The Japanese have a word for it – kaizen. It means continuous and incremental improvement. The top performers, those who accept the best and nothing less from themselves and their organizations, live kaizen as an essential part of their lives.

Perhaps you lived through the Total Quality Management (TQM) period of the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States. If so, you may have been inundated with terms such as “statistical process control”, “minimizing variation” and “just-in-time”. You may have read the works of W. Edwards Deming, Philip Crosby and others. You may have even heard of ISO 9000, a process by which an organization documents its work processes and then lives by them in a way that systemizes the focus on continuous improvement through corrective action and periodic measurement.

1. They look ahead – While they’re working in the moment, the best are always keeping one eye ahead on their dreams, their next big objective and their long-term goals. They understand the value of working here and now and simultaneously, they are putting things in place to start or gain momentum on another front. They plan ahead. The best tend to think on paper; their plans, short-term or long-term, are committed to paper where they can scratch out, add to and tweak as needed. They are inveterate planners, even though they may appear, in many cases, to be woefully disorganized.
2. They read ahead – Leaders are readers. There’s no way around this. In a group session recently, someone asked if books on tape would fulfill the reading requirement. As Brian Tracy says in the Phoenix Seminar that “only reading is reading.” If you go to a bookstore of any size and don’t lust after at least a handful of titles, you may need to light the fire in your belly. There are great rewards for reading and you don’t have to read very much to find yourself in the top one percent of the population. Reading and the continuous learning that comes with it is a critical component of how the best get better.
3. They forge ahead – The best have a bias toward action. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.” There may be a time for study and due diligence. That said, the best tend to want to learn through the outcomes of decisions they’ve made with great focus and relatively short times for study and research. It may come as no surprise to you that the best promise something and immediately go to work to tool up and get it done, regardless of the fact that they’ve never done this particular thing before. The promise is a sort of forcing system that keeps them in action mode. Remember Eleanor Roosevelt’s recommendation: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
4. They connect ahead – As a proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” The best know the value of relationships, as we discussed in my most recent series of presentations. They find ways to connect with like-minded individuals, with those who are smarter, faster, better, with mentors and coaches. If the greatest golf professionals of our time (world class performers) are all involved with coaches at some level of commitment, what does that say to us?

1. Look ahead – be thinking all the time about goals that are still just out of reach and some that are Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Get jazzed about them, dream about them, create collages and look at them often.
2. Plan ahead – Have a plan B, C and D and be ready to pull any or all of them out when things don’t go…well, as planned. You can say you didn’t anticipate a specific thing happening. What you should never say is that you didn’t expect any setbacks. If you’re trying for anything worthwhile, there are always setbacks.
3. Read ahead – Have so many books on hand that it’s not a matter of whether you’re going to read but what you’re going to read at this moment. Read wide and deep. Find one or two authors whose thinking intrigues you and read everything they’ve written. Oh, and life is too short for bad reading, so if you’ve made a mistake and don’t like the book, drop it and pick up another.
4. Forge ahead – Take action. Move. “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” said Mark Twain. Refuse to be immobilized, paralyzed or marginalized. Move and watch as the universe rewards your action with lessons, with results and with greater options for your next action.
5. Connect ahead – Meet someone new. Call someone whom you’d like to meet and invite him or her to lunch. Ask someone you know to introduce you to someone you should know. Recently, someone asked another local professional whose name happens to be Jon Carroll, “Have you met the other John Carroll? Oh, you have to meet the other John Carroll.” Well, he and I will be meeting soon because he connected, told me the story and I replied in the affirmative.

In the second part of this series, we will consider additional ways to implement continuous improvement, personally and professionally.

John Carroll is the director of strategy for Custom Development Solutions (CDS) and a national award-winning columnist whose approaches have attracted attention around the globe. He has helped dozens of non-profit organizations improve their results. Contact him at strategy@cdsfunds.com or call (843) 971-8801.