Standardize to improve: Standards foster creativity, improvement, and innovation

We live in an era where agility, flexibility, and innovation are the driving forces. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find organizations that avoid standards, associating them with bureaucracy, rigidity, or conformity. However, this belief is fundamentally flawed. In this article, we’ll explore one of the core paradoxes of a Kaizen Culture: the idea that standardization doesn’t hinder creativity but is precisely what makes it possible. That, in order to accelerate, we must first stabilize. As Masaaki Imai, founder of the Kaizen Institute, once said: “Without standards, there can be no improvement.”

We’ll deconstruct the traditional belief that standards obstruct innovation, present a new perspective that places them at the foundation of continuous improvement, and demonstrate how this paradox plays out in organizations striving for operational excellence.

What are paradoxes?

Paradoxes are ideas that may seem contradictory at first glance but, when fully understood, reveal profound truths. In the context of management, paradoxes challenge established beliefs. They act as strategic provocateurs: confronting our assumptions and opening the door to new ways of thinking and acting.

The 7 paradoxes of a Kaizen Culture

Over decades of supporting organizations in building cultures of continuous improvement, the Kaizen Institute has identified seven paradoxes that challenge traditional mindsets and guide companies towards excellence:

1. Practice over tools.
2. Small is not the only Kaizen.
3. Efficiency begins with flow.
4. Standardize to improve.
5. Kaizen is more than operations.
6. Kaizen is a meta-strategy.
7. Kaizen is the smartest way to run a business.

In this article, we focus on the fourth paradox, “Standardize to improve,” and how standardization, often misunderstood as a symbol of rigidity, is actually the foundation for learning, improvement, and continuous innovation.

The standardization paradox: A barrier or a catalyst for improvement?

At first glance, the idea that “standardization drives improvement” may seem contradictory. Many people associate standards with rigidity, excessive control, and bureaucracy, which can stifle creativity and inhibit innovation. However, this perception is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the true role standardization plays in organizations that practice Kaizen.

Rather than limiting thinking, standardization provides clarity, consistency, and a solid foundation for learning and evolving. Standards serve as reference points from which improvement becomes possible. This paradox reveals a powerful truth: to be creative, we need stability; to improve, we need a clear starting point.

The old belief: Standardization blocks creativity

For decades, many organizations viewed standards as tools of control. They were often developed far from where the work happens (Gemba), imposed top-down, and implemented without proper context or training. It’s no surprise, then, that standards came to be seen as instruments of micromanagement—stripping away autonomy and disconnecting employees from the purpose behind their work. Worse still, standards were rarely revisited, eventually becoming outdated. In this traditional model, standardization was synonymous with stagnation.

The result was predictable: low motivation, limited innovation, and a workplace where employees were expected to comply, not to think.

The new perspective: Standardization as the foundation of improvement

In Kaizen Culture, standardization takes on a completely different role. A standard is not a rigid directive, it’s a living agreement, made visible, understood, and developed by the people who do the work. It reflects the best-known method to perform the work at any given moment.

This vision is based on three essential pillars:

• Stabilizing processes and making problems visible: Without a standard, it’s difficult to pinpoint root causes or ensure process stability.
• Learning from variation: When problems occur, the goal isn’t to assign blame—it’s to investigate and learn.
• Continuously improving: Once work is stabilized, improvements can be introduced safely and effectively through PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycles.

By applying this mindset, standards become the foundation of continuous improvement—helping organizations onboard new team members, scale best practices, and maintain process quality and safety. Most importantly, they become the reference point for the next improvement.

The role of standards in a continuous improvement culture

In a continuous improvement environment, standards are not bureaucratic documents forgotten in a drawer. They are practical, essential tools for team development and organizational progress. Standards shape knowledge, create stability, guide training, and facilitate comparison, analysis, and learning.

When used effectively, standards are the starting point for every improvement and the reference that ensures best practices are sustained over time.

Figure 1 – Definition and role of standards

Standardization means making visible: Reality as the basis for improvement

The primary role of standardization is to make reality visible. Without a clearly defined and shared method, each team member might perform a task differently — making it harder to identify problems, compare performance, or replicate best practices.

In a chaotic environment, failures and inefficiencies remain hidden. But with well-defined standards, every deviation becomes an opportunity to investigate, learn, and improve. Visibility is the first step toward structured problem-solving.

More than enforcing uniformity, standardization allows teams to clearly see what’s really happening. And only by seeing reality as it is can we begin to improve it.

SDCA and PDCA: The dual cycle of continuous improvement

Improvement requires discipline, structure, and a clear method. This is where the two core cycles of a Kaizen Culture come into play:

• SDCA (Standardize – Do – Check – Act): The standardization cycle. It ensures that work is carried out in a clear and consistent way. This cycle focuses on sustaining current best practices.
• PDCA (Plan – Do – Check – Act): The improvement cycle. It enables testing of new approaches, verifying results, and creating new standards based on real improvements.

These two cycles complement each other: first, stabilize, then improve. Every validated improvement becomes the basis for a new standard, restarting the cycle.

This approach creates a living system where standardization and innovation move forward together. Without SDCA, there’s no stability. Without PDCA, there’s no progress.

How to respond to a problem: Using standards as the starting point

When a problem arises, the instinctive reaction is often to look for someone to blame or to apply a quick fix. In a Kaizen Culture, the starting point is different: understanding what went wrong and learning from it. Whenever something fails, we begin with two simple questions:

• To the team leader: “Is there a standard for this activity?”
• To the team member: “Were you following the standard?”

Figure 2 – Framework of action when faced with a problem

Depending on the answers, the next step becomes clear:

• If there is no standard,the first step is to create one, i.e., documenting the best-known method to date.
• If the standard exists but wasn’t being followed,it’s critical to understand why. Was it due to a lack of training, inadequate conditions, or a standard that no longer reflects reality?
• If the standard exists and was being followed,then it likely needs to be revised. What was once effective may no longer be. The causes must be analyzed, and the standard updated accordingly.

This approach turns every problem into a development opportunity. In a Kaizen Culture, every mistake is an invitation to improve.

Putting Kaizen standardization into practice

Kaizen standardization goes far beyond writing work instructions. It’s about creating the right conditions for work to be clearly understood, executed with quality, and continuously improved by the people who do it. It’s a collaborative, visual, and dynamic process that empowers teams and fosters organizational learning.

Create simple, visual standards

For standardization to be effective, standards must be simple, clear, and visual. A good standard shows what to do and how to do it, using accessible language, visuals, or diagrams, and is available right where the work takes place. Furthermore, a standard is never definitive — it is the best method known at the time, ready to be revised when an opportunity for improvement arises. This vision removes the fear that standards might hinder creativity or innovation.

Engaging teams: The standard as a living agreement

A standard should never be imposed from the top down. It’s built together with the team —based on hands-on experience, past mistakes, and lessons learned at the Gemba. It’s a living agreement on the best way to perform a task.

When teams are involved in defining and reviewing standards, they gain a sense of ownership, a deeper understanding of the process, and greater motivation to improve it. This makes standardization a catalyst for engagement, learning, and accountability.

Train, practice, apply

Creating a standard is only the beginning. Everyone must know it, understand it, and be able to apply it consistently. Training should be hands-on, conducted at the workplace, with clear demonstrations and guided repetition.

Training based on standards reduces errors, accelerates onboarding for new employees, and ensures consistent execution. More than just knowledge transfer, it builds habits of excellence.

By practicing the standard daily, teams develop the ability to spot deviations and propose improvements.

Conclusion: The standard as the foundation for improvement

The fourth paradox of a Kaizen Culture teaches us that real improvement begins with clarity about how work is done today. Standardization is not a barrier to innovation—it is its starting point.

Without a standard, there’s no basis for comparison, measurement, or improvement. When everyone does things differently, it becomes impossible to know what works, where deviations occur, or whether a change actually leads to improvement.

In a Kaizen organization, standards are living agreements—created with the teams, tested in practice, and regularly improved. They are tools for learning and alignment, not instruments of blind control. And when applied effectively, they promote autonomy, shared responsibility, and a culture of continuous improvement.

Embracing this mindset completely transforms how organizations lead, learn, and grow. Because, ultimately, standardizing is the first step toward innovating with impact and improving with consistency.

Article based on the book The Kaizen Culture Paradox – The Smartest Way to Run a Business by Alberto Bastos and Euclides Coimbra (coming soon).