An organizationʼs processes, practices and results are an outcome of peopleʼs thinking and behavior.
If processes are an outcome, then itʼs important to ask, How do we influence our behavior in order to accomplish continuous improvement, adaptiveness, and innovation?
Toyotaʼs answer is through kata. Kata are practice routines, like dance steps, that develop particular skills and ways of thinking.
A MANAGEMENT TASKThe task is not to introduce new techniques, principles, ethics or solutions, but to establish a culture of continuous improvement, adaptation and innovation by practicing a method or behavior pattern that develops improvement skills and habits.
HOW DO YOU IMPROVE, ADAPT & INNOVATE?• How will you make your kanban system work?• How will you achieve 1x1 flow?• How will you achieve shorter value-stream lead time?• How will you achieve your objective?
The way forward is iterative & experimenting, aimed at a desired condition that we donʼt yet know how we will achieve.
BUT THERE IS A DILEMMA(A) Our brain favors existing neural pathways (comfort area)
The way our brain works we seek certainty and try to avoid judgement and criticism. We prefer to operate inside our current knowledge threshold.
(B) Meeting challenges - improving and adapting - means developing new neural pathways (learning area)
Itʼs impossible to remove uncertainty from the processof improvement, adaptation and creation. The way forward lies outside our current knowledge threshold.
AND THEREʼS A COACHING KATAFOR TEACHING THE IMPROVEMENT KATA
The Coaching Kata is a set of coaching routines to practice in order to develop effective coaching habits. It's a coaching pattern to help you teach the Improvement Kata thinking pattern.
The Coaching Kata gives managers and supervisors a standardized approach to facilitate Improvement Kata skill development in daily work.
The coach needs to know both the Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata!
HOW DO YOU CHANGE MINDSETAND ORGANIZATION CULTURE?
From one of implementing pre-defined solutions,to one of actively developing new solutions
Psychology and brain research are clear:Humans have the ability to alter their mindset. Our brain is equipped for learning new rules, patterns and habits.
The human brain is estimated to contain 100 billion neurons. Neurons form circuits within the brain, which underlie perception and thought.For communication between two neurons to take place, an electrical impulse travels down an axon to a synapse, or gap, where transmission occurs.Both the strength of connection between neurons (ease of information transmission) and the number of connections increase with use. Whatever you focus on and practice - with associated emotions - weaves a habit or pattern into your thinking. (Emotion helps determine what to imprint.)
MINDSET = NEURAL PATHWAYS OR CIRCUITSItʼs physiological
“Every time you do something,you are more likely to do it again.”
TO CHANGE MINDSET AND DEVELOP NEW SKILLS FOCUS ON THESE ELEMENTS
PRACTICERepetition
COACHINGCorrective feedback
KATAStructured routine
to practice
MASTERYOvercoming
obstacles
To develop new habits through practice, aLearner will have to experience success.It will be the responsibility of the Coach to give the Learner procedural guidance that makes the Learner successful in overcoming obstacles on the way to their target condition.
THIS LEADS TO A NEW CONSIDERATIONFOR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
In order to practice you need to know what to practiceTo change mindset and culture through deliberate practice, the organizationʼs leaders should specifythe pattern that is to be practiced and coached.The organizationʼs managers should learn the pattern and how to coach it.Thatʼs exactly what Toyota does... Toyotaʼs managers teach a common means for developing solutions: The Improvement Kata.
MAKE THE PRACTICING PART OF NORMALDAILY WORK, NOT A SPECIAL EVENT
If we only periodically conduct training events or only episodically work on improvement -- and the rest of the time itʼs business as usual -- then according to neuroscience what weʼre actually teaching is business as usual.
If we want a Lean revolution, then we need to shift emphasis from staff-led, episodic improvement efforts, to daily efforts led by middle managers.
A slice of each day should be focused on iterating toward the next target condition by applying & coaching the Improvement Kata.
We confused the visible content of what we benchmarked at Toyota withthe less visible method Toyota uses to pursue objectives.
We called what we observed Lean, which suggests always minimizing or maximizing. This idea easily fits into our existing thinking in business, making it harder for us to see the different management approach Toyota is taking.
As I see it now, Toyotaʼs extraordinary successes came from Lean practices combined with Toyotaʼs way of working toward any challenging objective. Toyotaʼs improvement kata is about solving problems and adapting as you strive to move from where you are to where you want to be next. That can involve minimizing, optimizing, or whatever you wish to achieve.
WE MISUNDERSTOOD THE SOURCEOF TOYOTAʼS SUCCESSES
• Solve a problem• Lean practices• Develop a product• Market a product / service• etc.
This is content and situation specific
How we go about it TheImprovement Kata
This is content free and universal
What we work on
The pivotal change proposed by study of Toyota is not in whatan organization does, but in how the organization does it
• Get out of the way and periodically check results
• Establish targets
• Develop, via practice with coaching, the capability in people to develop new solutions......by having people practice a common way of working, like the Improvement Kata
Focus on solutions Focus on howsolutions are developed
How do we make a transition from our prevailing management approach, to systems thinking?
We change by practicing a different behavior. That, over time, leads us to think about things differently.
What pattern of acting and thinking-- what teachable, transferrable routine -- can we practice?
With the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata we have routinesthat can be applied and practicedin any setting, in order to develop capability and behavior consistent with systems thinking.
