On December 27, 2016, the Itaú Kaizen management developed a transforming volunteering action with the sewing cooperative from the social organization Aldeia do Futuro, in the city of São Paulo.

The initiative was developed based on the Japanese methodology Kaizen, with its slogan “today better than yesterday, tomorrow better than today”, promoting continuous enhancement for business and for people in all their dimensions. The basic premise is that not a day goes by in the company without some kind of effective improvement, be it within the organizational structure or in an employee’s personal life.

According to Renan Shoji, from the Kaizen field, the idea for the action came from the motivation of developing an enhancement project for the processes of a social organization. Its implementation was done with the help of volunteering consultancy from the Itaú Social Foundation and the collaboration of 28 volunteers, which corresponds to 87.5% of the Kaizen management.

“The Itaú Social Foundation works with the fields that wish to develop volunteer actions, offering consultancy in their organization. In this respect, we carried out the initial contact with the Aldeia do Futuro organization and established a partnership to develop the initiative”, says Fernanda Sakamoto, who worked on the planning and execution of the action.

During the diagnostic phase, the group visited the organization to see up close the daily reality of those in the cooperative. Back at the bank, during an intensive immersion process that lasted a few days, the Kaizen methodology was applied, including mapping processes, identifying enhancement opportunities, and planning actions based on an implementation matrix of impact versus effort. During the third stage, with an established plan, the 28 volunteers went to the Aldeia do Futuro and sweat their shirts all day transforming the organization’s space to make the daily lives of those in the cooperative more organized, productive, and simple. The perception of the positive outcome was celebrated by the group with great conviction by Aparecida Robelia, president of Cooperaldeia.

Fernanda also acknowledges the success of the initiative: “With volunteering we are able to build transforming actions. And when an action unites knowledge and specific competencies from such highly qualified professionals such as those from the Kaizen field, the potential to transform is event greater!”

On the benefits of the work accomplished by the team, Renan highlighted the common feeling of being able to make a difference in peoples lives and the gratitude from contributing with what they know best. “I believe that this initiative from the field, of using their knowledge, their expertise, to help others, can be spread throughout the Bank so that we might all be able to do our part in society and transforming lives”.

What about you? What do you think about the action? Maybe gather your team and think about how you can use the group’s expertise in a volunteer action?