This document discusses the concept of "Kaizen", which means continual self-improvement. It explains that true security comes from constantly improving yourself both professionally and personally, rather than focusing on external factors you can't control like your job or health. The document tells the story of Dr. Gomez, who was imprisoned in terrible conditions but emerged in better health than others through daily exercise and personal development. It argues that applying principles of Kaizen - continually questioning your processes and improving efficiency - is key to advancement in any legal career. Some specific tips discussed for implementing Kaizen in a legal career include discarding conventional ideas, focusing on small improvements every day, and questioning all work methods and level of understanding.

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Most people never feel secure because
they are always worried that they will lose
their job, lose the money they already have,
lose their spouse, lose their health, and
so on. The only true security in life comes
from knowing that every single day you are
improving yourself in some way, that you are
increasing the caliber of who you are and
that you are valuable to your company, your
friends, and your family.
-Anthony Robbins
{American Speaker, Peak Performance
Expert}
There is no such thing as “security” in the
legal profession and no matter how hard
you try, or how far you search, you are never
going to find it. You simply cannot control
what happens to you. It is impossible. Even
the highest ranking partners at the best law
firms lose their jobs quite frequently. If you
possess the best possible academic qualifi-
cations and work experience, circumstances
might take your job away, too. No matter how
careful you are with your career, you have no
way to control what happens to you.
What you can control, however, is whether
or not you choose to continually improve
yourself in your professional life. When
you are continually improving yourself you
are providing yourself the security that the
person you will be tomorrow is better than
the one you are today. If you are continually
improving yourself, despite what may happen
to the legal environments you are working
in, you will be in a better position to always
stay ahead of things you cannot control. Very
few people in their lives practice the habit of
continually improving themselves and it is for
that reason that so few people become very
successful-and stay very successful.
Some years ago, I was on a train ride across
Spain when an older gentleman began tell-
ing me a story of when he was younger and
imprisoned for life in Cuba by Castro. He had
been imprisoned, he told me, because he had
spoken out against communism. Prior to be-
ing imprisoned, this man had been a soccer
player and then a professor in a prestigious
Cuban university. This man was my soccer
coach/Spanish teacher and was leading me
and about 25 other students on a summer
tour across Spain. His name was Dr. Gomez.
Dr. Gomez is one of the more interesting men
I have ever met. Then in his late 60s, he was
up by 5:00 am everyday and ran four or five
miles every morning. He was always learning
how to do new things and finding new ways to
enjoy life and better himself.
According to Dr. Gomez, the conditions inside
the prison were terrible. Dr. Gomez was
put into a small cell no larger than a typical
bedroom with over 20 other prisoners. The
food was terrible, the cell was very hot and
the conditions inside the cell were nearly
impossible to live in. The prisoners were let
out of their cells a couple of times per week.
According to Dr. Gomez, when these prison-
ers were let out, they concentrated on things
like getting retribution against other prison-
ers who had upset them in the outside world,
and getting drugs and other contraband to
take inside their cells. Inside their own cells,
these men spent their time fighting with one
another, smoking and taking drugs smuggled
to them by guards and others.
Dr. Gomez said that when he went to prison
he knew he was unlikely to ever get out;
however, he made a decision to use his
time in prison to become a better person.
He exercised at least a couple of hours per
day and, because his cell was so crowded,
he exercised when the other prisoners were
sleeping because that was the only time
there was room for him to move around.
Unlike other prisoners, instead of trading for
cigarettes, drugs or weapons, he traded what
he had for things like a toothbrush, clean
clothes, educational books and a razor to
shave with.
Over the course of approximately one year,
this man actually grew inside the prison
while the other prisoners became much
worse off. In fact, during the one year he was
in his small cell, many prisoners actually
died-or went insane.
Every month, Dr. Gomez was allowed to have
a visitor come see him. One Sunday after-
noon, Dr. Gomez was sitting with his brother
in the prison visiting room with several other
visitors and prisoners. Dr. Gomez, unlike the
other prisoners, was very fit, well shaven and
cleanly dressed. In fact, Dr. Gomez looked
in better health than most of the visitors.
Sitting in the prison visitor room, Dr. Gomez
noticed that a shift change took place during
the visit. The guard that was replaced was
a new guard and one that Dr. Gomez did not
recognize. A few minutes after this, a bell
rang announcing that visitor hours were over.
Kaizen and the Process of Continuous Improvement in Your Legal Ca-
reer
[A. Harrison Barnes]
What have you done for your employer lately? Continually improving your work habits, your effectiveness, your abilities, your relations with others - sounds
easy enough, but few follow the practice. This, however, is how you are almost always judged by others and the only way to ensure advancement.

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Instead of going back to the prison, Dr. Gomez
walked with his brother straight out of the
front door of the prison. No one ever sus-
pected Dr. Gomez was a prisoner because
he did not look like any of the prisoners. The
main reason that Dr. Gomez did not look like
any of the other prisoners was because he
had continued to improve and become a better
person while in prison.
This article discusses the principle of “Kai-
zen,” which, in many circles, has been called
the key to Japan’s success in many industries.
This simple concept can also be the key to
your success in the legal profession-and in
life. In order to grow in the legal field-whether
you are an attorney, paralegal, or legal secre-
tary-you need to continually be improving. On
a daily basis, you should be questioning how
you are getting things are done and improving
the processes and procedures you follow in
your work.
A. Kaizen Defined
Kaizen means improvement. Moreover, Kaizen
means continual improvement in your person-
al life, home life, social life, and working life.
When applied to the workplace, Kaizen means
continual improvement involving everyone.
Kaizen is a tool originally used by Toyota to
foster continued improvement within its Toyo-
ta Production System. It began as “Quality Cir-
cles,” a means of factory shop floor employ-
ees solving quality issues within a structured
team framework, using specific new tools.
At Toyota, and other Japanese companies,
“Kaizen events” are constantly occurring. In
general, a Kaizen event will involve the man-
agement appearing at the desk or machine
of employees and observing exactly how they
do their jobs. The efficiency, processes and
procedures followed by the employee are ag-
gressively questioned. How does the employee
hold a tool? How many steps does it take to go
between different machines where the work
may be occurring? Then, as inefficiencies are
pointed out, the employee is expected to adapt
and change immediately. If the employee does
not correct the efficiency, he or she is fired on
the spot and another person is brought in to
do the job. When a Kaizen event occurs, the
President of Toyota might even follow around
a janitor for days to figure out the inefficien-
cies. This approach to work is something that
occurs at all levels of the organization and
involves everyone.
While this approach to managing a company
is draconian, it ensures that the work being
performed is done in the best possible man-
ner with the least amount of waste. While
he did not call it “Kaizen,” this method of
approaching work was also the building block
behind most of the companies started by
Howard Hughes (many of which are growing
multi-billion companies today). For example,
companies like DirecTV are products of this
continuous drive for improvement and were
founded by disciples of Hughes, decades after
his death, in a corporate environment that
promotes constant improvement and innova-
tion.
The point of a Kaizen event and Kaizen gener-
ally, is that the norm must constantly be
questioned in order to ensure that the work
is performed in the best possible manner. I
was reminded of this principal while reading
an old Motor Trend which discussed the fact
the engineers who designed the Lexis LS400
decided to halve the space between metal
fittings in the car in the year 2001. While
this was completely unnecessary (the car is
consistently ranked as one of the top 10 cars
in the world in terms of quality), the engineers
did this because it was an improvement that
they believed they were capable of making.
B. Nine Lessons Kaizen Teaches and Their Ap-
plication to Your Legal Career
Kaizen refers to individual, continuous im-
provement in personal life, home life, social
life and working life. Everybody deserves to
and should be willing to improve himself/her-
self for the better. An old Japanese proverb
says, “If a man has not been seen for three
days, his friends should take a good look at
him to see what changes have befallen him.”
This describes just how natural Kaizen is.
While Kaizen may seem insignificant, I can
assure you that following this principal is
something that will be rewarded in your legal
career. The principal of Kaizen can apply to
both your personal legal career and the orga-
nization you work for. You should constantly
be questioning everything about your work
methods-and your level of understanding of
various events at work.
Not a day should go by without some kind of
improvement being made somewhere. I have
provided some career tips based on Kaizen
below that should give you some ideas both
about what Kaizen philosophy is and how you
can implement Kaizen in your legal career:
1. You should discard conventional fixed
ideas. For example, you may have a fixed idea
of the way you should seek out assignments in
your law firm, the type of work you should be
doing or even the sort of law firm you belong
in.
Relying on convention is something that is
quite dangerous. This convention can serve
to limit you. Part of continuously improving is
questioning everything around you. Question
the norm. Is there a better way that you could
be doing your work? Do you think you might
perform at a higher level in another type of
legal environment? Do not limit yourself with
beliefs about your potential-or what other
people tell you your potential is.
2. You should think of how to do something,
not why it cannot be done. It is axiomatic that
you can do more by believing you can do more.
As a legal recruiter, one of the more consis-
tent complaints I hear from hiring partners
and other hiring authorities about people they

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are planning on replacing is that the person
they want to replace finds excuses for not
getting work done. There are very few as-
signments in a legal environment that can be
brushed aside and not get done. You need to
remember that as a legal professional you are
being hired to do a job and get results. Stating
that you do not believe you can do a certain
type of work is one of the worst messages you
can send an employer.
Another derivative of this idea is that you
should always be focusing on the best possi-
ble result you want in your career and thinking
of how you can achieve that result. Looking
for reasons to succeed in something is much
more useful than looking for reasons to avoid
it. Winners look for reasons to succeed and
losers look for reasons to fail.
3. You should not make excuses; instead,
question current practices. There are plenty
of reasons that certain goals you may set
for yourself may not be achieved in a timely
manner. There are also going to be reasons
why something you do does not work out as
you had hoped it would in your career. You
never should make excuses for your failure
to achieve something. Instead, question your
methodologies that led to things not working
out.
One of the most persistent problems that
attorneys have in their work environment is
related to how well they get along with the
people they work with. The majority of prob-
lems attorneys have in their work environ-
ments are traceable to this and this alone. You
should never blame others for your problems.
Question how you will deal with these and
other problems the next time.
4. You should not seek absolute perfec-
tion. Take action right away even if you can
only achieve a part of your goal. While you
should be aiming for perfection, simply stated,
perfection is not always possible. Taking ac-
tions to ensure that you do your best is vitally
important to your success. It is better to make
an effort at doing something than not doing
anything at all.
Many attorneys put off various tasks because
they do not feel they are ready to do some-
thing. In order to grow, you need to take
action. Ensure that you are consistently taking
action and learn from the mistakes you may
make when taking action.
5. If a mistake is made, correct it right away.
Mistakes happen. What is most important is
realizing that you need to correct mistakes
rather than allowing them to continue. You
should always be asking yourself why some-
thing did not work out instead of dwelling on
a mistake.
There is a very strong tendency in the legal
profession to not admit mistakes and hence
to not correct these mistakes. A large portion
of the work of a legal professional is simply
correcting his/her own mistakes-again and
again-in order to get things as close to perfect
as possible. The act of correcting a mistake
will make you more aware of the mistake and
help you to avoid it the next time around.
6. You should ask “WHY?” and seek root
causes. If you believe that there is any need
for improvement, either in your organization
or in how you are doing your job, you need
to ask yourself “WHY” and search for the
reasons you need improvement and how to
effectuate that improvement.
You always need to question the need for
improvement. You should constantly be ask-
ing “WHY” in order to get to the root cause of
every problem.
7. You should seek the wisdom of multiple
people rather than the knowledge of one.
None of us can possibly know the solutions
to every issue we face. It is better that we all
operate as a contiguous group-learning and
growing from each other-than as islands.
The work that legal professionals do is cer-
tainly competitive. Due to that fact, many legal
professionals are afraid to ask for assistance
from others. The fact of the matter is, your
superiors and equals in your work all have had
many similar experiences at various points in
their careers. You can learn a lot from others.
The experience of multiple individuals in a
group is far more telling than the experience
of only one.
C. Some Final Thoughts About Kaizen
If you have been in the legal field even a short
period of time, I am sure that looking around
your office you can quickly spot numerous
individuals who (for whatever reason) simply
fail to improve. Similarly, looking around your
office I am sure that you can spot a few rare
individuals who (for whatever reason) are
continually improving.
There are three truths that you should always
be aware of:
First, there are people who are (a) far, far less
intelligent than you that (b) went to worse law
schools than you and (c) have far worse work
experience than you who are going to have far
more successful legal careers than you.;
Second, you are going to have a far more suc-
cessful legal career than thousands of people
that are (a) much smarter than you, (b) went to
better colleges and law schools, (c) have much
better work experience than you; and
Third, the reason you will do better than some
and some will do better than you has more to
do with the ability to consistently improve than
any other single factor.
I am constantly astonished by meeting attor-
neys who succeed over others who-one would
certainly think from outward appearances-
should be doing better than them. Not a day
should go without some kind of improvement
being made somewhere in your professional
life.

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As an attorney, especially, in order to be as
effective as possible you need to be extremely
self-critical at all times in order to grow. It
is a well known fact that many people you
work with will, at some point in their careers,
simply stop improving. The person who stops
improving and growing will likely no longer
advance in his or her career. If you are able
to continually improve in your work, you will
advance.