Continuous Development is the seventh C in the twelve part series of the C’s of Success. Today will review the core from Part One and then discuss Continuous Development at the Organizational level.

Continuous Development can be considered the catalyst for all current and future growth and improvement. Without it, the status quo would rule the day and very little improvement or growth could occur in both individuals and organizations. There is a strong need for purposeful continuous development at all levels of organizations. Individuals who get ahead in life do so by improving themselves either by improving skills or their wisdom.

What is Continuous Development? Continue reading ‘Success and Continuous Development – Part Two’ »

Continuous Development is the seventh C in the twelve part series of the C’s of Success. In part one, we will cover the importance of individual continuous development.

Continuous Development can be considered the catalyst for all current and future growth and improvement. Without it, the status quo would rule the day and very little improvement or growth could occur in both individuals and organizations. There is a strong need for purposeful continuous development at all levels of organizations. Individuals who get ahead in life do so by improving themselves either by improving skills or their wisdom.

What is Continuous Development?

When we first started our company we choose the name “Kaizen Performance Group, Inc.” because of the term Kaizen. Kaizen means to continuously improve in a holistic way. We believed then as we believe today that all improvement begins with continuously developing and improving what and how you do things.We also found the fastest method of gaining experience was to learn from experts, thus shortening the learning curves in life and business.

The Japan adopted the term “Kaizen” to their total quality efforts because they recognized the need for continuous improvement in their organizational work flows and processes. Using Kaizen as the focal point, they looked to improve every process and individual skill within their organizations. Kaizen principles led to their leading the world in total quality of product and services. A simple method leading to major results.

What is Individual Continuous Development? Continue reading ‘Success and Continuous Development – Part One’ »

Just thinking about all the things that leaders worry about as they run their organizations. And several classics come to mind:

• What Strategy should we use?;
• How do we execute our plans effectively?;
• How do we grow our Sales in this economy?;
• How do we get and keep the human talent needed for the competitive future?;  and,
• How do we innovate our products and services for the future?

While the above list of issues will keep many executives and leaders up at night worrying about the answers, the real 800 lb. Gorilla comes in an invisible format called the unknown.

In a world that strives for consistently and needed objective data to solve the problems and issues connected to the future, the unknown brings a humbling attitude to this group. The fact that there are unknown problems, issues or challenges – some in the form of “surprise, I’m here now, so what are you going to do now?” – take the spirit away from many of these powerful people.

The fact is there is more “unknown” issues than there are known. So how can you deal with these unknown events? Simple. You explore the unknown areas as often as possible. The more you venture into the areas of the unknown the faster you actually learn about the issues and the faster you can apply the appropriate solution and move forward.

If you are not continuously learning and exploring the unknown, it will overtake you and leave you painted into a corner with no where to go, no options to choose, and no alternative answers for the questions. A continuous learning program will keep you in the forefront of knowledge and information – actually providing the wisdom necessary to succeed.

Use the unknown as a motivator to take action. This habit of taking action will give you a head start when the unknown jumps up and scares everyone else. You will be able to take the lead, take action and get the results before the 800 lb. Gorilla can destroy your organization. Think of the unknown being a good thing that gets us started down the path of continuous improvement and growth.