Have your traditional Lean deployment systems started to lose their momentum? Have the gains you realized over time started to erode? KATA Training will introduce the concepts of the Improvement KATA and Coaching KATA to challenge employees in their organizations to create the culture of continuous improvement and learning.
Many companies seek to improve their business using various continuous improvement methodologies including Lean principles. The proven method for deploying these concepts is to tie them into an overall strategy of business improvement. KATA Training focuses on Improvement KATA and Coaching KATA, which are the “invisible” parts of Lean. These elements help to develop a sustaining culture of continuous improvement in your organization.
The Improvement KATA is a teachable concept and process, and a set of practice routines for using our minds more effectively when pursuing goals in a complex system or process. The Coaching KATA is how we teach the Improvement KATA in the organization.
Catalyst Connection consultants will work with your team to develop the Improvement KATA & Coaching KATA to combine a scientific working pattern with techniques of deliberate practice, to make scientific thinking a teachable meta-skill anyone can learn. KATA Training will help participants learn how to implement foundational thinking habits, which are a basis for successfully pursuing seemingly unattainable goals in complex systems and it enables teams to make decisions and maneuver effectively.
Participants will receive patterned practice of KATA:
The Improvement Kata is a universal, repeatable pattern for improving, adapting and innovating — for achieving challenging objectives in complex situations — by working systematically and scientifically.
The Coaching Kata is a set of teaching routines for facilitating Improvement Kata skill development in daily work. The purpose of the Coaching Kata is to teach the Improvement Kata pattern through deliberate practice, while using real-world goals and problems. Questions asked during Coaching KATA are:
Click for diagram of patterned practice of KATA.
When people practice the Improvement KATA a little every day under the guidance of a coach/manager, who teaches via the Coaching KATA — an organization gets stronger at achieving goals and meeting challenges.
The never-ending need for improvement and evolution in any organization gives you and your team a perfect opportunity to keep honing your skills. The elegant trick is that while you’re practicing the Improvement KATA, you’re applying it to real goals, always to the best of the current level of your and your team’s abilities.
Once you practice and learn the patterns of the Improvement Kata you may find it difficult to go back to managing the old way.
If you would like information on Lean Certification, please contact cconnelly@catalystconnection.org.