Bunji Tozawa

I believe that "Quick and Easy Kaizen" offers the potential for a revolution in developing a fully participative and involved workforce. Whereas traditional "suggestion schemes" are bureaucratic and costly, often taking weeks to feedback to the individual, and taking the idea out of the responsibility of the originator and giving it to managers, the "Quick and Easy Kaizen" route is a simple workplace based process where the individual (or team) implements most of their own ideas. The book focusses on the sort of simple ideas that arise as part of our work - by learning we do things better and improve - that is Quick and Easy Kaizen. At 350 pages the book seems daunting, but it is actually very easy to read, and repeats its key points over and over (they are important points). The book is packed with anecdotes and examples. The whole focus is on encouraging staff to raise simple ideas and implement them themselves. The author doesn't have the best writing style ever, and the structure of the book is fairly random, with lots of repetition, but it is an important concept and worth reading for that. If you are serious about improving involvement in your workplace then you should read this book. - Ross Maynard