Toyota Kata : Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results by Rother Mike

Author:Rother, Mike [Rother, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2009-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

Learning to Ask a Different Question

As we take steps toward a target condition, one comment you sometimes hear is: “Let’s see if this will work.” This, erroneously, seems like a reasonable question since we are talking about experimenting. However, the question actually represents a circular argument, which is why it is utilized when people have a vested interest in preserving a status quo. Simply put, very few things work the first time, or even the second time.

I used to struggle with this question. We would go to the factory floor to try something and several people would fold their arms and say, “Well, let’s see if this works.” Of course within a short time the test failed. They were right, I was wrong, and the experiment would be over. At the first signs of problems, difficulties, or a failed step, it was announced that, “Well, that doesn’t work,” and often, “Let’s go back to the way we did it before because we know that works.”

Eventually it dawned on me how to deal with this question. Now, when arms fold up and people say, “Let’s see if this will work,” I say, “I can save you the time. We already know it probably won’t work. Despite our best efforts to plan this, we know that within a short time there will be ‘charred and glowing pieces’ lying around. We just don’t know in advance when, where, or why it will fail.”

At this point the arms usually start unfolding a bit, and I follow with, “What we should be asking ourselves is not will it work, but, let’s see what we need to do to make this work.” After calibrating a group’s thinking in this way, I am always impressed with the smart ideas people from all levels come up with to get us closer to the target condition.

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