Rajat K R

Kaizen By Sarah Harvey : Book Review!

This article is all about a book titled ‘Kaizen’ by Sarah Harvey.

The Book in 3 Sentences

  1. Kaizen is a non fictional book written by Sarah Harvey
  2. Kaizen is about the Japanese concept of ‘Continuous Improvement’
  3. In the book, Sarah Harvey writes about the real life implications of Kaizen

My Review

Kaizen is a very simple book but I just didn’t like it. It’s just too simple for my liking. The thing is that, the concept of Kaizen was very simple and it was nothing like Ikigai or Ichigo-Ichie. The book was just too banal in my opinion. I was utterly disappointed by this book.

Don’t get me wrong, I did like the concept of Kaizen but the was way it was presented was not up to the mark. After reading books like Ikigai and Ichigo-Ichie my mind had already set a paradigm for Japanese philosophical books but now I am slightly disappointed. I am giving this book a 2 star rating.

The picture of Sarah Harvey Sarah Harvey. Image - cnbc.com

Who Should Read It?

Anyone who is interested in Japanese philosophy can read this book but I would recommend that you quickly skim through the book rather than reading it thoroughly.

Notes

Kaizen means constant improvement. It was a business strategy that was adopted in the west but after World War 2, the Japanese economy went down drastically. So, the Japanese started adopting the business strategy from the west and within a very short time Japan’s economy rose up.

Soon this strategy started gaining traction and was implemented in every part of the Japanese life. They considered this principle to be a part of Japanese Values and they named it Kaizen. Seeing Japan’s booming economy the west also started re-adopting the concept of Kaizen.

The 3 Kaizen principles

  • Incremental Growth

Kaizen is all about incremental growth. When you want to learn something new or cultivate a new habit you can use Kaizen. For instance, you want to wake up by 6 am in the morning but currently you are waking up at 7. According to Kaizen, you can try waking up at 6:50 am for a whole week. If that didn’t work out, you can try reducing the time to 6:55. Once you see some improvement, you can try minimizing the time and continue with the new time for another week. You can go on like this until you reach your main goal that is waking up at 6.

  • Make your first step small

We must always make small changes, since they are hardly noticeable for our brain. This helps us to achieve our goals effortlessly. Do remember to slowly increase the amount of time and effort you put into your goal.

  • Keep track of your progress

Kaizen can work more efficiently if you track your progress. You can either keep a diary or a bullet journal. The author recommends to keep a bullet journal.

How the Book Changed Me

  1. I started learning German using the Kaizen principles
  2. I started maintaining a daily journal (bullet)

That’s it for now,

Thanks for reading,

Stay Home Stay Safe,

Bye👋🏻

-Rajat KR