Kaizen; or Transcending 99% Right

The world's greatest sushi restaurant Sushi Yasuda is on East 43rd in New York.

One of the blurbs on the website says,

'When someone sits down at his sushi bar, is moved by his fish and announces, "I've never tasted anything like it," Yasuda will matter-of-factly say: "as usual, only one-quarter inch above average." This is not false modesty. Rather, he is being precise. Yasuda understands that to always be a "quarter inch" better than anyone else out there, to be not simply good but transcendent, is all-consuming. And it is that quarter-inch difference that drives Yasuda day-in and day-out.'

This appreciation of small yet relentless increments in quality draws on a Japanese concept known as Kaizen, which translated into English becomes constant improvement. It is an approach to business which served the Japanese economy well - think of the number of versions offered during the evolution of the Sony Walkman; unlike a car where you are offered different versions from a catalogue and the manufacturer simply bolts on different wheels or paints it a different colour to give the impression of 'differentness', the Walkman was adapted, modified, upgraded, evolved, changed, over hundreds of steps to produce a better and better product. See one in the shop one week, go back the week after to buy it and, whoops, a different product!

Kaizen works. Think about it. Whatever you do in training, or training design this week, improve it next week. It can't fail as a philosophy and the starting point is irrelevent. Of course if you''re already terrific and you improve then, 'Watch out Phelps!' However, if you're not the greatest example of attendance, application and attitude but you constantly improve then, given persistence, you're going to end up a winner.

This concept is a little different from the much bandied-about cliche of recent and very welcome visitor to these shores 'Big' Bill Sweetenham; 'Ninety-nine percent right is one hundred percent wrong.' Bill's message is excellent and should be paraphrased as, 'Whatever you're doing, if it's not perfect it's not good enough,' but, taken literally, actually means, 'Whatever you're doing, if it's not perfect it's useless.' Even the 'not good enough' interpretation fails to deal with the reality of human-ness. Kaizen transcends these semantics and offers a fool-proof and fail-proof philosophy.