Progress and Kaizen

There’s a term used in my professional life that has become part of my everyday life, especially as it pertains to S.E.E.R. and the ClockTower work in general. “Kaizen.” Kaizen is a Japanese word used in the business world as the name of a process that emphasizes small improvements one day at a time instead of focusing on huge works all at once. I’ve been trying to keep this in mind when I work on S.E.E.R. A little progress every day is a lot easier than thinking about things in terms of huge chunks of work that need to be done.

Today, for instance, I’m not focusing on developing the whole webstore. Instead, I’m focused on just managing one bit of it. Product creation, and more importantly, the idea for the zines. So, I’m focused on getting those hammered out. I’ve worked with the artist that’s doing the covers for the first series, and approved the composition for the covers.

Small improvements done well will result in a higher quality finished product than just trying to rush and get one big thing done. The steps I’ve been taking are spread out, but are all working towards the bigger picture. Getting the webstore running, getting the company finances in good order, and getting terrain built for the game’s rules examples as well and general photography are going to be important milestones. So I’ve been taking small steps towards those goals on a daily basis. I’m wrapping up a new terrain piece for NeoNagoya, my cyberpunk urban terrain table. I’m also working with the artist I’ve been talking to to get the covers for some zines finished so I can get the first products into the webstore. And I’ve also been working on things for the books in the background as well.

So yeah, we’re working off of the Kaizen philosophy, I suppose.

-Gamer Steve