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Giving Wings to Her Team: A Novel About Learning to Coach the Toyota Kata Way
Denise dreamed of being the kind of leader who empowered and engaged her people, but was becoming frustrated and disillusioned.
Denise -- a fast-rising, young consultant at a large advisory firm -- lands a job as a manager in industry. Crisis strikes as low-cost competitors take market share and general chaos generates late shipments. Denise goes into Lean consulting mode but quickly learns her supervisors are not buying it. They're not engaged, and they find the Lean tools confusing and a distraction from their goals of getting product out. It's going to take some magic -- magic that's available to you, the reader, too!
Come with Denise on a journey of discovery and skill development, as she moves beyond the tools and concepts of Lean and focuses on daily practice that helps her supervisors achieve their goals. It's about an approach called Toyota Kata that helps anyone develop and apply scientific thinking -- an exploratory mindset of curiosity and experimentation. A mentor from an unlikely place appears and shares with Denise how to coach her team. Once her supervisors dig into real problems they face every day, they begin to engage. Step by step, with insightful inputs from her mentor, Denise starts developing the skills to become a coaching manager. She watches her team meet their current challenges and be ready for more.
When you teach and practice scientific thinking and coaching skills you give wings to your team, and new worlds of opportunity open up. If you're a manager you'll identify with how the team in this story goes beyond general preaching about best practices, to practicing how to get to where they want to be. If you're a Lean practitioner frustrated with applying tools with a limited half life, you'll learn how to develop people so they can achieve their most important goals and keep going. And if you're already a Toyota Kata practitioner, well ... you will love this book!
Denise -- a fast-rising, young consultant at a large advisory firm -- lands a job as a manager in industry. Crisis strikes as low-cost competitors take market share and general chaos generates late shipments. Denise goes into Lean consulting mode but quickly learns her supervisors are not buying it. They're not engaged, and they find the Lean tools confusing and a distraction from their goals of getting product out. It's going to take some magic -- magic that's available to you, the reader, too!
Come with Denise on a journey of discovery and skill development, as she moves beyond the tools and concepts of Lean and focuses on daily practice that helps her supervisors achieve their goals. It's about an approach called Toyota Kata that helps anyone develop and apply scientific thinking -- an exploratory mindset of curiosity and experimentation. A mentor from an unlikely place appears and shares with Denise how to coach her team. Once her supervisors dig into real problems they face every day, they begin to engage. Step by step, with insightful inputs from her mentor, Denise starts developing the skills to become a coaching manager. She watches her team meet their current challenges and be ready for more.
When you teach and practice scientific thinking and coaching skills you give wings to your team, and new worlds of opportunity open up. If you're a manager you'll identify with how the team in this story goes beyond general preaching about best practices, to practicing how to get to where they want to be. If you're a Lean practitioner frustrated with applying tools with a limited half life, you'll learn how to develop people so they can achieve their most important goals and keep going. And if you're already a Toyota Kata practitioner, well ... you will love this book!
- GenresLeadership
355 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2023
3 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 24, 2024
So I really have become fascinated with the idea of Kata. I decided to read this business fiction fable as I thought it would be a good primer to helping me shape my own coaching.
The book is a combined work based on Rother's research and Schwartz practical application.
The fable gives the reader a good idea of how to not only apply Kata, but how to coach. The book follows the protagonist from a student experimenting and trying kata coaching techniques, to a student trying to apply Kata activities to a division. Along the way she is being coached and mentored by the owner of her local gym.
The big takeaway from this book is the work that Schwartz has taken and developed which is the coaching methodology. Another big takeaway is that this methodology can be applied anywhere to get people thinking scientifically. Creating and applying a dojo to practice your coaching was interesting and based on this book, I wrote to Tilo to get his self-published Kata Dojo book.
A couple of criticisms I have for this book:
First an area for improvement. I think this would be an excellent audiobook as the story they are trying to convey would play well into an audiobook audience.
Next a criticism. If they were going to keep this a print book, they might want to separate into book one & Book 2- sequel. Having one fable that takes the protagonist from not knowing the methodology to leading Improvement on a key metric within a small area would be book one. The second book could be the protagonist's promotion and challenge to implement this greater scope across the broader area.
To me these are two different skills that cannot be done simultaneously. I would rather take book one and study it deeply and apply lessons before I moved on to book two. Because the book is so long, I have to go back and reread my notes from just the first half.
The book is a combined work based on Rother's research and Schwartz practical application.
The fable gives the reader a good idea of how to not only apply Kata, but how to coach. The book follows the protagonist from a student experimenting and trying kata coaching techniques, to a student trying to apply Kata activities to a division. Along the way she is being coached and mentored by the owner of her local gym.
The big takeaway from this book is the work that Schwartz has taken and developed which is the coaching methodology. Another big takeaway is that this methodology can be applied anywhere to get people thinking scientifically. Creating and applying a dojo to practice your coaching was interesting and based on this book, I wrote to Tilo to get his self-published Kata Dojo book.
A couple of criticisms I have for this book:
First an area for improvement. I think this would be an excellent audiobook as the story they are trying to convey would play well into an audiobook audience.
Next a criticism. If they were going to keep this a print book, they might want to separate into book one & Book 2- sequel. Having one fable that takes the protagonist from not knowing the methodology to leading Improvement on a key metric within a small area would be book one. The second book could be the protagonist's promotion and challenge to implement this greater scope across the broader area.
To me these are two different skills that cannot be done simultaneously. I would rather take book one and study it deeply and apply lessons before I moved on to book two. Because the book is so long, I have to go back and reread my notes from just the first half.
December 21, 2023
I enjoyed this book even more than “The Goal”. I think the author did a great job of explaining Kata in a story format, which made it much easier to understand. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand Kata.
Here are some specific things I liked about the book:
- The story was engaging and easy to follow.
- The author did a good job of explaining the key concepts of Kata in a clear and concise way.
- The book provided several real-world examples of how Kata has been used to improve performance.
Here are some specific things I liked about the book:
- The story was engaging and easy to follow.
- The author did a good job of explaining the key concepts of Kata in a clear and concise way.
- The book provided several real-world examples of how Kata has been used to improve performance.
July 29, 2023
I was waiting for this book for a long time and was "sold" before I read the first page, but quite honestly, it's even better than I thought... and I had set the bar very high. After the first chapters, I was hooked. On many occasions GWTHT challenged my assumptions and got me reflecting; quite a learning journey!
Since The Goal (Goldratt, 1984), many authors have attempted to bring management concepts to life through a novel, unfortunately not always with similar success, but GWTHT is brilliant. It compellingly conveys the central Toyota Kata message of managers as coaches and the workplace as the training ground. Also, the use of a novel is a great vehicle to illustrate that the deployment of Kata practice is not linear. Such an interesting part of being a manager.
Managing is a never-ending learning journey. Tilo Schwarz and Jeff Liker invite readers to explore, challenge their assumptions, reflect and share, via characters in which they will easily recognize.
Since The Goal (Goldratt, 1984), many authors have attempted to bring management concepts to life through a novel, unfortunately not always with similar success, but GWTHT is brilliant. It compellingly conveys the central Toyota Kata message of managers as coaches and the workplace as the training ground. Also, the use of a novel is a great vehicle to illustrate that the deployment of Kata practice is not linear. Such an interesting part of being a manager.
Managing is a never-ending learning journey. Tilo Schwarz and Jeff Liker invite readers to explore, challenge their assumptions, reflect and share, via characters in which they will easily recognize.
May 11, 2025
The novel is really cool
So relatable
It is Really great read for anyone looking to develop their team improvement abilities ..
Kata - Scientific Thinking
So relatable
It is Really great read for anyone looking to develop their team improvement abilities ..
Kata - Scientific Thinking
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews