by Rother, Mike
Here is the point: How well the mentee does reflects the current capability of the organization, and if possible this should not be obscured, because we always want to understand the true current situation as clearly as possible. The solutions the mentees develop reflect the current level of capability in the organization, and that can be an important input for mentors. It may tell them what skill sets they need to work on next with their mentees. Artificially creating perfect solutions would disguise the true state of affairs and make it more difficult to understand what we need to do next to move our organization forward.
I hope you are having as much of an ah-ha moment right now as I did when this penny dropped for me.
Management does not need to bring solutions to problems. What management should bring into the organization is a kata for how people should act when faced with a situation. If the ability to apply the kata is developed in the organization correctly, then management will not need to worry about the outcomes. Conversely, if the results are not satisfactory, then it is the kata that is not being applied correctly.
6. Imagine This Approach Happening at Every Process in an Organization for Decades
In the case example, we are looking at an occasional stripped thread on one component of a product (an automobile) that has thousands of components, inside a huge company that makes many different products. In that light the effort that Tina and Dan went through could seem disproportionate, like too much effort. Yet imagine small effective steps of continuous improvement happening at every process every day for 50 years, and you begin to get a sense of how Toyota has achieved the position it holds today.
7. Caution! Good Coaching Skills Take Practice to Develop
Toyota’s mentoring is a unique coaching and teaching approach, and it takes practice (under the guidance of an experienced mentor) to develop such mentoring skills. I have seen a few pitfalls in experiments with developing mentors, including:
You have to be a mentee before you can mentor. In order to accompany and guide others through the improvement kata, the mentor must have sufficient experience in carrying out the improvement kata him- or herself.
It is difficult for new mentors to adopt the right mind-set. When you go and see, your mind should be open, without preconceived notions about what could be the situation and what might be solutions. The mentor should know very well how the improvement kata proceeds (the how), but should have an open mind in regard to the content of the particular improvement effort (the what).
For example, inexperienced mentors often ask questions designed to get the mentee to adopt the mentor’s preconceived solution. This is sort of like the guessing game: “I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 10.” Unfortunately, this does not develop the mentee’s capability. Remember, the mentor is asking what the mentee is thinking in order to discern how the mentee is thinking.
Mentees often feel pressure to give an answer, even if they don’t know the answer. The mentor should get himself and the mentee to the point where “I don’t know” is an acceptable and valid answer. And when “I don’t know” is the answer, then go and see!
A Written Document to Support Mentor/Mentee Dialogue
Cycles of coaching should ideally be frequent, short, and conducted face-to-face. In the case example, Tina and Dan’s communication was all verbal. However, it is often advisable to use a simple, one-page written document in support of mentor/mentee coaching. Verbal communication alone can rely too little on data, and during verbal communication a mentee may naturally, and unconsciously, adapt what he is saying to what he thinks the mentor wants to hear.
By asking the mentee to summarize information in writing on one page in advance of coaching, the mentor can more clearly see how the mentee is approaching an issue and how she is thinking. This in turn helps the mentor see the next step and what coaching is required at this time. Limiting the document to one page compels the mentee to be clear in describing her analysis and proposal.
Typical items in mentor/mentee dialogue that make it onto a written document include:
Summary of observations or current condition
Target condition
Proposals
Plans
Key points from reflections
At Toyota such one-page documents are called A3s because they are often made on a sheet of ledger-sized paper, referred to as A3-size in many countries.
The format of an A3 generally mirrors the steps of the improvement kata. They are written in a succinct, bulleted, and visual style that tells a story with data. Although the A3 is typically on one page, there can be additional pages of backup documentation. It is the “story” itself that is built up and presented on the single page.
The format of an A3 varies depending on the purpose and theme. Figure 8-8 presents the typical sections of an A3.
You may notice that in this example A3, “Current Condition” comes before the “Target Condition,” which is a reversal of their order in the five questions at the end of Chapter 6. The reason for this is that the five questions come into play after a target condition has already been defined, whereas an A3 is from the beginning, where understanding the current condition precedes defining the target condition. Each section of the A3 builds upon the previous one. The better you define the theme, the better you can assess the current condition. The better you assess the current condition, the better you can develop an appropriate target condition. And so on. As the mentee develops the A3, the mentor typically has the mentee focus on one section of the A3 at a time, and that section may be rewritten several times. That section is then the foundation for the next section.
Figure 8-8. Example of the A3 format
Purpose of an A3
The purpose of A3 documents is to support the mentor/mentee dialogue. This is done by:
Having the mentee carefully think through something.
It is surprisingly difficult to distill our understanding about something down to one sheet of paper. Preparing a succinct and precise A3 forces you to develop a deep and clear understanding of a situation.
Figure 8-9. An A3 can help mentor/mentee interaction stay focused
I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
—Attributed to Blaise Pascal, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others
Showing the mentor how the mentee is thinking, so the mentor can see what the next step is for the mentee, and what skills the mentee needs to develop.
Keeping coaching focused and efficient (Figure 8-9). An A3 helps create a neutral, no-blame situation by giving both mentor and mentee a focal point. If there is an important issue, question, or lesson learned, then it should be noted in the A3.
Achieving consensus and clear action
Providing milestones for process checks
Lessons Learned About A3s
This is another one of those instances where we can easily miss the point while trying to copy a Toyota practice. We tend to focus on the tool—the format of completed A3s that we see at Toyota—rather than on the less visible how and why an A3 is developed and used. Upon learning that Toyota utilizes A3s, some managers and consultants have singled them out as a lean tool and suggested that people use them. The result in many cases has been a lot of paper generation and not much more than that.
There is no magic in the A3 documents themselves. The trick is in how they are used, and here are some key points in that regard from our experimentation:
An A3 is a tool that is used within and in support of the mentor/mentee dialogue, that is, the coaching kata, which in turn is being done to teach and drive application of the improvement kata. The improvement kata in turn is applied in pursuit of a long-term direction or vision, which exists because of an organization philosophy of improvement and adaptation. An A3 by itself may not be so effective.
An A3 is put together through a highly iterative, back-and-forth process between mentor and mentee. It is not just filled in at once and signed, because then it would just
be a meaningless formality. Imagine the document being slid back and forth between mentor and mentee several times as they develop a progressively better understanding of the current and target conditions, and step-by-step build up the sections of the A3. If there are not several push-backs, then the A3 document is not being used correctly.
Much of the benefit of an A3 lies in this process of creating it, because it forces you to work with facts and data and think through what you are doing. The objective and benefit is not so much to have a completed A3, but to go through the iterative, step-by-step process of developing it.
It takes more time to develop a good A3 than you may think; sometimes weeks or even months.
As already mentioned, in developing the A3, the mentor typically has the mentee focus on one section at a time, because each section of the A3 sets the framework for the next. You will probably go back and make adjustments often. Keep your eraser handy.
Once the A3 is completed and signed it becomes a tool for making process checks as the mentee works toward the target condition. The A3 then becomes a tool to help mentor and mentee better identify problems along the way.
A good way to start is to simply ask the mentee for a proposal on one blank sheet of paper, rather than predefining the A3 format. Wait and see what the mentee produces. Then you can discern how the mentee is thinking and guide him accordingly from there. This is like in the case example, when Tina started by giving Dan a vague assignment. She then waited for his response in order to see how he was thinking, before guiding him into the next step.
Caution: a written document can encourage e-mail communication over face-to-face communication, or be used as a substitute for Go and See. Communication should remain face-to-face, and you should seek facts over data at the process.
Talk less and communicate more, by staying focused on what is written in the A3. Avoid ad-lib discussion, which is typically not based on facts and data, is quickly forgotten, and therefore wastes time. If there is no data, there is no basis for discussion. Have the mentee summarize the necessary points and data before coaching in order to help prevent this effect.
For more on the A3 process within mentor/mentee dialogues, see the book Managing to Learn, by John Shook.2
Notes
1. I use the word superior here, but as we will see, in many ways it is the mentor who is supporting the mentee.
2. John Shook, Managing to Learn (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Lean Enterprise Institute, 2008), and www.lean.org.
Summary of Part IV
There is a significant difference between the approach and activities of managers at Toyota versus managers in our organizations. Both work with goals, targets, and outcome metrics, of course, but that is only a start for the Toyota manager/mentor, because she or he is charged with teaching. As the diagram in Figure P4-1 illustrates, the difference lies at the interface, the interaction, between manager and subordinate.
Figure P4-1. A difference, at the point where managers and the people they manage interact
The teaching requirement and the overlap of responsibility— mentee responsible for doing and mentor responsible for results— binds leader and subordinate together like the pairs of runners in a three-legged race, where the right leg of one runner is strapped to the left leg of the other. It is a game of interdependency, learning, and coordination between teammates. And lest you think this is just an exercise for some people in the organization, keep in mind that everyone at Toyota has a mentor.
In some respects what Toyota has done with its improvement kata and coaching kata is to grow management by objectives into its full potential, while in the same period of time we sometimes seem to have sought to reduce it to “manage by the numbers” or “manage by results.”
In Toyota’s Own Words
Toyota has a unique corporate culture that places emphasis on problem solving and preventative measures, such as making decisions based on the actual situation on the ground and highlighting problems by immediately flagging and sharing them. Toyota’s management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions founded on that common system of checks and balances and on high ethical standards.
A distinctive feature of Toyota’s system is that senior managing directors do not focus exclusively on management. As the highest authorities in their areas of supervision, they also act as links between management and on-site operations. Retaining an emphasis on developments on the ground—one of Toyota’s perennial strengths—helps closely coordinate decision making with actual operations. Management decisions can be swiftly reflected in operations, while overall management strategy is able to readily incorporate feedback from frontline operations.
—Toyota 2004 Annual Report, page 16
With regard to Toyota’s improvement kata as described in Part III, it is a scientific approach, and thus universal in nature and applicable in many organizations and to many different situations. I have utilized it successfully many times. It works, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you as described in this book.
With regard to Toyota’s coaching kata, on the other hand, we do not yet have enough experience with it to know if that approach is always necessary for developing improvement kata behavior. Some kind of coaching is undoubtedly required in order to teach people the improvement kata, but more research—experimentation—on teaching methods is probably necessary. Perhaps Toyota’s coaching kata is not the only way to do it.
The distinction between the improvement kata and the coaching kata is important, since the main objective is not “management by questions,” per se, but to have members of the organization think and act along the lines of the improvement kata. Making the distinction between the two kata allows a mentor to clearly ask him- or herself:
(a) How is this person doing with the improvement kata? And then:
(b) What coaching do I need to do now?
Is the Coaching Kata in Flux at Toyota?
The mentor/mentee approach has traditionally been Toyota’s method for passing its improvement kata on to all organization members. Toyota utilized this approach when it opened its first manufacturing facility in North America, the NUMMI plant in Freemont, California—a 50-50 joint venture with General Motors that commenced production in 1984. Approximately 400 “coordinators” were sent from Japan to the California site. These were mentors who essentially took Toyota’s new American hires by the hand and taught them Toyota’s improvement kata through the mentor/mentee learn-by-doing approach presented in this chapter. A similar number of coordinators were later sent to Kentucky, when Toyota established its second North American production site there.
In more recent years, however, Toyota has been growing so rapidly around the world (factories in 28 countries at last count) that it is faced with a need to bring many more new employees into its way of thinking and acting. Toyota’s coaching kata—the mentor/mentee approach—has not always been able to keep up, because it requires experienced mentors, a limited resource, and it takes time.
. . . a vital aspect of our reinvention is changing how we choose and develop our leaders. Obviously, using only Japanese advisors cannot be done anymore. We are stretched thin here and elsewhere around the world.
—Toyota President, Fujio Cho, in a speech given in Traverse City, Michigan, August 3, 2004
Since Toyota utilizes problems as opportunities to evolve and improve, we can assume that it is in the process of adapting its way of teaching the improvement kata. On the other hand, an organization’s intentionally cultivated behavior patterns are a fragile thing, and Toyota is no exception. Adapting in this area will probably work for Toyota as long as there are still enough key people in the organization who understand and have mastered the adaptive behavior pattern— the improvement kata.
What Is the Next Step for Us?
The evidence from experimentation suggests that some kind of coaching will be necessary in order for groups of people to learn to use the improvement kata, as well as to keep it operating
every day at every process. If you want to integrate an improvement kata into an organization’s way of doing things, then you will have to develop some kind of coaching approach. We will tackle this subject in the next, and final, chapter.
Part V Replication:What About Other Companies?
Chapter 9
Developing Improvement Kata Behavior in Your Organization
The second overarching question mentioned in the introduction to Toyota Kata is: How can other companies develop similar routines and thinking in their organizations? At this point we have a basic awareness of what Toyota is doing to achieve continuous improvement and adaptiveness, as described in Parts III and IV. There is, of course, more to learn there, but we would perhaps do well to shift some of our attention away from the question of what Toyota is doing and more onto that second question. While it is interesting to study and discuss Toyota, even more important may be the experimentation, learning, and development we do for ourselves in our own situations.
