1.
10 Golden Rules for
Failing with Toyota Kata
Success Guaranteed !!
By Karsten Seydel and Mark Rosenthal
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Source: Personal experiences
November 2014

2.
Start Kata as a new program - or better
as an alternative Program to Lean.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
2!
No1

3.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
"Lean" doesn't change.
Toyota Kata is a way to
practice foundational skills
for scientific thinking.
Those skills are the basis for
the rest of the Lean practices.
3!
No1

4.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Call Kata a new toolset
for problem solving.
4!
No2

5.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Call it what it is: A framework
for developing a scientific
thought process, so everyone
can work together effectively
using a common approach.
5!
No2

6.
Authorize your in-house consulting group or
your Lean experts to launch a Kata program.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
6!
No3

7.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
The Improvement Kata and
Coaching Kata are for leaders
and managers to practice, and
then to coach others in
practicing, to develop different
skills, mindset and culture.
You can't delegate your own
practice to others.
7!
No3

8.
Do a benchmarking trip to copy a
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Kata program from others.
8!
No4

9.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
You don't know exactly what
will work for you and your
organization. What is your skill-development
Challenge and
next Target Condition? Now
experiment and learn your way
there... to develop your own
style to suit your organization.
9!
No4

10.
Foster discussions about possible
solutions instead of testing them.
Don’t start before there's a consensus
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
with everybody.
10!
No5

11.
You won't learn what works for
you in front of a whiteboard in a
conference room.
There is no experience gained
from PowerPoint presentations.
Go and try it with a qualified,
experienced coach in order to
learn what it is about.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
11!
No5

12.
Go to a Kata training course and start
training your organization directly
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
after the course.
12!
No6

13.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
TK course training is mostly for
awareness and for giving you
enough information to decide
to try it yourself. You learn by
doing. You train by doing.
13!
No6

14.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Let your Improvers find their
Target Conditions by themselves.
They're empowered after all!
14!
No7

15.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
You owe your Improvers a
clear, strategically-important
Challenge and some coaching,
as they develop and propose
Target Conditions that align
with that Challenge.
15!
No7

16.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Give a Kata Team ambitious
financial targets and let your
controllers check results.
16!
No8

17.
Financial results are lagging outcome
indicators.
People can (and do) find ways to
reach them without improving the
underlying systems.
Challenges and Target Conditions
have metrics, of course, but should be
expressed in descriptive operational
terms. How must the underlying
system change? Why will the
financial result be different?
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
17!
No8

18.
Have your Kata team commit on hard
project milestones, and check their
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results using traffic lights.
18!
No9

19.
The further out a Target Condition,
the more you need to plan.
But a plan is only a prediction.
Check what is being learned via
daily Coaching Cycles and adjust
accordingly.
Managers are responsible for
ensuring their teams develop the
scientific skills and iterative
approach to achieve their goals.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
19!
No9

20.
Communicate intensively about the
new Kata program but don’t change
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
your management style.
20!
No10

21.
People answer the questions the
boss asks.
If you want people to use the
Improvement Kata pattern, then use
the "5 Coaching Kata Questions" as
the baseline for your own style.
It won't be easy at first. You too
have to practice, learn and change
your mindset. But it can be highly
satisfying, and it works!
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
21!
No10

22.
Best wishes for
your practice!
You can’t really implement Toyota Kata
because we can’t predict exactly how it
will go. The trick is to deploy and spread
Toyota Kata by using Toyota Kata.
That is, leaders and managers should
apply scientific skills and iterate as they
strive to achieve their organization's skill-development
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
goals.
22!

23.
Karsten Seydel & Mark Rosenthal!
Karsten Seydel !
!
Lean Program Manager and Kata Leadership
Coach at Siemens AG Berlin !
Mark Rosenthal
Novayama Consulting, Snohomish WA!
Blogs at theleanthinker.com!
23!