It has been said that the only constant is change. There is one other constant, the desire to change. Yet change is difficult for most of us. New Year’s resolutions often are quickly abandoned, and willpower and self-discipline offer limited assistance.

So how can we create positive improvements in our health, our work, and our relationships? Surprisingly, a strategy developed to enhance the quality of military equipment in World War II has wonderful peacetime applications.

At the beginning of the war, there were little human or material resources to spare, so a group of consultants led by a man named W. Edwards Deming encouraged factory workers to look for very small ways to improve the process or the end product, ways that required little time or expense. These little changes unexpectedly led to major improvements in the quality of equipment that helped win the war.

After the war, the Japanese invited Dr. Deming to share his strange ideas about quality with their engineers. His ideas were quickly embraced by Japanese industry, including Toyota, that gave the concept of making very small improvements to achieve large goals the name kaizen.

Kaizen has been used by industries throughout the world to increase quality and enhance creativity. So can the strategy of making very small steps to achieve large goals be used to improve your success, health, and relationship goals? The answer is an emphatic yes!

Let me share just a few of the surprising findings. One of the most famous health studies has followed 5,200 Boston residents since 1980. The study found that losing one pound a year for four years and keeping the weight off for four years reduced the risk of developing high blood pressure by 25%.

A Mayo Clinic investigation found that thin people moved around more than heavy people. Healthy-weight individuals took the stairs, parked farther away from the store, paced more while talking on the phone, and just moved more during the day than heavy people. The difference was a measly 350 calories, but over the course of a year, it resulted in a 30- to 40-pound weight loss.

Exercising 10 times a day in three-minute intervals results in the same health benefits as one 30-minute workout.

John Gottman, Ph.D., has studied couples’ interactions in an attempt to predict marital success. His results are extraordinary. He can conduct a 15-minute interview and predict the likelihood of relationship success with 93% accuracy!

What does this have to do with kaizen? One of his predictors is that positive attention outweighs negative attention by a minimum of five to one. What does this mean? It takes us back to small moments, small actions. It is the tone on your partner’s voice when you call during the day. Is his or her voice excited or does his or her voice tone suggest you are interrupting more important tasks? Does he or she put down the remote control, the newspaper, the telephone when you walk through the door? If you went to the dentist this morning, does he or she remember to ask you about it tonight?

These small moments, accumulating throughout the day, were highly predictive of marital success.

In our 70mm, Dolby, Supersized, Extreme-Makeover Culture, it is hard to believe that these small steps can achieve large goals. So why does kaizen work? There are two reasons.

One is that the small steps do not trigger fear. The bigger the change, the more fearful. The more fear, the more likely the individual is to avoid the changes. For example, deciding to join a gym, hire a trainer, and go on a severe diet regimen may trigger fears of failure, fears of success, fears as one drags an overweight body to a gym filled with trim, attractive people. By making the steps small, the fear remains small or nonexistent.

Two, the repetition of brief events grabs the brain’s attention and begins to build a habit. You only have to look at advertising to witness the power of repetition. Even if you are a vegetarian, the sight of two golden arches immediately calls up the name of the restaurant and its products. It has shown you its ads often in 15-second commercials, and the sheer repetition has compelled your brain to commit cells to the images. You can “advertise” good health, good work behaviors, good responses to challenging people, by repetition. You will be more effective practicing a new behavior a minute or two a day, daily, than doing the behavior once a week for a longer period of time.

One of my favorite kaizen exercises is called mind sculpture. It was discovered by world-class athletes who used it to train. They would close their eyes, pretend they were actually in the event, seeing the basketball net or the hockey goal or the Tour de France path before them, and, without moving a muscle, they would imagine themselves doing the athletic behavior perfectly.

Mind sculpture is based on an obvious principle: with your eyes closed, the brain is so stupid, it doesn’t know where it is and is sending perfect messages to the body. So, imagine a difficult colleague in front of you — remember, eyes closed — and see him or her doing whatever it is you find irritating. Now, without moving a muscle, picture yourself looking at the person, only now you are saying and gesturing the way you would like to ideally, with the voice tone you would like to have. Again, repeat this exercise once or twice a day, and the brain will commit cells to the new behavior.

Kaizen is also useful in the creative process. There is a myth that many great inventions and discoveries arose from big “aha moments” where a sudden burst of insight or genius led to breakthrough ideas. This happens, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Many wonderful discoveries and products came out of a small moment, too small for others to notice or care about, but this person thought worthy of a second look.

We were gifted with Disneyland when Walt Disney took his two young daughters to an amusement park. He put them on the first ride, sat on the bench, and collected them afterwards. He went to the second ride, and again watched them from a bench. By the third ride and the third bench, he was quite bored and looking around at the other bored adults. He thought, There must be a way for a family to share an amusement park together, and Disneyland was invented on that third bench.

The bar code that has revolutionized so many industries, from grocery stores to airline baggage, was a kaizen moment. The inventor was trying to figure out how to speed up the grocery-checkout process. He was not succeeding, and one day, sitting at the beach, sticking his hand in and out of the sand in frustration, he saw the sand sticking to the grooves of his fingers and thought, That’s it. The bar code was invented.

Throughout my program, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, there are other examples of kaizen discoveries, including the microwave, the Internet, the credit card, and the seven-academy-awards-winning movie Schindler’s List, to name a few.

Embracing small moments and taking small actions can make life more joyful, rewarding, and meaningful. With kaizen, significant life changes are effortless, simple, and inevitable.

Click Here to learn how One Small Step Can Change Your Life.

© Nightingale-Conant Corporation

For many people, change is more threatening than challenging. They see it as the destroyer of what is familiar and comfortable rather than the creator of what is new and exciting. Most people, and organizations, would rather be comfortable than excellent.

But these days, if you don’t change, you stagnate and die. We must implant change in the corporate culture.

As a businessman myself, and as an adviser to executives, I’ve encountered many examples of constructive change brilliantly executed.

Let me share with you some of the things I’ve learned:

People will change only if the alternative is worse than change.

Sometimes it’s hard for people to internalize the need for change. A Naval aviator once made an interesting observation to me that illustrates the point.

He said many pilots have died because they stayed with their disabled aircraft too long. They preferred the familiarity of the cockpit to the unfamiliarity of the parachute, even though the cockpit had become a death trap.

Many businesses have died because their people preferred the familiar but deadly old ways to the risky but rewarding new ways. We must teach them that to stand pat is to perish.

People hunger for stability amid change.

The steady, reliable people in any organization are often fearful of change. We must keep them in mind. We must assure them that change doesn’t mean an end to their world; it means a continuation, but with improvements.

Here are some things we can do:
Explain the reasons for the change. When people understand the logic behind change, it becomes more rational and more comfortable.

Show how our plans keep risks to a minimum. Emphasize the things that will remain the same.

Let them know what to expect, step by step.

Let them know that top management is fully behind the change. Our confidence in the value of the changes will be reassuring to them.

Commend them and recognize them for the constructive changes they make.
For change to be successful, it must be planned.

We must be in control of the changes instead of at their mercy. Successful changes are based on values.

As Levi Strauss CEO Robert Haas told Harvard Business Review, “Values provide a common language for aligning a company’s leadership and its people.”

Levi Strauss summarized its values in a document it calls its “Aspirations Statement.” Everyone in the company is familiar with it and is guided by it. Whenever a Levi Strauss team analyzes a new idea, among the first questions asked is “Is it aspirational?”

When Honeywell decided to change its orientation from national to global, it adopted a set of values that included integrity, quality, performance, mutual respect and diversity.

These values enabled it to steady its course through the sea of change.

Planned change involves a three-step process: softening, reshaping and restabilizing.

The softening stage is the most uncomfortable for employees. After years of doing things the same old way, they have been hardened into rigid habits. Now they have to unlearn them.

When you want to soften something, you usually apply heat. During the softening stage, we apply heat by attaching a stigma to the old behaviors we want to discontinue. We stop rewarding them.

This is the time when you’re likely to encounter the greatest resistance to change. Even your management people may dig in their heels. After all, you’re changing the system under which they rose to their present jobs.

Here’s where you need skillful communication: You must make clear the reasons for change and the consequences of not changing. The gain and the pain must be made clear to managers and employees alike.

John F. Welch Jr., the CEO who led General Electric through a highly successful change in corporate culture, identifies four types of management individuals with whom we must deal during the “softening” stage. Here’s how he classifies them:
1.People who deliver on commitments and share the new values. These are the people you want to retain and reward.

2.People who don’t meet commitments and don’t share the new values. These are the people who must go.

3.People who sometimes fail to meet their commitments, but who share the values. For such people, a change of environment may produce a change in behavior. Give them a second chance.

4.People who meet commitments but don’t share the values. In Welch’s words, this may be “the autocrat,the big shot, the tyrant” -people who try to force performance instead of inspire it. The results they get aren’t worth the price. They’ll have to change or go.
The reshaping phase calls for a positive approach. We’re now less concerned with rooting out old ways and more concerned with implanting new ways. Managers and employees must be convinced that the new way is the right way.

Your staff and employees now must learn a whole new attitude toward their work. Managers must see themselves as facilitators, not dictators. Employees must see themselves as value adders, not order-takers or machine operators. This calls for a well-thought-out educational program.

Finally comes the restabilizing stage. During this period, you want the new behaviors to become a natural part of the everyday routine in the work place.

Pilot projects can help managers and employees feel comfortable and natural with the new ways during this stage. Let them try out the new methods in “practice runs” to see how they work.

Another way to replace the discomfort of change with the comfort of familiarity is to provide suitable role models. Find people who are familiar with the new ways and let them model them for the rest of your managers and employees. When your people witness the success of the new methods, they’ll feel more comfortable about following them.

The system of compensation and rewards should be based on the new behaviors we want to encourage. If we’re asking people to value teamwork above individual effort, then the system must be set up to reward team efforts.

My friend Joe Jacobs, founder and CEO of Jacobs Engineering, used this principle to great advantage during the ’80s. Jacobs Engineering’s individual offices each operated as separate profit centers. When Joe took on a project that required the pooling of resources from several offices, he had difficulty getting the teamwork he needed.

Executives from each office looked at the project from the standpoint of its effect on the profits of their respective offices. Joe solved this by tying each executive’s compensation to the performance of the company as a whole. When he did that, he got genuine teamwork.

Throughout the change process, everyone from line workers to senior management must be convinced that the company is behind the change. CEOs themselves must take responsibility for encouraging the new behavior. They must model it as they deal with people on as many levels as possible in the organization.

It may take years to effect fundamental change, and you should never consider the job finished. Instead, you should look for ways to institutionalize change. When your people are oriented to change and educated in effective ways to bring about change, you’re geared up for the future.

Change management skills are critical for organizations and individuals alike, as change has become the standard in today’s society. Whether it’s upsizing, downsizing, changing vendors, upgrading computer systems, moving to a new location, starting in a new position, or any other deviation from the norm, there are change management tools to help facilitate the change process. In this fast-paced change management seminar you’ll learn the skills, strategies, and belief systems necessary to take charge of change in your business, and in your personal life. You’ll discover how to anticipate, react to, or create change in any situation. And you will experience a proven formula for processing any given change that your team or family may be going through. Plus, you’ll learn about other change management techniques that affect outcomes including focus, physiology and maintaining a high level of energy. Tremendous opportunities await those who know how to harness this whirlwind of change, and use it to their advantage.

Dr. Nate Booth received his D.D.S. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1971 and operated a private dental practice for nine years. He then earned a masters degree in counseling from the same school in 1983. For ten years, Dr. Nate Booth worked closely with Anthony Robbins, gaining wisdom, insights, and practical knowledge. With a great passion for training, Nate entered the field of professional speaking and training. Since then, he has presented nearly 2000 change management seminars and workshops to audiences around the world. His impressive list of corporate clients includes American Express, INC Magazine, Oracle, Sanyo, Honeywell, NASA and dozens of others. In addition, he is the author of the books Tiger Traits, Thriving on Change, and The Diamond Touch.