Cecilia Macaulay | Senior Consultant

Cecilia applies kaizen and Japanese design philosophies to declutter and improve the home, workplace, shared spaces and daily life.

Cecilia’s workshops and consulting bring freshness and enthusiasm to the world of lean management, as she translates concepts from the Toyota Production System into highly do-able, memorable ways to improve daily life.

Cecilia spent many years in Japan learning Japanese design principles and the Japanese culture. This enabled her to develop a foundation for sharing the application of space design and 5S decluttering philosophies with the world.

Cecilia Macaulay comes to lean consulting with a background in permaculture design – a whole-system, nature-based method of creating value.

Marie Kondo has certainly put the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing on the world stage in of late through her book The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up and Netflix series boasting her KonMari method.

Cecilia has a career in applying this philosophy not only in homes, but also offices, community spaces and gardens. However, her theory and application go well beyond the KonMari method. The alignment with lean management and the Toyota Production System in Cecilia’s philosophies open up possibilities on new levels for home and office kaizen.

An example of this is how Cecilia applies the same “seven types of waste” identified in the Toyota Production System to non-manufacturing environments seamlessly. Through her original approach to sharing the theory and application with examples, case studies and anecdotes, Cecilia brings lean concepts such as these within easy reach.

Underlining all of this is her application of kaizen to the home, work and daily life. Kaizen means continuous improvement – making many small incremental changes to improve. Cecilia believes through her approach, we can all live in a home, work in a space, and live a life that is better than yesterday.

Expertise

Home & office kaizen principles
Workplace design kaizen
Permaculture design
Japanese language and culture

Experience

Workplace Design and Office Kaizen Consultant

Providing workshops and consulting in kaizen, lean and 5S principles to improve home and office environments.

Permaculture Lifestyle Designer

Engagements include designing a self-maintaining garden for Sir Richard Branson’s Caribbean island, consulting for the iconic Taronga Zoo’s 10-year plan, life-changing home and garden makeover programs, and numerous workshops, conferences and events sharing her whole-system nature-based design philosophy and experience.