This is one of my very, very favorite tools. I learned about the improvement kata during my days in food manufacturing, and I have found so many opportunities to use it throughout my work. Mike Rother wrote a book about it and also started a program called Kata to Grow, which I highly recommend if you want to train teams on the use of this method. . In my experience, it has made even the most daunting challenges doable!
This tool is essentially scientific thinking or Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). Don’t let the simplicity fool you. As Shingo said, “Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication.”
I felt that after our discussion on doing it the hard way and then the power of the quiet times, this was a good opportunity to discuss how to take advantage of quiet and busy times. The Improvement Kata lays out this process of positive change in a simple way.
If this is your first time seeing this visual, you may feel a little disoriented. We’re used to reading left to right, and having the numbers all mixed up like this can make it hard to understand the process. Let’s discuss each step.
- Get your direction or challenge.
- This means taking the time to understand what it is that you want to accomplish. What is your big goal? This might be a top-level goal that is going to require the whole year or quarter. It could be something that is definitely not possible today but that you know can improve over time.
- Use the data at your disposal to understand your challenge.
- Grasp the current condition.
- See reality. What is really going on? What are the real constraints you’re dealing with? How do you know what the actual problem is?
- Describe the current condition as simply as possible. You may experience some scope creep here. Don’t let that happen! Ask, “How does this current condition relate to my challenge?” If you’ve lost sight of the actual challenge, refresh your memory.
- Establish your next target condition.
- A target condition is not the same as the challenge. A target condition is a small goal that is on the way to the big one. This is how we make incremental improvement without losing sight of where we’re trying to get to.
- One target condition at a time. Do not plan out target conditions before having made any improvements. You don’t know what information is going to come to light as you start running your experiments.
- Conduct experiments to get to your Target Conditions.
- An experiment is anything you are going to try to improve your outcome and reach the Target Condition.
- Gather appropriate data to measure your outcomes. Are your experiments working in getting you closer to your Target Condition? Are they making things worse? What do you need to change?
This process gives us great insight into the reality of the change we are trying to make. In quiet times and busy times, we can use this approach to keep our eye on the prize – incremental improvement – without getting caught up in how things around us feel (chaotic or boring). I love this tool because it is an organized approach to improvement that allows us to pay attention to what is really happening as well as get the whole team on board with changes we want to make.
You may feel like this tool is not relevant to you. I challenge you to take this up in your own life, personal or professional, and see how you might use it to enhance an improvement effort you are undertaking.
For example, maybe I’m trying to improve my approach to getting out of bed in the morning because I’m always lazy and as a result, usually late. I might say:
- Challenge: Be out of bed by 6:30 am every morning.
- Current State: Out of bed by 7:15-20 every morning.
- Target Condition: For one week, be out of bed by 7:05 every morning.
- Experiment: I’m going to set on alarm by my bed for 6:45 and another across the room for 7:00. This gives me fifteen minutes to wake up and get out of bed to attain my target condition.
With this example, I might be a little ambitious with my target condition. Maybe I need to start off less aggressively. Be honest about what you can actually attain right off the bat. The other really important thing is for me to take time to gather the data. As I run this process, I will write down the actual time I get out of bed every morning. If I don’t collect real data, I will operate off of vagaries about what happened and never really make any sustained progress towards my challenge.
Activity: What’s an improvement you are trying to make? Using the Improvement Kata, run your improvement effort. What works? What doesn’t? How are you thinking differently as a result of this approach?