DALE SYROTA

My original post on LinkedIn August 10, 2014

I was reviewing old documents in my computer and came across a piece by a noted “lean expert” that was talking about the Toyota kata questioning method. I had added a comment to the bottom of the document. I wrote, “Once again, consultants are missing the point. It’s is not about the five questions; copying them will not help.”

To me, the five kata questions are an outcome of pre-lean thinking. They may have evolved out of TWI’s Job Methods Training (JMT). The first two questions on target conditions and actual conditions, relate to the current and future states that are inherent in JMT. The third question on the obstacles and what you are working on, relate to question every detail. The forth question regarding the next step, relates to applying the new method, and the final question on what have we learned, is the final part of applying the new method for sell-approval-use and credit.

I see too often unfortunately, in a lean adoption program, that a company has failed to integrate the three basic programs that have made lean work. At least on the 2% of the time that lean is optimised. In 2006, when I was doing the research related to the article, it was a fact that 98% of all companies that adopt lean, fail to optimise their lean program. They got results, but nothing like the potential of those great companies that did it right. It was a fact then and I suspect there is very little difference now. Asking the five improvement kata questions every day will help but without the inherent culture of all three teaching, relating, and methods improvement basics, their lean program will never be optimised. Instead of a learning culture that has a life of its own (and outcomes of its own) they will always be forced to drive results. We drive cattle, not people. Lean is about pull not push.

Early adopters of lean in North America were not aware of the three TWI programs (Job Instruction Training - JIT, Job Methods Training - JMT and Job Relations Training - JRT) which the successful Japanese companies of the 1980’s, had adopted in the early 1950’s. The early North American adopters of lean (post 1980’s), copied the outcome programs of kaizen, standard work, kan ban, etc., which are outcome results of the TWI programs, rather than the TWI programs themselves. Since lean is about learn by doing, the consultants most often continue to provide lean by teaching the results of TWI learning, rather than the TWI training that was responsible for the lean learning. To this day this failure frustrates me to no end.

I read a great statement in Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson’s book, REWORK, which illustrates the ‘copy issue’ and the ill effects of copying that remains a problem in lean today. On page 135 they say, “…Maybe it’s because of the copy-and-paste world we live in these days…And that means it’s tempting to try to build a business by being a copycat. That’s a formula for failure, though. The problem with this sort of copying is that it skips understanding – and understanding is how you grow. You have to understand why something works or why something is the way it is.”

To use the five kata questions properly, or any of the great tools that came out of lean, you have to understand how lean evolved. Understand that, and your business can become a powerhouse. It is how great companies have great quality, safe work environments and employees that are engaged every day.

That is why a safety guy like me is writing this. Great safety is an outcome of a great learning culture.

If a CEO were to asked me how to build a great, world-class safety program, the first bit of advice I might offer would be to research the TWI history of the 1940’s and how General Douglas MacArthur invited the TWI team to teach these methods in Post WWII Japan. Then, I would recommend that they personally take the Job Instruction Training from a certified JIT trainer. Then, I would talk with that CEO about the excellence of the learning psychology of that training. It wasn’t just great training; TWI was unknowingly set up to work very efficiently with the way the brain likes to learn. That psychology is inherent in all three TWI programs. The CEO would see and understand, the convincing benefits. I would then ask that he or she takes the remaining two programs.

IBM CEO, Lou Gerstner, once said, "In the end, management doesn't change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture." To facilitate this idea, as a CEO, take all three programs and teach all three programs to your team. Then have your team do the same. Run it down through your organisation then, invite the workforce itself to change its culture.

Remember, learn to learn, THEN learn to be safe.

Isn't life grand?

If you liked this post, and you want to know how the mind works and how we learn, then you'll love my book based on decades of success research – Going Free: Find Your Path and Achieve Your Dreams – Be In Control and Self-Aware – Take the Chance Out of Change(only available as PDF .

Read it free for two days. If you like it buy it, if not, do nothing. After two days the read for free option ends. To read it again though, you will have to buy it. Find it at http://rethinkyourmind.com/.

(photo dreamstime.com)

If you want to get in touch with me, drop me a line at my contact page at http://dalesyrota.ca/. I do culture change. I ascribe to the thinking of IBM's CEO, Lou Gerstner, who said, "In the end, management doesn't change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture."

Dale Syrota is just a regular guy that enjoys work that brings out his creative soul.

He is still working but looking to move to warmer climates. He wants to make work WORK. His mission is to achieve individual and business success by propagating mastery, autonomy, and purpose as a vehicle to engage every employee every day and to enlist the psychology of the mind to help individuals self-improve at work and at home. Check out his http://dalesyrota.ca/ website.