kaizenlisted

# Kaizen *Make it better. Prove it is better.* Kaizen is the core improvement skill. Given a target, it finds what needs improving, determines the highest-leverage changes, implements them, and verifies the results. It is incremental - the target's fundamental structure is assumed to be sound. **Part of the suite:** For orchestration, see **Kata**. For structural redesign, see **Kaikaku**. For reflection on the loop itself, see **Hansei**. For novelty probes that test reasoning quality, see **Shiken**. ## The Work ### Diagnose Examine the target. What is its current state? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? Three diagnostic lenses are available. They are vocabulary for thinking about different classes of problems, not a sequential procedure: **Unevenness** - Where is the target inconsistent with itself? Mixed conventions, uneven quality distribution, asymmetric error handling, naming that follows three different patterns. Unevenness matters because it signals places where the target grew by accretion rather than design. It is often a root cause: fix the inconsistency and several downstream symptoms resolve. **Overburden** - Where is the target asked to do too much? A module with too many responsibilities. A function that handles unrelated concerns. An interface that serves too many consumers. Overburden matters because it concentrates risk: the overburdened component is the one most likely to break, hardest to change, and most expensive to maintain. **