re going to do. This is the plan, do, check, act cycle, PDCA. Make a Kaizen plan and then implement that plan.

Step Five: Implement the Plan

This is where you actually do the improvement. You don’t just talk about it. You don’t just plan it. You execute it. You change the process. You test the new method. You make it real.

Step Six: Verify the Results

Once you’ve implemented that plan, verify the results. Don’t just leave it. See if it’s actually working.

Here’s the mistake most people make. They implement the improvement and move on. They don’t check if it worked. They don’t measure the result. They don’t verify the outcome. And then six months later, the improvement has drifted back to the old way because nobody verified it stuck.

Step Seven: Repeat

And if you follow that method, you can make lots and lots of improvements. You’re going to do the PDCA cycle: plan, do, check, adjust, or plan, do, check, act. And if you follow that method, you can make lots and lots of improvements.

This is the continuous part of continuous improvement. You don’t improve once and stop. You improve, verify, repeat. You do it again. And again. And again. And over time, the compound effect transforms the organization.

Leaders Must Model Kaizen (You Can’t Delegate It)

Now, one other thing. You can’t leave this to your organization. If you’re a leader, you have to do this. I’m constantly improving everything I do and taking videos all the time. In fact, with my organization, with my partners Kevin and Kate, I’m always improving. So I definitely have to be a part of it.

Here’s why this matters. If the leader doesn’t do Kaizen, the organization learns it’s optional. The team sees that improvement is something middle management does while leadership watches from the corner office. And the culture doesn’t shift. But when the leader does daily improvements, films them, shares them, and models the behavior, the organization follows. That’s how Kaizen becomes the water and fertilizer. The leader makes it real. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

A Challenge for Builders

Here’s what I want you to do this week. Pick one small thing to improve. Not ten things. Not the whole system. One thing. Your tool cart. Your gang box. Your morning huddle board. Your trailer layout. One thing.

Then follow the seven steps. Assess the improvement potential. Analyze the current method. Generate ideas. Make a plan. Implement it. Verify the results. And repeat. Do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day. In three years, you’ll look like a different company. As we say at Elevate, Kaizen is the water and fertilizer that makes Lean grow. Small improvements, done continuously, compound into transformation. Love the customer. Take pride in your work. Honor your people. And make things better every single day.

On we go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Kaizen actually mean?

Kaizen literally means to make better. It’s not big three-day events. It’s small, continuous improvements done every day. It’s a love of the customer, pride in your work, and acknowledgment and honoring of your people. It’s the water and fertilizer that makes Lean grow.

What are the seven steps of Kaizen?

One: Assess the improvement potential. Two: Analyze the current method. Three: Generate ideas. Four: Make a Kaizen plan. Five: Implement the plan. Six: Verify the results. Seven: Repeat. Follow these steps to make lots of improvements over time.

Why are small improvements better than big Kaizen events?

Because small improvements don’t overwhelm you. You can do one thing today, another tomorrow, and another the next day. Over three years, you’ll transform the organization. Big events burn people out and don’t stick. Small improvements compound.

How does Kaizen relate to respect for people?

Kaizen is making things better for the customer, for the quality of the product, and for your people. You ask the team for ideas because they’re closest to the work. You verify results to make sure the improvement actually helps. And you repeat to keep improving their environment every day.

Why must leaders do Kaizen themselves instead of delegating it?

Because if the leader doesn’t model it, the organization learns it’s optional. When the leader does daily improvements, films them, and shares them, the team follows. Leadership creates the culture. Delegation creates programs. Kaizen is culture, not a program.