[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #43

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #43

August 27, 2012

Empowerment Series #28

 

 

 

THE POWER

OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

 

 

The Japanese word that summarizes the idea of continuous improvement is
kaizen.  This describes a very unique power, the power of believing that
whatever you are working on can be improved again and again and again and,
in fact, there is no end to the refines, improvements, and shaping that you
can bring to that product, service, information, or experience.  So you
persist, you persevere, you keep questioning what could be better, what
isn't working as well as it could, and you keep revisiting it to improve it
a little bit more. 

 

Di Kamp (1996), an NLP Trainer, noted that in today's world of business
where change has become the constant and where a company's capital has
switched from money and buildings and physical assets to human assets-to the
human capital of intelligence, creativity, and resourcefulness, to have a
powerful organization and business, we need powerful, resourceful people.

"The essence of the dynamic, effective and resourceful organization is its
dynamic, effective and resourceful people. This requires a re-education of
most people in what is expected of them at work. ...   We were trained if
something was wrong or missing - the deficiency model - and the training was
designed to bring us up to standard for the job we were doing. . . .   To be
effective in a world of constant change and development demands an ability
to be constantly learning and developing.  It is only recently that concepts
such as 'the learning organization' and 'life-long learning for individuals'
have come to the fore." (p. 18, The Excellent Trainer, Di Kamp, 1996).

 

Shifting then to a continuous improvement orientation requires that we also
shift from a deficiency model for problem-solving to a proficiency model.
That is, we shift from merely working on what is wrong or missing to the
more creative perspective of wondering, "What could be better?"  "How can we
improve our current methods, products, services, etc.?"  This is the frame
for continuous improvement.  "Everything can be improved.  Nothing is
perfect.  Whatever we have created can be refined and taken to yet another
level."

 

What is the power of continuous improvement?   It is the power of living
life from the perspective of creativity.   It is the mental-and-emotional
power of constantly looking for new ways and methods for improving things
and the excitement of wondering where will the next batch of new ideas come
from.  And when you think-and-feel from that frame, life itself becomes much
more adventurous and exciting. 

 

This frame of continuous improvement also empowers our sense of curiosity,
playfulness, experimentation, etc.   We are now empowered to recognize that
we have a much fuller range of abilities than we suspected and can wonder
what other potentials are yet to emerge as we seek to continually improve
our knowledge, our skills, our relationships, etc.

 

As I've been learning the power of continuous improvement, it frees me to
release whatever I'm working on when I judge it as good as I can do right
now.  I know it's not perfect.  I may even know that there's some problems
with facets of it, but it is good enough and anyway, life is one big
experiment in finding and refining what works and what brings more power and
joy to our lives, so I release it.  Then with feedback and more practice and
more experiments, I learn better, learn more, and so I refine it.   I take
it to the next level.  And so the continuous improvement continues.

 

I often speak about how that's what I did with the first volume of
Meta-States in 1995.  It was only two years later when I discovered the
first significant mistake in the book, and by 2000 when I created the second
edition, I had found four which I immediately corrected.  Those were
conceptual mistakes and the truth is that if I had waited until I found all
of those mistakes, I still might not have ever published that book.  It was
through the feedback and sharp questioning and even the skeptical disbelief
of some people which helped me to find those errors and correct them.

 

For the person operating from kaizen (the continuous improvement frame),
there are no fatal errors or failures, there's only more discoveries about
what can be improved, refined, and taken to another level of expertise.
This is where true empowerment requires responsibility and accountability.
Without responsibility and accountability, empowerment is not only reckless
and stupid, it can be downright dangerous.  Yet when you combine a passion
for continuous learning and improvement with responsibility and
accountability, with feedback and ongoing discovery, then you have an
incredibly powerful way to move through the world.  And the synthesis of all
of that is creativity, innovation, courage, boldness to move forward, and
fun.

 

Let your progress be incremental ... one small step at a time, one small
improvement at a time.  Over time, the small steps amount to something
significant. 

 

 

 




 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D. ---  Neuro-Semantics International

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                              

1 970-523-7877                                               

     

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Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential Movement in 2007, for
information about the Self-Actualization workshops, go to
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

 

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