Kaizen: Continuous Improvement

Underpinning the concept of improvement is the courage to innovate and not get rooted in the status quo as the 'way things should be'.

#ContinuousImprovement #ProfessionalDevelopment #Innovation #SchoolImprovement

The older we get, there is a danger that we get nostalgic for how things were done in different times; times that had a different context and different challenges. Improvement requires a forward-thinking approach that anticipates the futures and prepares you for it. I suppose this could be describes as 'thinking outside the box' but I like to think of it as recognising the temporary nature of the box. Within Buddhist philosophy, there is the concept of anicca or impermanence. There is no time to stand still. The world turns and things move on. It's important to keep moving with it.

I'm reminded of an article that I found in the TES, though I'm not sure when, that introduced me to the Japanese kaizen, which means continuous improvement. It was part of an article that John Burns, University of Exeter Business School write on how schools can learn from the world of business. It obviously had an impact on me at the time because I cut it out of the magazine and stuck it in my Leadership Learning Journal.

The article describes how continuous improvement is characterised by an "ongoing betterment". I can't help but think that they just looked up the words 'continuous' and 'improvement' in a thesaurus to come up with that insight. However, what I do see in the article is an explanation in a shift of mindset that is open-minded and adaptive. It recognises what progress really looks like and the confidence of leaders and their workforce to embrace steady, incremental change.

If kaizen is the hero of this story, their nemesis comes in the form of not just one villain but a gang of four. (I almost wish I were able to give them their own one-word villain name)

The enemies of kaizen or continuous improvement:

• emphasis on short-term success

• fear of failure

• conformity

• lack of curiosity

Kaizen is refreshing. It offers a positive spin on never being satisfied with the position we hold. That doesn't mean that you don't appreciate the situation that you find yourself in; you recognise that it won't last just by standing still to admire it. Neither is it the pursuit if perfection as this doesn't exist (other than maybe in Plato's realms - one for the fans of Greek philosophy).

The Project Management Institute provide an overview of the process required for Continuous Improvement, mapped against The Deming Institute's Plan-Do-Study-Act model. What I don't like about their process (to get that out of the way) is how it starts on 'Identifying an issue' which implies a problem or some shortcoming that needs to be addressed. If we replace this sentiment with 'Identifying the situation we find ourselves in', this incorporates every single organisation and safeguards against 'good enough' thinking. What I do like is their emphasis on their Way of Working (WoW) which I think is at the core of improvement. It implies a mindset and attitude in the things that we do rather than the things themselves.

There are many graphs and diagrams that illustrate the upward direction of improvement with the more accurate ones recognising that the line is not a straight one but incorporates times of success and relative failure - two steps forward, one step back and sometimes the other way around. The emphasis is on accepting that improvement requires us to take risks. There is no guarantee that if something works, that it will always work. Time and place are important.

In an educational context, the TES article reminds us that no two schools are the same (not even within a MAT). Continuous Improvement involves continuously learning about your own school context, what works and why it works. What can be built upon and what can be rolled out?

I did find an article in the TES from 3 November 2020 written by Lekha Sharma, using kaizen to inspire 'Four small ways to improve your curriculum right now'. Those four things turn out to be prioritising reading, realistic timetabling, curriculum equity and getting creative. They argue the need for innovative problem-solving with incremental change. This is clearly based on a description of the journey that they are on at their particular school. However, the title of the article still implies that this can be rolled out elsewhere like an off-the-shelf initiative. This particular gang of four are on the good side but still play safe in establishing what works.

I am going to assert that kaizen is much bolder than this. It requires us not to rest on our laurels and to keep moving. Where something works, we should ask how that can grow. If the answer is that it can't get any better, then give it a customary nod and recognise that it's had its day. I think of some great things in the schools I've worked. I can think of effort rewards systems and school variety shows that were excellent in what they were looking to achieve but they'd reached their ceiling of what they could both achieve. In both cases, each year they were rolled out exactly the same as the previous academic year and both became stale. They were both eventually dropped. The problem was that people were protective of them rather than asking the question 'what's next for it?' or 'where does it go from here?' Let's make it clear that I'm not advocating change for change's sake or for people to come in and throw sprinkles over it in an attempt to be imaginative (and I've worked with those people). Like the best football coaches that at the end of each season make changes to their squad which sometimes sees development from within, sometimes some additions and sometimes letting go of a firm favourite.

This reminds me of the Sigmoid Curve that one of my previous headteachers would include in their Welcome Back powerpoint presentation at the start of every academic year. A reminder that to push on to better things, you have to act at the point that you feel that things are working out successfully. The key thing is having confidence in why you do the things you do and how incremental change will lead to growth.

As an aside, the Sigmoid Curve reminds me of the anecdote that Simon Sinek gives of two lumberjacks who work solidly chopping wood all morning but while the first axeman carries on doing what they are doing because they they've got a rhythm going, they notice the second lumberjack disappears and comes back an hour later. At the end of the day, they count how much wood they've chopped and the second lumberjack has chopped more. This goes on most days until the first lumberjack asks how, when they start and end at the same time each day, that the second lumberjack still cuts more wood even though they disappear for an hour. "Where do you go in that hour?", they ask. To which the second lumberjack says, "I go to sharpen my axe."

The important thing is to build on success with a clear vision of what's on the horizon and what we need to do to carry on being successful. Momentum isn't constant. It ebbs and flows. Continuous Improvement comes from facing both sunny days and rainy days, with a smile, asking "This is great! So where do we go from here?"