The Way (Part 2)
How To Achieve Adaptiveness?
As we have mentioned, it is not about the principles or solutions. Implementing Kaizen does not make an organization adaptive if the underlying condition is not appropriate. The reason is that the main implementation happens in a particular part of the organization, but the rest of the workers may not even sense the change happening. Nonetheless, the success factor may be highly dependent upon that very rest! An organization will reach its potential if all its workers are involved in the continuous improvement process daily. That makes all the difference! That’s what Toyota calls the “strength” of a company.
Toyota has long considered its ability to permanently resolve problems and then improve stable processes as one of the company’s competitive advantages. With an entire workforce charged with solving their workplace problems, the power of the intellectual capital of the company is tremendous. — Kathi Hanley, statement as a group leader at TMMK
So, the way to achieve that is by creating systematic routines and procedures that enable employees to reach their potential by utilizing their capabilities. The systematic approach should support and guide employees on their way to improve and constantly adapt. Moreover, that must be included in the organization’s daily processes instead of keeping it separate like a whole different project. Ultimately, maintaining the workers’ routines and behaviors in that state should be the management’s task.
Kata
Those very systematic routines that enable adaptation and growth are called Kata in Japan. That can be described as the highly-detailed movements, including several micro-sequences that are passed from generation to generation. If we go deeper, that is about keeping two things in sync. In organizational terms, that describes a situation when the external and internal conditions are closely watched, and the processes are aligned accordingly. So, the company stays in a synchronized mode with the circumstances. It will still be impossible to control the outside circumstances, but the ways to deal with them will get immensely effective.
Is Kata a technique or a principle?
It is similar to a principle but far from a technique. It is not a technique in that it does focus more on the behaviors of the people. Meanwhile, the principle is about helping us decide and go for an option from among other variants. Nevertheless, it does not tell us how to do something next. The principle comes out of repeated actions, while kata is about synchronized repeated actions. Kata is deeper than a principle.
Attributes of Kata
- It is performed at the process level, and that’s where the real improvement takes place. Plans and strategies are done at a higher level, but the change occurs in the bottom-line;
- To make an organization adaptive, processes must be improved daily because of which we need to embed kata in the processes;
- Many different factors affect a particular process at any point in time, and we cannot find a solution for all of them. That’s why we need a method or, more importantly, a mindset that guides the worker who actually faces the challenges to make better decisions. Moreover, that very method eliminates subjective thinking and makes the results more consistent.
Generally, kata is divided into two basic parts:
- Improvement Kata: that’s where the actual day-to-day growth occurs;
- Coaching Kata: that’s where the workers who should utilize Kata must be taught.
