The Toyota Kata STARTER KATA By Mike Rother

The Toyota Kata STARTER KATA By Mike Rother To get better at scientific thinking begin with these Starter Kata, and build on them once you master their patterns. Instructions for each Starter Kata (and much more) are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide

After an Introduction on the black-edged pages, this ppt file contains the Starter Kata for practicing the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata patterns: • Learner’s storyboard format (for the learner) • Steps of process analysis (learner) • Steps to establishing a target condition (learner) • Current condition/target condition form (learner) • Obstacle parking lot (learner) • Experimenting record (learner) • Five-question card (for the coach) For instructions refer to the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG) 2

STARTER KATA TO PRACTICE SCIENTIFIC THINKING SKILLS Starter Kata are structured routines that you practice deliberately, especially at the beginning, so their pattern becomes a habit and leaves you with new abilities. Starter Kata are a way of learning fundamental skills. The Toyota Kata (TK) Starter Kata are for practicing scientific-thinking skill and mindset. Instructions for the TK Starter Kata are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (2017, Mc. Graw-Hill). At first you should try to practice each Starter Kata exactly as described, until its pattern becomes somewhat automatic and habitual for you. That can take a few weeks of practice. When you reach that point and have learned through practice to understand the "why" behind a Starter Kata's routine, then you can build on it to develop your own style, as long as the core pattern remains intact. Toyota Kata helps you build scientificthinking skills and mindset, via its wellproven set of Starter Kata to practice daily. They come from the Toyota Kata research and have been used for practice at thousands of organizations around the world. Begin with the Starter Kata presented here and then, as you gain skill and understanding, add to or adjust them to fit your situation as needed. Best wishes for practicing how to scientifically achieve goals! Mike Rother 3

Starter Kata are structured practice routines that put you on the road to learning fundamentals and developing new patterns of thinking. Practicing Starter Kata increases the speed of learning and is particularly helpful when you want to create a shared way of thinking and acting in a group of people, because everyone starts with the same basics. For scientific-thinking skill, begin by practicing the Starter Kata presented here and in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide.

Don’t Make This Mistake Don’t overload a beginner with the more advanced stuff you’ve learned. It's too soon. That just confuses their initial practice and slows down their learning. As we grow more proficient in any skill, we learn and develop our own style and techniques. When a new learner comes along it’s natural to want to share that with them. But it’s too much for the beginner! Be a coach, not a lecturer. Instead, have the next beginner start with Starter Kata practice routines. Then they can build from there — just like you did. Beginner Experienced Starter Kata Skills grown beyond the Starter Kata (begin here) Like This! NEXT Beginner Not This

It’s About Developing Some New Patterns in Your Thinking Information entering our mind self-organizes into the existing patterns of our neural library. Toyota Kata is about practicing scientific patterns of thinking. Those patterns are embedded in the Starter Kata. Practice the Starter Kata, internalize their patterns, and you’re on the way to greater scientific thinking. Then you can apply that new skill to whatever goals and challenges you have!

Benefits of Practicing Starter Kata • They help beginners start to acquire a new skill by providing simple predefined, step-by-step practice routines for internalizing fundamentals. • They give the coach a point of comparison for gauging the learner’s performance and providing corrective feedback and suggestions. • They help to develop a shared mode of thinking and acting across a team or organization by providing common routines for everyone’s initial practice. • Perhaps most important, Starter Kata help bridge a gap by translating theoretical principles and concepts into something real and teachable.

The Improvement Kata Pattern A pattern of scientific thinking to improve in the direction of a challenge This is the pattern of scientific thinking we are trying to teach

There are Starter Kata for each step of the Improvement Kata pattern, and for the Coach The Improvement Kata Pattern Please start practicing this way STARTER KATA for the learner STARTER KATA for the coach

The Toyota Kata Starter Kata LEARNER COACH Learner’s storyboard Steps of process analysis Steps to establishing The experimenting record a target condition Obstacle parking lot Daily coaching cycles at the learner’s storyboard, with the five Coaching Kata questions Instructions for these Starter Kata are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG)

The Learner’s Storyboard Start with this board format FOR THE LEARNER

Focus Process: Target Condition Achieve by: Challenge: Actual Condition Now Experimenting Record Obstacles Parking Lot

Steps of Process Analysis For grasping the current condition FOR THE LEARNER

FOR THE LEARNER Steps to Establishing a Target Condition A desired outcome and operating pattern, as your next goalpost

Obstacle Parking Lot FOR THE LEARNER

Current Condition / Target Condition Form Cut here to post on storyboard FOR THE LEARNER

Experimenting Record FOR THE LEARNER Use until you overcome an obstacle, then start a new form

The scientific learning cycle is embedded in the experimenting record, to make the cycle easy to practice. ACTION PREDICTION EVIDENCE EVALUATE

Layout of the Experimenting Record = one obstacle per form, one experiment per row. Predict what you expect and compare that with what actually happens. That’s how you learn. This is the one obstacle to the target condition that you are currently working on The prediction side is where you plan the next experiment and predict the outcome The evidence side is where you record what actually happened, compare that with the prediction, and record what you learned It usually take a series of experiments in order to overcome an obstacle

FOR THE COACH The Five Coaching Kata Questions A printer / copier 5 Q card template is on the next two pages

COACHING KATA Front of card

Back of card

Daily Coaching Cycles with the 5 Questions - 20 minutes or less - FOR THE COACH

With beginner learners, ask the five Coaching Kata questions after each step. Next Target Condition Learner's Storyboard Learner Coaching Cycle Dialogue Current Condition Coach TIP: Identify the learner’s threshold of knowledge and have them plan their next experiment there.

As your coaching abilities grow you should evolve your own coaching style, which includes adding your own questions. Of course, any additional questions should be consistent with the principles and pattern of the Starter Kata. Begin with the Starter Kata five-question card. As you get used to the card, start adding notes and your own clarifying questions. One technique is to make a folding card as shown below. The folded card still fits in your pocket, but has space on the unfolded right-hand side to jot down notes and test your own questions. Example notes and clarifying questions are shown here, just as thought starters. The Starter Kata Coaching Questions Example notes & clarifying questions • Is the target condition connected to the challenge? • What do you want to be happening? • No verbs! • Measureable? • Not 'lack of something' • Achieve-by date? 2) What is the Actual Condition now? • Numbers, not opinions. • Can you show me? • How do you know? • How did you get the data? • Is there a run chart? REFLECTION 1) What is the Target Condition? What did you plan as your Last Step? • What was being tested? • Is the PDCA Cycles Record filled in? What did you Expect? • Was this written down? • Just read it! What Actually Happened? • Only facts & numbers. • Are the numbers written down? • Is there a run chart? • What is different than expected? What did you Learn? • Did the Learner really reflect on this? 3) What Obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition? • Is the Obstacles Parking Lot up-to-date? • True obstacles (variation), not action items or lack of a perceived solution. Which *one* are you addressing now? • Where does this problem occur? • Can you show me? • When does this problem occur? 4) What is your next step? (Next experiment) • What is the current knowledge threshold? • Did what was learned in the last experiment frame this one? • Is expectation written down? • Please read it. • What numerical outcome do you expect? • How will you measure it? • How many cycles do you plan to measure? What do you expect? 5) How quickly can we go and see what we Have Learned from taking that step? Card folds here • Strive for cheap and fast experiments • Can we run this experiment today? Right now? • When is the next coaching cycle? • Accompany the Learner if necessary. The underlying pattern of the five Coaching Kata questions should remain!

Best wishes for practicing how to scientifically achieve goals!