Project Management the Kaizen way
From the Project Management in Real Life Blog
by Drake Settsu
Sharing my Project Management adventures and some tips.
I like to keep my articles brief and to the point.
Project Management is an Art, Science, and Discipline.
Just keep it simple and have fun!
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Date
Today's Project Manager is faced with many challenges to deliver projects on time within the budget. They need to work smart with so much responsibility on their shoulders. Do they have time to get involved in continuous improvement? Yes.
The open minded Project Manager can use Kaizen to bring additional value to Project Management. What is Kaizen? It is a Japanese word. KAI = CHANGE and ZEN = GOOD, so Kaizen = continuous improvement. Never be satisfied with a process or procedure. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make improvements, whether it's a suggestions for the organization or the way you manage your projects. Make changes with an incremental approach to gradually yield results immediately rather than going for it all at one time. Just keep your goals on the radar and be patient while you work towards the goals. Quality outcomes is the reward.
Goals have been achieved, but we are never done with continuous improvement. There is always opportunities to make something better. Never be satisfied, always be hungry to make something better one day at a time. Project Managers get a good view of what is going on in the organization, so they need to speak up when they see something that could be improved and they also need to keep tuning their tools of the trade to operate efficiently.
Posted on: June 07, 2018 10:29 AM |
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Comments (19)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Very Very Nice Drake. I honestly like the figure a lot. I assume you came up with this brilliant one so maybe yoy consider contributing this for the coming version of the Agile Practice Standard.
Anish Abraham
Privacy Program Manager| University of Washington
Auburn, Wa, United States
Good insights, Drake and thanks for sharing. I like the idea of using Kaizen, and I have used this in the past.
Thanks for sharing Drake!!
Break what you have and piece it together better than before or to perform better
Thanks Rami, Anish, Cibin & Eduin!
Karen Rowson
Senior Project Management| Elevance Health
Richmond, Va, United States
Nice infographic. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this Drake - it aligns well with my article this week about the need for project managers to have courage to act.
The use of practices like retrospectives on all types of projects (not just those following an agile lifecycle) can help with incremental, continuous improvement.
Kiron
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Drake nice post.
So we should continue to do ZEN KAI :-)
Alok Priyadarshi
Project Manager| Tata Consulting Engineers Limited
Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India
Thanks Drake for sharing nice post.
Very simply and effectively explained.
Thanks Kiron, Vincent & Alok!
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Thanks for the share, Drake. Say no to complacency :)
Frederick Oware
Senior Systems Analyst| Social Security and National Trust, Ghana.
Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana
Drake, this is great.
I'm wondering how project managers could be effective if we don't adopt a kaizen approach.
I think the image says it all. Beginning with planning and accepting feedback for re-planning will bring that continuous improvement every Project Manager seeks for.
Kathy Castle
Author at https://www.projectcubicle.com/| Freelance
Tx, United States
Thank you for sharing. Great article. I have been searching an article related with Kaizen for a project.
Thanks Kathy! That is a good article on Kaizen, I appreciate you sharing the link.
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