How do you overcome resistance and skepticism to quality circles and kaizen among management and staff?

“Continuous improvement” is a poor translation of kaizen. A more culturally appropriate translations is “virtuous change.” Virtue is built on study, understanding, and knowledge, and the change that necessarily follows. Virtuous change is permanent and benefits the society as a whole. If I take from you, my position has improved at your expense. That is not kaizen. Kaizen requires study and understanding of a problem, and solutions that are permanent and benefit all.

Kaizen and quality circles are important for Lean because Lean is important. The business philosophy from which western Lean manufacturing is derived developed in Japan after WW2. Japanese business leaders were desperate to rebuild industry and engage in world trade so they could afford to import food and feed their people. It was a fundamental rejection of the militarist/socialist top-down dictatorship of the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and an adoption of free markets for free people. Lean rejected the dictatorial past and placed in the hands of every member of Japanese society the opportunity and ability to rebuild their society for the better by serving others. Kaizen is an essential part of rebuilding and serving others.

Except for managers with personality disorders, the greatest barriers for Lean and kaizen are misunderstanding them -- failing to understand the importance of the customer's needs, and trying to implement Lean as just one more top down “program”. Lean requires a fundamentally different way of thinking about business, a different philosophy of business. Lean and kaizen must begin where people with problems can see the results, where frustrated employees on the factory floor can see quality improved, their problems solved and their jobs made easier and more rewarding. Word will spread that problems are being fixed. Good employees will want in on that, so Lean and kaizen will spread so long you keep dysfunctional managers out of the way.

Overcome barriers to kaizen and Lean by starting as small and quietly as possible. Do Not "roll out" another "program". Management must keep quiet until there is something significant and important to show for the effort. Target only on those areas that need immediate help, normally quality problems and production constraints. Train only the people directly involved. Show that Lean works to solve practical problems. Word will get around. If somebody else finds out about the results and asks for help, help them. Show how it's done. When you have excellent results, have top management come to each individual involved and thank him or her. Learn from the successes and failures and spread the practices as knowledge grows.

Sustain quality circles and kaizen by getting the basics right and actively eliminating barriers. The basics: Understand who the customers are – process customers, user customers, information customers, and ownership customers. Focus on understanding and meeting the needs of each of those customers. Do what the customer needs. Focus on the system, fixing quality problems and production constraints, and eliminating waste. Eliminate barriers: Eliminate goals managers make up out of thin air. Develop a recruiting plan that effectively screens out candidates with personality disorders – especially narcissism. Narcissists can't do kaizen – they are already perfect.

In Japan, the quality movement, of which Lean is an offshoot, developed out of a fundamentally different philosophy of business than in the USA. Lean and kaizen require patience, humility, gratitude, abductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning that force us – force us – to try things, make mistakes, and learn. These are fundamentally at odds with the American model of simplistic deductive reasoning, top-down command and control, brash bragging, a short-term focus, and a know-it-all attitude. Lean and typical American management are fundamentally opposed to one another. Picking and choosing a few "Lean tools" and trying to apply them in an unthinking, strictly hierarchical American business will give poor results.