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Improvement Kata
Preface

Handbook for
Practicing foundational skills
scientific thinking
By Mike Rother
Preface
Introduction
PART I: GETTING STARTED
The Improvement Kata Pattern
Guidelines for Practicing
Roles and Structure for Daily Practice
PART II: PRACTICE ROUTINES FOR
THE IMPROVEMENT KATA
Step 1: Understand the Direction / Challenge

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook

Step 2: Grasp the Current Condition
Step 3: Establish the Next Target Condition
Step 4: Iterate Toward the Target Condition
PART III: THE COACHING KATA
Routines & Guidelines for IK Coaches
How to do a Coaching Cycle
Appendix: Forms for Practicing
 ABOUT THIS
PROTOTYPE VERSION OF THE
IMPROVEMENT KATA HANDBOOK
While we develop and test the contents of the
Improvement Kata Handbook, itʼs beta version will be
available online. Use the Handbook to help you apply,
teach and internalize the scientific patterns of the
Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata, through
practice.
This beta version is provided for sharing things weʼre
learning... to accelerate our collective learning about
deliberate practice of structured routines as a means
of developing the skills and habits of scientific
thinking in any organization.
The beta version is updated periodically.
Check the version number on the cover.

COPYRIGHT The Improvement Kata Handbook and its contents are Copyright © 2015
by Mike Rother, all rights reserved.
INFORMATION
These materials are intended to support persons who are teaching, practicing or interested in
the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata.
You are free to copy and use these materials as long as you note the source and copyright
on each page, but they may not be reproduced for sale in any form.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 2

 A Note to All Users of this Handbook
Kata are structured routines that you practice each organization has unique characteristics
deliberately, especially at the beginning, so and exists in unique conditions. Developing an
their pattern becomes a habit and leaves you organization's managerial system is not about
with new abilities. Kata are a way of learning copying the tools and techniques that another
fundamental skills that you can build on. The organization has come up with, which would
word comes from the martial arts, where Kata be jumping to solutions. You can and should
are used to train combatants in fundamental start with some already-existing basics, like in
moves. But the idea of a Kata can be applied in sports and music, but then it's an unavoidable
a much broader sense. The Improvement Kata iterative process of trial and adjustment. The
and Coaching Kata are for training managers goal of this Handbook is to show you how to
and leaders in a new way of doing their jobs. start developing and building your own 21st
Century management approach by practicing
At first you should try to practice each Kata a set of fundamental Kata.
exactly as described, until its pattern becomes
somewhat automatic and habitual for you. That This Handbook utilizes a well-proven set of
can take several months of practice. When you basic Kata to practice every day. You could call
reach that point and have learned through them ”Starter Kata.“ They come from the
practice to understand the "why" behind that Toyota Kata research and have been used for
Kata's routine, then you can start to deviate practice at thousands of organizations around
from it by evolving your own version or style the world. Begin with the starter Kata and then,
of the pattern... as long as its core principles as you gain skill and understanding, add to or
remain intact. adjust them to fit your situation as needed.
Then you’ll be developing your own way.
Practice Kata to Find Your Way. My goal with
this Handbook is not to show you precisely Best wishes for your practicing!
how your management system should look
and function. That would be impossible since Mike Rother

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 3

 HANDBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
PART I. GETTING STARTED
Chapter 1. The Improvement Kata Pattern
Chapter 2. Guidelines for Practicing
Chapter 3. Roles and Structure for Daily Practice
PART II. PRACTICE ROUTINES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT KATA
Chapter 4. Step 1: Understand the Direction / Challenge
Chapter 5. Step 2: Grasp the Current Condition
(The Improvement Kata Process Analysis)
Chapter 6. Step 3: Establish the Next Target Condition
Chapter 7. Step 4: Iterate Toward the Target Condition
PART III. THE COACHING KATA
Chapter 8. Routines & Guidelines for IK Coaches
Chapter 9. How to do a Coaching Cycle
Appendix: Forms for Practicing

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 4

 PREFACE

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 5

 How Do You Manage for Improvement,
Adaptiveness and Innovation?
q How can we best prepare an
organization for the future when we
donʼt know what the future will bring?
q How can we get more comfortable with
challenging goals and successfuly
navigate the unpredictable zone between
here and there?
q How do you develop the skill of everyone
in the organization to establish
strategically-aligned goals and work
toward them effectively?
q How do you sustain this?

This Handbook gives you a way to answer these questions.

Use the approach and practice techniques presented here to
develop skills and mindset that make your organization more
capable of achieving goals and meeting challenges.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 6

 DELIBERATELY DEVELOPING A TEAMʼS
SKILL AND AN ORGANIZATIONʼS CULTURE
This Handbook is about a scientific pattern combined with routines
of deliberate practice. Practicing the routines in this Handbook
makes you and your team better at achieving goals and meeting
challenges, and thus at improving, adapting and innovating.

Consider the following:

u The people in every organization have
unconscious habits of thinking and acting.
Those habits constitute the basis of the
organizationʼs culture.
u All managers are teachers, whether
consciously or not. With their everyday
words and actions managers teach their
people a mindset and approach, which
determines the organizationʼs capability.

For these reasons it makes sense to ask:

--> What pattern of thought and action do we want our managers
to be teaching?
--> What routines should we be practicing and reinforcing every
day in our organization to make that pattern a reality?

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 7

 ITʼS ABOUT (2)
(1) ʻPractice
ʻPatternʼ Routineʼ
a dance dance
steps
This Handbook is about developing new skills and habits the
same way that athletes and musicians do. Think of this as a
handbook of dance steps for beginners to practice.

(1) The overall pattern (the dance or skill youʼre trying

to learn or teach) called the “Improvement Kata.” Itʼs a
systematic, scientific way of thinking and acting that can
be applied to any goal. The objective is to have everyone
in your organization be able to dance this pattern smoothly
and confidently, in your organizationʼs own style.
(2) But just knowing the pattern of a dance is not
enough for being able to dance. You need to practice.
So this Handbook describes structured practice
routines (the dance steps) for beginners to start with
so they can learn the Improvement Kata pattern.
This Handbook also describes a routine for teaching
the IK pattern, called the “Coaching Kata.”

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 8

 Making it Real
A Pattern Through Practice
or Model of
Scientific Thinking
Transforming our
thinking and acting

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 9

 WHATʼS IN PARTS I, II & III OF THIS HANDBOOK

The IMPROVEMENT KATA MODEL This is the overall pattern of

(A scientific approach) thinking and acting weʼre trying
to learn. Itʼs a universal pattern
for achieving tough goals,
which can be applied in all walks
of life.
(HANDBOOK PART I)

There are PRACTICE ROUTINES The COACHING KATA is a

for each step of the practice routine for teaching
Improvement Kata. These are the the Improvement Kata pattern.
Starter Kata for the Learner. Itʼs the Starter Kata for the
Coach.
(HANDBOOK PART II)
(HANDBOOK PART III)

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 10

 THE IK PATTERN IS A ʻMETA-SKILLʼ
The Handbookʼs instructions apply at every level in an organization
Every Coach and Learner uses the same Handbook because
everyone in the organization can utilize the same scientific pattern
of thinking and acting, just as scientists do. Itʼs a foundational
meta skill. Each level practices the same fundamental routines,
although the content of whatʼs being worked on and, ultimately,
the style differs from area to area and level to level.

= Coach / Learner
relationships

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 11

 WHAT THIS HANDBOOK SHOWS YOU
How to apply, practice and teach the Improvement Kata
pattern so that it becomes a habit of thinking and acting
u How to use and operationalize a scientific pattern,
which is a foundation of modern management.

u How to use the Improvement Kata practice routines

on real processes to improve, adapt and innovate, by
walking you through them step-by-step.

u How to operate a daily Coach <--> Learner teaching

routine that integrates practice of the Improvement
Kata pattern into daily work and, over time, into
peopleʼs mindset and a team or organizationʼs culture.

u How to get more comfortable with the uncertain path

thatʼs inherent in striving for challenging goals.

u How to align team efforts and make any team

successful in achieving goals and meeting challenges.

u How to sustain improvement, adaptiveness and

innovation by integrating it into daily management.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 12

 WHO THIS HANDBOOK
IS FOR

One user is the Learner, i.e., anyone who wants to

become proficient in a scientific way of working and
thinking, through practice.

The other user is the Coach, i.e., anyone who manages

people. Once youʼve internalized the Improvement
Kata pattern yourself, this book helps you teach the
pattern to others. The goal is to embed the
Improvement Kata into the daily work of managers, who
are the day-to-day teachers in any organization.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 13

Preface
Introduction
I. GETTING STARTED
The Improvement Kata Pattern
Guidelines for Practicing
Roles and Structure for Daily Practice
II. PRACTICE ROUTINES FOR THE IK
Step 1: Understand the Direction / Challenge The 4 Chapters on
how to practice the
Step 2: Grasp the Current Condition IMPROVEMENT KATA
(The Improvement Kata Process Analysis) speak to anyone who
wants to be a LEARNER
Step 3: Establish the Next Target Condition
of the Improvement
Step 4: Iterate Toward the Target Condition Kata pattern.
III. THE COACHING KATA The 2 Chapters about
Routines & Guidelines for IK Coaches the COACHING KATA
speak to the COACH
How to do a Coaching Cycle whoʼs teaching the
Improvement Kata
Appendix: Forms for Practicing pattern to a Learner.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 14

 TWO PURPOSES FOR THIS HANDBOOK
1) A Practice Guide:
To as quickly and effectively as
possible make you proficient
enough to coach the Improvement
Kata pattern, enabling you to teach
and deploy it in your organization
with minimal reliance on outside
expertise.

2) An Application Guide:
To be a reference for
how to apply the
pattern of the Able to TEACH it
Improvement Kata.
Able to DO it

AWARE of it

My goal in developing this Improvement Kata Handbook is

to evolve, simplify and codify the Improvement Kata and
Coaching Kata practice routines to the point that they can
be used by anyone; to show that scientific thinking is a
Mike Rother life skill that can be practiced and learned by everyone.

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 15

 Contributors
Iʼm grateful to the following colleagues, who are fellow experimenters
in working to practice and evolve the routines and guidelines in this
Handbook.
USA NETHERLANDS
- Bill Costantino - Emiel van Est
- Beth Carrington
- Michael Lombard GERMANY
- Meryl Runion - Gerd Aulinger
- Jeff Uitenbroek - Bernd Mittelhuber
- Julie Simmons - Ralph Winkler
- Yvonne Muir - Tilo Schwarz
- Mark Rosenthal - Professor Constantin May
- Ram R.
- Jay VanderZwaag ITALY
- Jeff Kane - Giorgio Possio
- Jason Schulist - Anna Possio
- Rick Fleming
- Drew Locher SWEDEN
- Professor Jeff Liker
- John Shook - Håkan Forss
- Bill Krauss - Joakim Hillberg
- Brandon Brown - Pia Anhede
- Craig Kennedy - Joakim Bjürstrom

AUSTRALIA FINLAND
- Oscar Roche - Teemu Toivonen

© Mike Rother / Improvement Kata Handbook Preface 16