Are you ready to take the next step with Lean/Continuous Improvement?



Mike Rother talks about the challenges of developing Lean Management, his 5 year research study, and the connection to the Improvement Kata and how it can successfully be used in conjunction with your own continuous improvement efforts to transform your organization.

Download the slides to the video HERE.

What is a Kata?
A kata is something most often associated with martial arts. It is a routine you practice purposefully with the intent of making that pattern a habit. Bike riding, driving and typing are all katas. Once you learn to ride a bike and it becomes second nature, you no longer have to concentrate on the skill of riding the bike, but are now able to focus on getting to your destination.

Ask yourself what patterns exist and are reinforced in your own organization. Are these routines supportive or obstructive to meeting your improvement goals?

What is an Improvement Kata?
The improvement kata is a specific routine for improving, adapting and innovating. It is scientific and goal-directed, not a random disconnected reaction to problems. The overall goal, as with any kata, is to make the routine of the improvement kata a habit that happens almost unconsciously. The Improvement Kata benefits your organization by:

• Providing a systematic, scientific routine that can be applied to any goal
• Standardizing how the members of an organization navigate uncertainty and develop solutions
• Transforming managers from a role of firefighters to coach and mentor
• Representing PDCA in a way that has people learning from iterative steps daily

Why do we need an Improvement / Coaching Kata?


Organizations have been trying to copy Toyota for 30 years and still can't seem to get the same results. Our Lean programs lose not only momentum, but their gains over time. The Improvement Kata and Coaching Katas at Toyota are the keys to their ability to sustain their culture of daily improvement.

This eight-hour workshop brings to life the practice of the
concepts of Toyota Kata, including:

Take the next step
If you've gotten as far as you can go in your Lean journey by copying Toyota and are looking for a breakthrough approach to culture change, let us introduce you to Toyota Kata. In our workshops we will not only introduce you to the concepts of the Toyota Kata, but bring life to the practice of the Toyota Kata, including:

• The Improvement Kata: The routine that drives daily improvement towards a target condition on the way to achieving a challenge.
• The Coaching Kata: A daily routine for teaching and reinforcing the Improvement Kata in an effort to sustain the improvement.

Contact us to discuss bringing a Toyota Kata workshop to your organization or join one of our upcoming workshops shown below.