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. 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.

Bystander occupancy

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.

After a few sips, these customers would routinely degenerate into being self-centered bystanders, unmindful of other potential customers. Some feel it’s the right thing to do when buying an overpriced coffee. However, for the concessionaire, it means lost opportunities.

Even customers who prefer to-go coffees are discouraged by the shop’s cramped set-up.

The problem is easy to understand. How to encourage seated customers to vacate their tables quickly. You don’t want to spend additional money on a business with a one-year return on investment. Brainstorm all low-cost solutions with your team. Rank all ideas for their practical use, and ease of implementation, but without alienating the customers.

When I presented this case study to a batch of managers attending my recent kaizen workshop, they recklessly jumped into many ideas without following the basic rule that “problem-solving is not progress if you’ll spend money for the solution” - an imperative rule among us kaizen practitioners.

One solution came from a 35-something woman who caught my attention for wearing two gallons of cologne, I supposed. “Yes, Maam! What’s your best solution?” She suggested a handwritten note that says “No bystanders” or simply a note that says it’s “Reserved.” What’s wrong with you? I told myself.

Fine! It’s a low-cost idea. But, an adverse handwritten note in an international airport? Are you kidding me?

We don’t have enough space to list down all the hilarious solutions that were given to me. The best solution is to have a secret deal with airport management to turn off the flight monitor for about three minutes from time to time. It could be ethically wrong, but airport management has the same, mutual interest in having your coffee shop become profitable.

Still, if some thick-faced customers don’t get the message, then hope and pray that the busboys will not encounter any issues with them. Incidentally, this case study is credited to Fredrik Haren’s “The Idea Book” (2004). Beyond that, I’m not saying having a secret deal with airport management is the best kaizen solution. Maybe it’s not. So, give me your best shot.

Coffee shop kaizen

When I was writing this piece, I came across an article by Mark Graban titled “Coffee shop kaizen: Why every mug doesn’t need a spoon (every customer is unique!)” He wrote: “(W)e discuss problem-solving and continuous improvement. How much time should we spend distinguishing between the problems we can solve, the problems we should solve and the problems we must solve?”

Interesting questions. Graban, a three-time recipient of the Shingo Publication Award, was with a friend in a coffee shop. When they ordered coffee, they noticed two petty things that matter only to kaizen practitioners and other people from the continuous improvement community.

As soon as their coffee was served, the waitress gave each of them a spoon, which to Graban’s mind is unnecessary as he’s a black coffee drinker. He thinks that the process of giving a spoon to a customer who doesn’t need it is an exercise in futility. Under the kaizen context, it means “extra-processing.”

To a critical-thinking customer, it produces no value and therefore – a form of waste.

In conclusion, there’s no such thing as a problem too small to solve. Regardless of its size, we must solve it to avoid making it big. Is this advice important to you? If yes, that’s the magic of a one percent improvement. If not, wait until it becomes too late.

If it failed to hit you in the head, then read again, this time with a coffee shop proprietor.

Rey Elbo is a quality and productivity improvement enthusiast. Send your private message on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or email [email protected] or via https://reyelbo.com. Anonymity is guaranteed.