The Monk and the Sumo Wrestler.

I was reading Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari and came across something called "Kaizen". Intrigued at first at the thought that this was some sort of martial arts tactic from Japan, like sumo wrestling, I quickly called up my brother who is a Black Belt at Taekwondo to find out more details. He hadn't heard of it. Funny. So I speedily read the book to reach to the Chapter on Kaizen and discovered that it had nothing to do with martial arts but it did have a "nine-foot-tall, nine-hundred pound Japanese sumo wrestler".

Here is what Sharma says on "Kaizen":

"...many centuries ago in the ancient East, the great teachers developed and refined a philosophy called kaizen. This Japanese word means constant and never-ending improvement. And it's the personal trademark of every man and woman who is living a soaring, fully awakened existence."

Kaizen is all about self-mastery. It is about building a strong character, a discipline filled with energy and optimistic thinking. Sharma quotes Epictutus who said, "No man is free who is not a master himself." How do you develop kaizen? The techniques include: Doing the things you fear and the 10 Ancient Rituals for Radiant Living. Want to know what it is? Read the book.

The wisdom of kaizen is: making self-mastery the DNA of life mastery. Okay so what does this all have to do with Lean Six Sigma? Well, Lean Six Sigma includes kaizen of an albeit not too different kind. Kaizen aftter all is about "constant and never-ending improvement" which falls squarely into continuous improvement. In the book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Business, Maasaaki Imai popularised the term.The concept is applicable to self-improvement and continuous improvement in any area of business. Much like Lean manufacturing, eliminating the waste and improving standardised activities and processes.

In Chinese, they say "gai shan", which means "change for the better" or "improve". "Gai" means "change" or "the action to correct" and "shan" means "good" or "benefit".
Essentially, to benefit - whether it is individual benefit or company benefit, or societal benefit, one needs to change. Kaizen is all about change. As Sharma puts it:

"Change is the most powerful force in our society today. Most people fear it, the wise embrace it. Zen tradition speaks of a beginner's mind: those who keep their minds open to new concepts - those whose cups are always empty - will always move to higher levels of achievement and fulfillment."

(See http://www.dmaic-net.com/blogm_view_blog.php?ID=29 )