Guest editorial
By Mike Rother, Rother & Company
This article was published in the February 2018 edition of NTEA News.
Mike Rother — author of Toyota Kata, The Toyota Kata Practice Guide, Toyota Kata Culture, and Learning to See — and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership will present Lean 201: The Kata Journey – Daily Practice for Scientific Thinking, Mindset and Culture on March 8, 2018, from 9:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. at The Work Truck Show. This special session will include instructions on Kata from Rother as well as a discussion on its real-world application from Nice-Pak company representatives.
Around the world, within the United States and among some NTEA members, Toyota Kata is being utilized to address process, people and communication issues.
The practice routines of Kata, Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata will make you, your team and your organization better at improving, adapting, innovating and achieving whatever you set out to do. It’s about the practical application of scientific thinking for pursuing challenging goals, while simultaneously developing people to solve problems. Improvement and Coaching Kata turn scientific thinking into a practical skill you can learn, by combining a four-step scientific working pattern with techniques of deliberate practice.
Lean training seemed fairly straightforward in the 1990s, as it focused on tools and general concepts. But deeper study of Toyota showed its visible tools and practices are built on an invisible, scientific way of thinking. At Toyota, you experiment your way toward challenging goals — adding to knowledge as you take steps — instead of trying to decide your way to them.
This way of thinking and acting must be learned, because it does not come naturally. The default way we think about problems often involves jumping to conclusions — not scientific thinking — because the brain doesn’t like uncertainty. The unconscious part of our brain takes bits of surface information, quickly extrapolates to fill in blanks and gives us a false sense of confidence. And then we start making costly mistakes.
However, we do have the power to change our thinking. Kata helps you make that change.
Deliberate practice to change habits
Shifting your mindset involves weaving new neural pathways — by practicing a new way — which, over time, replace old pathways. Want to lose weight? Practice new patterns of eating and exercise. This raises the bar on educating ourselves to think more scientifically, since books, seminars or workshops alone probably won’t change our habits. There are many practice guides for learning how to play music, cook, paint, play a sport, play chess, and countless other pursuits, yet surprisingly few for the useful skill of scientific thinking. The new Toyota Kata Practice Guide (McGraw-Hill, 2017) aims to change this.
Some ingredients
We have a pretty good idea of what does work for changing habits of mind — daily practice sessions of some new routines, in the real workplace, with corrective feedback from a coach. Every time you think or do something, you’re more likely to do it again.
First, we’ll need some model of scientific thinking, in components or steps that can be taught one by one. Second, there should be a coach who can provide corrective feedback so the learner practices and internalizes the right new patterns. Finally, we need some specific routines to practice, especially for beginners. These ingredients are what the Toyota Kata Practice Guide provides.
- Improvement Kata is a four-step scientific pattern that learners follow to experiment their way through obstacles and achieve tough goals.
- Coaching Kata is a pattern for teaching Improvement Kata. It helps coaches practice sensing how the learner is thinking and giving effective feedback, in daily interactions called “coaching cycles.”
- But wait, there’s more. There are small, specific practice routines — called Starter Kata — for each step of the Improvement Kata. This is where beginners start and is an entryway to developing new skills and changing mindset.
Starter Kata help us build new habits
Practicing Kata has been utilized for centuries as a way of preserving effective skillsets, transmitting them from person to person, and building effective teamwork. The goal is to master each Starter Kata’s fundamental pattern so you can then build on and adapt it under a variety of circumstances as a reflex, with little thought or hesitation.
Starter Kata are like a beginner musician practicing a musical scale. That’s their role. You don’t stick with playing a musical scale forever — you build on what you learned from practicing it. And the next learner who comes along then begins with the same Starter Kata. This is particularly useful if you want to build a shared way of thinking and acting — a deliberate culture — in a team or organization, because everyone begins with the same basics.
Ultimately, though, Kata are not the important thing. What is important are the skills and mindset that practicing them imparts, which you and your company can use to achieve your particular goals.
See the full Work Truck Show educational program, exhibiting companies and products, a complete schedule of events, and more at worktruckshow.com.