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!

About the Author

Tilo Schwarz is a leadership coach, former plant manager and co-founder of the Campus for Leaders at the University of Applied Science Ansbach. He helps managers to successfully lead change and empower their teams for improvement, adaptiveness, and superior results. During his time as a plant manager at a renowned German power-tool manufacturer, he started practicing Toyota Kata with his management team as part of Mike Rother's groundbreaking research in 2006. By doing so, Tilo and his team established continuous improvement as a daily routine throughout all processes and areas of the plant. That led to winning the A. T. Kearny operational excellence competition "Factory of the Year" and a WHU/INSEAD Industrial Excellence Award. Tilo is the author of several books on coaching and Toyota Kata.

Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor Emeritus, Industrial and Operations Engineering at The University of Michigan and President of Liker Lean Advisors, LLC. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Toyota Way, Second Edition, and has coauthored nine other books about Toyota including The Toyota Way to Service Excellence and The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership. His graphic novel with Eduardo Lander and Tom Root tells the story of lean transformation at a mail-order company: Lean in a High-Variability Business. A more compact graphic novel, Engaging the Team at Zingerman's Mail Order, illustrates how Kata unleashed the creativity of their team. His articles and books have won thirteen Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. He was inducted into the Association of Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and the Shingo Academy.

Reviews

As CEO my vision for Elisa is for all leaders to be coaches and bring the best out of our people. This enjoyable novel gave me lots of new understanding of what it takes to learn to coach at a high level.

--Veli-Matti Mattila, CEO, Elisa Telecommunications

At AstraSeneca we are using Toyota Kata to coach and develop scientific thinking in our leaders. This novel was a delight and gave me deep understanding of what true coaching is and how to learn and spread it.

-Peter Alvarsson, Head of Operational Excellence, Europe Region

This book demystifies Toyota Kata by telling the story of how Denise, an embattled but undeterred front-line manager, learns to coach. I found myself relating to the characters and the all-too-common challenges they face. I highly recommend this novel for any leader trying to get results while developing people in today's complex, ever changing world.

-Michael R. Galagher, GE Executive Lean Leader, Corporate Finance.

Practicing Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata in Volkswagen Sarajevo empowered our organization to achieve historical results. The feel of this novel is as if the authors were there with us, observing our steps and participating in our struggle to promote scientific thinking. The universality of the message is astonishing, and I highly recommend it.

- Malik Sisic, Head of Purchasing / Vice CEO, Volkswagen Sarajevo d.o.o.

Book Information
ISBN 9780367362287
Author Tilo Schwarz
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint CRC Press
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g