5 essential attributes of a kaizen leader for 2023

With its emphasis on optimizing cost-effectiveness and employee experience, there has never been a better time to implement kaizen. In this article, we reveal five traits kaizen leaders must possess in order to achieve operational excellence in 2023. 

In a year that experts say will be defined by increased economic uncertainty, talent shortages and purpose-driven business models, kaizen is re-emerging as a highly relevant tool. As we uncover in this article, however, kaizen success is far from guaranteed. Kaizen leaders will need to embrace empathy, digital soft skills, data analytics, a growth-mindset and creativity to thrive in the current landscape. 

Before there was Lean Six Sigma or design thinking there was kaizen, the OG of operational excellence. With its roots in Japanese philosophy, kaizen literally translates into “change for the good.” Compared to other continuous improvement methodologies, kaizen is considered to be a gentler, though no less transformational, approach as it emphasizes making small, incremental changes that add up to produce big results over time. 

Research has shown that paramount to kaizen success is strong, committed leadership capable of translating the philosophies of kaizen to fit the unique needs of a business. But what does this mean for 2023? What specific skill sets and characteristics will kaizen leaders need to adopt in order to effectively navigate the year’s most pressing economic, societal and regulatory challenges?

The following reveals our thoughts on the matter but, make no mistake, we want to know what you think as well. Based on your own experience and conversations, what other qualities will kaizen leaders need to embrace in 2023? Please let us know in the comments section below or by sharing this article on social media. 

The secret to leading organizational change is empathy

Fears of recession and rising overhead costs due to inflation have pushed companies to dramatically reduce spending. At the same time, employees are demanding better working conditions and are burnt out from more than two years of pandemic-induced anxiety. 

While a fundamental objective of kaizen is to reduce cost while also humanizing the workplace, this year, kaizen leaders will have to be especially mindful of employee well-being and tolerance for change.

Even as the Covid-19 pandemic fades from the front pages, many workers are still grappling with heavy workloads, economic uncertainty and challenges acquiring adequate childcare. According to a recent Gallup poll of US workers, 18 percent of respondents indicated they were “actively disengaged” at work. In addition, the pollster revealed that the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is the lowest it has been in a decade at 1.8 to 1. 

In other countries the problem appeared to be worse with one global Microsoft survey finding that 50 percent of employees and 53 percent of managers described themselves as “burned out at work”. 

This is all to say that executing a successful kaizen strategy may require more patience and hand holding than it has in the past. The good news is that kaizen, with its emphasis on cultivating a mindful and humane approach to continuous improvement, might be the ideal operational excellence strategy for this moment in time. 

Before you launch a new kaizen project, however, you would be wise to assess for signs of burnout, disengagement and other forms of toxic behavior that should be addressed before-hand. Leaning into kaizen as more of a transformational leadership strategy vs. an operational excellence methodology may also increase chances of success.

Driving change in 2023 will require strong digital soft skills

Although workers are starting to return to the office, at least part time, remote and hybrid working are here to stay. In fact, a 2022 survey by Flexjobs revealed that 48 percent of employers have opted to retain some form of remote work for their workforces.

This means many kaizen leaders will be tasked with facilitating these projects, at least in part, in virtual environments. This will mean not only interacting with people online, but also motivating, brainstorming with and actively listening to them as well.

It should also be noted that despite the return to in-person work, virtual meetings are on the rise across the board. Either out of choice or necessity (i.e., in fully remote work environments), many companies may choose to run kaizen events, collective brainstorming sessions and core components of the philosophy, entirely over video conferencing platforms.

As a result, cultivating digital emotional intelligence and collaboration skills will be paramount to achieving success with kaizen in 2023. Kaizen leaders need to rethink everything from events to interpersonal communication to change management strategies for virtual environments. 

Empower employees by democratizing data

A fundamental philosophy of continuous improvement is “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. With that in mind, data – at least in the form of metrics – has always played a significant part in kaizen projects. The emergence of advanced analytics, data visualization and other new data-driven technologies, however, present new opportunities for kaizen leaders to use data to measure success and drive change as well.

Tetsuya Kimura, president of auto parts manufacturer Asahi Tekko, explained for example how the company uses data analytics to augment kaizen practices and sustainability objectives in a recent interview with The Worldfolio. As he put it, “You need to really understand where the electricity is used in numbers. Companies may try to buy more energy efficient facilities, but we are not sure if that is very effective. You need to have numerical data. It is important to let the data be visualized, and then analyze it to find issues by seeing how effective these facilities are in numbers. We are able to measure 95 percent of our real-time usage of electricity and gas. We are also able to directly measure each building and area, to determine their gas and electricity usage.”

Successful kaizen leaders not only possess data competency themselves, but they also know how to cultivate these skills in others. Cultivating skill sets such as data literacy and storytelling empower employees to act autonomously (a core component of kaizen methodology) and paves the way to building a data-centric organization. 

Adopt a growth-mindset to break free of the status quo

Successful kaizen leaders understand it is so much more than a cost-cutting tool. A company cannot thrive on savings alone. Instead, kaizen should be approached as a means for enabling growth, first by eliminating unnecessary work and spend, and secondly by rallying employees around transformational change and new ways of doing business. 

As Shri Ganeshram, founder and CEO of real estate investment company Awning, recently told PEX Network, “In 2023, the business landscape is going to be more dynamic and ever-changing than ever before. Kaizen leaders must possess a growth-oriented mindset to be able to navigate this complexity and stay ahead of the competition. With a growth mindset, kaizen leaders will be better equipped to identify opportunities for improvement, take calculated risks, and continuously adapt and evolve their strategies to stay ahead of the curve.”

Case in point, Trader Joe’s famously uses kaizen to cultivate award-winning, “wow” customer experiences. Rather than simply following orders from the top, in-store employees are encouraged to embrace the kaizen mindset and implement small, daily improvements to the customer experience on their own. 

Another instance of a company who has leveraged kaizen to deliver more than just run-of-the-mill cost savings is GE Gas Power. Not satisfied with the 15 percent reduction in kilowatt-hours and a 50 percent reduction in fuel use the facility had recently generated using kaizen, US-based GE Gas Power took its approach 10-steps further by embracing behavioral economics and focusing on the environmental impact of reducing energy consumption. As a result, they were able to further reduce its annual energy usage by eight percent, well above the original three-to-five percent target.

The motto for 2023: Creativity over capital

As businesses battle inflation, rising energy costs, potential economic downturns and a host of other challenges, the need for proven continuous improvement methodologies such as kaizen has rarely been more urgent. These same factors may make implementing these strategies successfully all the more challenging. 

In times of economic uncertainty, organizations may be pressured to cut costs fast and without much thought, basically the antithesis of what kaizen is all about. In addition, competing priorities and anxiety amongst employees will mean kaizen leaders may have to work twice as hard to engage stakeholders than they normally would.

Confronting these challenges effectively will require ingenuity, especially when it comes to securing buy-in from leadership teams and stakeholders as well as securing the resources needed to pull them off. This will require kaizen leaders to rethink and potentially evolve their value propositions as well as embrace new tools for supercharging results. As kaizen is all about reinvention, however, we know smart organizations will rise to meet these challenges.