Kaizen, Japanese for “improvement.” When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers.

Strengths Fed:

• VIA character strengths of hope/optimism, Critical thinking/open mindedness, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, perspective, creativity, and perseverance.
• Strengths of competence through Achieving, Discovering, Organizing, and Future Thinking.

Want to take your Kaizen to another level? Read on:

• Start with the book Better, Faster, Stronger by Charles Duhigg

This summer, take some time, brew yourself some tea and reflect on this word and what it means for you. Why did I choose this word for you? How can you make it your own?

I have colated some special Ted talks to help you focus your reflection: 

From the EG conference: Productivity guru Tim Ferriss’ fun, encouraging anecdotes show how one simple question — “What’s the worst that could happen?” — is all you need to learn to do anything.

Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? A great introduction to this influential field.

Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just … haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals.