The magic of one percent improvement

I was feeling good that morning when a reader told me he was not convinced of doing a corporate-wide kaizen program, much less if it would only result in a one percent improvement.

- REY ELBO

He claims they don't have the patience to make gradual changes when they don't know where to get the money for their workers' salaries that week.

I replied that beneficial change should have happened a long time ago, not today or tomorrow. The best time to implement a gradual change or a kaizen program was three or five years ago. The second-best time is today or as soon as you finish reading this article.

If you're not convinced, do the math. If you improve on anything by one percent each day, after one year, you'll be 37 times better. Conversely, if you decide not to do anything, that means a decline of one percent each day. After 12 months, you'll be down to almost nothing.

That's the principle of marginal gains, a.k.a kaizen or lean thinking for Western managers.

Doing consistent, small improvements can always lead to significant, cumulative results over a certain period.

Now, pause reading. Watch James Clear's YouTube video on "What happens if you get one percent better every day?" Find out how one percent improvement can be made better with the implementation of low-cost solutions, like choosing the right type of pillow for the UK's professional cycling team and how they won the Tour de France.

Here's a true story. Assume you're the concessionaire of a 10-seater coffee shop inside an international airport in Europe. Business has been so good since you started opening the shop two months ago. Almost every day, the shop is full of customers who would nurse their coffee as their eyeballs are constantly glued to a nearby flight monitor.