The Power of Tiny Changes: Florence Divet ☀️ on Kaizen in Leadership

In a recent LinkedIn post, Florence Divet ☀️ discusses a common pitfall for leaders: attempting to change too much too soon. Instead, she advocates for the principles of Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy of continuous, incremental improvement, as a more effective approach to leadership development and organizational change.

Florence Divet ☀️ highlights that leadership failures often stem not from a lack of ambition, but from an overwhelming attempt to alter everything simultaneously. She posits that Kaizen, focusing on tiny changes that compound over time, offers a powerful alternative.

“Kaizen is the opposite: Tiny changes that compound over time.”

This approach, Florence Divet ☀️ notes, is “annoyingly effective,” citing the compounding effect of a 1% daily improvement, which can lead to a more than 37-fold increase over a year.

Kaizen Your Presence First

Florence Divet ☀️ emphasizes that a leader’s presence is foundational to their strategy’s success. According to her, if a team does not feel safe, strategic initiatives will likely remain mere ideas. She suggests a practical Kaizen exercise for leaders: reflecting on the first 90 seconds of post-meeting interactions and identifying a single, small tweak for the next meeting.

These micro-improvements could involve starting with clarity, expressing care, or demonstrating ownership. As Florence Divet ☀️ puts it:

“If your team doesn’t feel safe with you, your strategy stays just an idea.”

Transforming Conversations Through Kaizen

The post further explores how leadership effectiveness is deeply intertwined with the quality of conversations. Florence Divet ☀️ argues that many leadership challenges are, in essence, conversation problems. She proposes swapping out common, autopilot phrases for more constructive alternatives.

For instance, instead of asking “Any questions?”, she suggests asking “What’s unclear or risky here?”. Similarly, “Keep me posted” could be replaced with “What do you need from me to move?”. Florence Divet ☀️ believes that teams will immediately notice the positive impact of these subtle shifts.

Data-Driven Decisions with Kaizen

Florence Divet ☀️ addresses decision-making, noting that leaders often delay action while waiting for certainty. Kaizen, in contrast, embraces the inherent uncertainty and promotes learning through smaller, more manageable bets. She introduces a key principle for decision-making:

“Before a decision, ask: ‘What’s the smallest reversible step we can take in 7 days?'”

This rule, Florence Divet ☀️ explains, helps leaders accelerate when a step is reversible and proceed with caution for irreversible actions, ultimately saving careers.

Cultivating Culture One Behavior at a Time

Regarding culture, Florence Divet ☀️ challenges the notion that it’s solely defined by stated values, asserting instead that “Culture isn’t what you ‘value’. It’s what you tolerate.” She advocates for identifying and consistently reinforcing one specific positive behavior for a sustained period, such as naming trade-offs openly, providing timely feedback, disagreeing respectfully, or closing loops with clear owners and deadlines.

Florence Divet ☀️ concludes that this consistent, micro-improvement approach to behavior can shift culture effectively without the need for a large-scale rebranding. She identifies specific contexts where Kaizen is particularly powerful, including scale-ups, teams experiencing burnout, low-trust environments, and for new managers. The core message is that lasting change in leadership and organizations comes not from grand pronouncements, but from the daily practice of small, consistent improvements.