Model for Improvement and Toyota Kata

Ten years ago in Toyota Kata, Mike Rother focused on the way Toyota managers and staff learned to think and practice improvement. 

As a Japanese word, kata originally referred to the patterns or forms used in martial arts:  students learn movements so they can apply them without hesitation or error in both typical and atypical settings.

I first connected to Rother’s Kata work when I picked up a card that summarizes the Coaching Kata.  I’ve been carrying it around in my backpack for many months.  Mike offers his perspective on Toyota Kata and free resources on his website; you can download your own copy of the Coaching Kata card here.

A Kata coach helps people learn the Improvement Kata, so let’s start with the Improvement Kata’s four steps:

• Step 1 - Understand the Direction or Challenge

• Step 2 - Grasp the Current condition

• Step 3 - Establish the next Target Condition

• Step 4 - Experiment Toward the Target condition

Mike argues the case for Improvement Kata this way:

“Today's prescriptions probably won’t fit tomorrow's problems, and the path to a challenging goal can’t be determined in advance anyway. Your best bet is to practice a universal means of developing your own solutions (a ‘meta skill’ for any situation). That’s what you learn by practicing the 4-step Improvement Kata pattern.”

“When conditions are complex and dynamic, scientific thinking may be the best approach we currently have for navigating. Scientific thinking means knowing that any idea should be tested. It means learning to compare what you think (theory) with what actually happens (evidence), and to adjust based on what you discover from the difference. It’s a pattern of thinking that makes us better at reaching difficult goals through unpredictable territory.”

(http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/The_Improvement_Kata.html, accessed 1 January 2020).

Link to the Model for Improvement

The Model for Improvement, developed by my API colleagues, is another expression of the scientific method, useful to guide progress in an uncertain landscape. 

Two posts back, I outlined the connection between A3 problem-solving and the Model for Improvement, here.  As Rother discusses in Toyota Kata, A3 problem-solving is one manifestation of Improvement Kata.  A one-page A3 document, which evolves over time, is especially useful for a coach and player to wrestle together to create a useful solution (chapter 8).

Improvement Kata can be applied informally as well as formally, as is true for the Model for Improvement.

Here’s a table that compares the Improvement Kata and the Model for Improvement.

If you know and use the Model for Improvement, you will find relevant and helpful information and resources on Rother’s website.

Coaching Kata

Rother proposes the Coaching Kata as a wrap-around to the Improvement Kata.  

Coaches--supervisors, managers, execs—should use the Coaching Kata questions in short sessions to help staff clarify thinking and improve performance.  Repeated coaching sessions develop skill in the scientific method.

The back side of the Coaching Kata card, shown here, gives the core points for anyone reviewing a PDSA cycle.

Just like my API colleagues, Rother emphasizes:

1.     The importance of contrasting expectations (predictions) to actual performance

2.     The frequent need to run more than one test to learn enough to achieve desired performance.

3.     Anyone can get better at improvement using scientific thinking.

Rother’s statement of Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata gives clear guidance as I and my clients wrestle to define and practice leader ‘standard work.’