Alternative Health Blog

Small steps don’t seem too impressive—until they add up to big changes in your life. The power of small is supremely evident in the method of kaizen, a philosophy of tiny steps toward improvement introduced in Japan after World War II. What worked for post-war Japan can be equally effective for any of us setting health goals this holiday season—and beyond.

Kaizen is a Japanese term and methodology that, perhaps surprisingly so, originated in the United States. When France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940, American leaders realized how rapidly Allied Forces would need shipments of military equipment. As a plan of reaction, U.S. companies developed a number of training courses to teach how to make equipment faster yet with the same or even better quality.

One of the courses focused on “continuous improvement.” It was based on how managers can look for “hundreds of small things you can improve” in the manufacturing process. The idea was not to overhaul everything at once but look for ways to change things for the better given the present situation (in 1940, that case meant the same workers and the same factory machinery). The Continuous Improvement course urged managers to invite every employee to find little ways to improve the quality of both the product and the process to make it.

Kaizen worked wonders for pre-war America, which supplied the Allied Forces with military equipment to help win key battles. And kaizen’s pivotal role in boosting the post-war Japanese economy almost goes without saying, as the country is renowned for its superior manufacturing acumen and “quality circles” that involve all workers.

Here’s the thing: Kaizen can work for all of us too, especially in our individual health lives. Too often we set health goals to, say, lose 20 pounds in six weeks or only drink wine once a week. Maybe we are determined to never eat dessert again. These are all examples of what you might call the “fell swoop” method—a sort of mental makeover in which you decide on your ideal health habits without any consideration of real life. If you need to lose 20 pounds, it is likely and healthier to do it over four to five months. Cutting back on how much wine or dessert you enjoy rarely works as an all-or-nothing proposition.

In his valuable book, “One Small Step Can Change Your Life,” author and psychologist Robert Maurer explains he has used Kaizen to help all sort of patients at UCLA’s medical center. He urges patients to take small steps, such as marching in place for just one minute per day while watching television. While one minute seems inconsequential, Maurer has found that the minute leads to five minutes, which leads to 10 minutes and, not all that far off, regular participation in an exercise program.

As Maurer proposes, kaizen is about bypassing the fear of failing at a larger goal (losing 20 pounds) because you focus on a small step (eating one bowl of ice cream instead of two). He writes that the small step will engage your brain’s main control panel, the cortex, while fear associated larger health goals will short-circuit any connection to the cortex.

Kaizen is worthy stuff, so the Alternative Health Blog will stage Kaizen Week from today, Dec. 1 through Dec. 6.  We will cover what you need to know about how kaizen can change your health habits: Ask small questions  to dispel fear, think small thoughts to develop new habits and skills, take small actions to guarantee success, solve small problems (this is key) even when feeling overwhelmed, bestow small rewards to yourself to produce results and recognize the small but crucial moments we tend to ignore in the hurly-burly of everyday life.

It’s a week that can be a small step toward something big.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.