Toyota Kata

Mobilizing our ingenuity through good management

Mike Rother, February 2010

The practice of kata is the act

of practicing a pattern so it
becomes second nature.
In its day-to-day management
Toyota teaches a way of
working -- a kata -- that has
helped make it so successful
over the last six decades.
Toyotas Improvement Kata
is something we overlook in
benchmarking and should
learn more about in order to
understand Toyotas story.

Mike Rother

Copyright 2010 Mike Rother, all rights reserved

1217 Baldwin Avenue / Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA / tel: (734) 665-5411 / mrother@umich.edu

TOYOTA KATA

An organizations processes, practices

and results are an outcome of peoples
thinking and behavior.
If processes are an outcome, then its
important to ask, How do we influence
our behavior in order to accomplish
continuous improvement, adaptiveness,
and innovation?

Toyotas answer is through kata. Kata are

practice routines, like dance steps, that
develop particular skills and ways of thinking.

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

THE TOYOTA KATA DEFINITION OF MANAGEMENT

The systematic pursuit of desired conditions

by utilizing human capabilities
in a concerted way

We are
here

We want
to be
here

Current
condition

Desired
condition
Target
condition
Challenge

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

A MANAGEMENT TASK
The 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.
This is very much like training in sports.

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

HOW HAVE WE BEEN MANAGING?

Leaders and managers have tended to focus on outcomes and solutions

A solution at Toyota...

...copied at a U.S. company

But leading people to implementing solutions doesnt make an

organization adaptive and continuously improving. Heres why:
It caters to and strengthens our aversion to uncertainty,
rather then developing exploratory mindset and skills
Todays solutions arent the ones that will meet
tomorrow's challenges
It's not solutions themselves that provide sustained
competitive advantage. Its the ability of the organizations
members to develop solutions.
Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS
There are only 3 things we can and need to know with certainty

(1) Where we are

(2) Where we want to be
(3) By what means we should navigate the
unclear territory between here and there.

Obstacles
We are
here

Unclear
Territory

We want
to be
here

This is a grey zone!

We dont know in advance what all the steps will be

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

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 dont yet know how we will achieve.

Uncertainty / Learning Zone

Ob

Current
Knowledge
Threshold

Mike Rother

s
e
l
c
sta

?
ear
l
c
n
U
ry
o
t
i
r
r
Te

Next
Target
Condition

We want
to be here
next

TOYOTA KATA

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)
Its impossible to remove uncertainty from the process
of improvement, adaptation and creation. The way forward
lies outside our current knowledge threshold.
Mystery

Learning
area

Uncertainty
Apparent
Certainty

Mike Rother

Comfort
area

TOYOTA KATA

A SOLUTION TO THIS DILEMMA

The trick is to develop well-worn mental circuits not for solutions,
but for a means by which we deal with dynamic, uncertain conditions.
Like training in sports: To prepare for contests with unpredictable
paths, the focus of the training is not solutions, but practicing how
to play.

People can
handle
uncertainty,
work iteratively,
adapt and meet
challenges...
...if they have
practiced and
learned a way of
doing that.

This concept is the basis of the book Toyota Kata

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

The Toyota Kata Message:

WE CAN MEET THE CHALLENGES FACING US
If we practice and learn an effective way
of navigating the learning zone

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

10

THE PATTERN THAT TOYOTA PRACTICES:

- THE IMPROVEMENT KATA The Improvement Kata is a four-part routine. Its a systematic
and scientific way for people to successfully navigate
through unknown territory together.
Its the backbone practice in a Lean organization.

Understand
the
Direction

Grasp the
Current
Condition

Establish the
Next Target
Condition

4
PDCA Toward the
Target Condition
ACT
CHECK

CC

What challenge
are we striving
to meet?

Mike Rother

What is the
current pattern
of working?

What pattern
do we want to
have next?

PLAN
Go
and
See

Target
Condition

DO

TC

The 5
Questions

The step-by-step
discovery process
between where we
are and where we
want to be next.

TOYOTA KATA

11

THE IMPROVEMENT KATA IS FRACTAL

Because the Improvement Kata is content neutral
it can be practiced throughout an organization

Its a decentralized yet aligned process of improvement,

adaptation and innovation
Fractal depiction by Mr. Emiel van Est

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

12

AND THERES A COACHING KATA

FOR 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!
Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

13

HOW DO YOU CHANGE MINDSET

AND 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.
Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

14

MINDSET = NEURAL PATHWAYS OR CIRCUITS

Its physiological
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.)

Cell
Body

Dendrites
(receiver)

Every time you do something,

you are more likely to do it again.
~ Alvaro Pascual-Leone

Axon (sender)

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

15

TO CHANGE MINDSET AND DEVELOP NEW SKILLS

FOCUS ON THESE ELEMENTS

PRACTICE
Repetition

COACHING
Corrective
feedback

MASTERY
KATA

Structured routine
to practice

Mike Rother

Overcoming
obstacles

To develop new habits

through practice, a
Learner 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.

TOYOTA KATA

16

THIS LEADS TO A NEW CONSIDERATION

FOR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
In order to practice you need to know what to practice
To change mindset and culture through deliberate
practice, the organizations leaders should specify
the pattern that is to be practiced and coached.
The organizations managers should learn the
pattern and how to coach it.
Thats exactly what Toyota does... Toyotas
managers teach a common means for developing
solutions: The Improvement Kata.

Mike Rother

Solution

How to
develop solution

Toyotas
Management
System

Left open

Specified
Guided & directed

Our
Management
System

Given / Directed

Left open

TOYOTA KATA

17

MAKE THE PRACTICING PART OF NORMAL

DAILY WORK, NOT A SPECIAL EVENT
If we only periodically conduct training events or only episodically
work on improvement -- and the rest of the time its business as
usual -- then according to neuroscience what were 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.

Daily

Supervisor
Area
Manager

A slice of each day should be focused

on iterating toward the next target
condition by applying & coaching the
Improvement Kata.

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

18

ONE CONCLUSION IS BECOMING CLEAR

Were not going to be successful by copying Toyotas solutions

We should be copying how

Toyota develops solutions.
(Which is a universal, not
Toyota-specific, sciencebased approach.)
The Improvement Kata and
Coaching Kata are practice
routines for teaching and
transferring that approach.

Once you develop proficiency with the Improvement Kata

and Coaching Kata you can evolve them into kata that suit
your organization.

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

19

INCREASING YOUR ORGANIZATIONS CAPABILITY

Practicing the Improvement Kata = expanding peoples comfort zone
The more people in an organization
who get to higher skill levels with the
Improvement Kata pattern:
Comfort The more challenges the organization
can take on
area
The bigger the challenges it can take on
The more knowledge it can build
The faster it can move ahead

Mystery
Uncertainty
Apparent
Certainty

Target
Condition

Next
Target
Condition

Current
Condition
Illustration by Dr. Lutz Engel

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

20

WE MISUNDERSTOOD THE SOURCE

OF TOYOTAS SUCCESSES
We confused the visible content of what we benchmarked at Toyota with
the 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, Toyotas extraordinary successes came from Lean practices
combined with Toyotas way of working toward any challenging objective.
Toyotas 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.

This is content and

situation specific

This is content
free and universal

What we work on

How we go about it

Solve a problem
Lean practices
Develop a product
Market a product / service
etc.

The
Improvement Kata

The pivotal change proposed by study of Toyota is not in what

an organization does, but in how the organization does it
Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

21

WHAT IS MANAGEMENTS TASK?

Traditional
Management

Toyota Kata
Management

Focus on solutions

Focus on how
solutions are developed

Establish targets

Establish targets

Describe solutions

Develop, via practice

with coaching, the
capability in people to
develop new solutions...

Provide incentives
Get out of the way and
periodically check
results

Mike Rother

...by having people

practice a common way
of working, like the
Improvement Kata

TOYOTA KATA

22

MANAGERS ARE TEACHERS, AND

THEIR ACTIONS DETERMINE COMPANY CAPABILITY
Whether consciously or not, with their everyday words
and actions all managers are teaching their people a
mindset and approach.

So it makes sense to ask: What patterns of behavior and

thought do we want to be teaching in our organization?

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

23

rsum
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 routines
that can be applied and practiced
in any setting, in order to develop
capability and behavior consistent
with systems thinking.

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

24

FURTHER RESOURCES
Click each item or scan the code for a link to that resource

The Toyota Kata Website

Essential Books

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

25

Improvement Kata Handbook

(Download free on the Toyota Kata Website)

Toyota Kata on

TK Course at UM

Mike Rother

TOYOTA KATA

26