Applying the Improvement Kata

The Improvement Kata is one of the patterns that came from the Toyota Production System and is described in detail in Mike Rother’s book Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness, and Superior Results. In the Improvement Kata, we follow a path toward improvement by examining the following four steps:

1. We envision our ideal future state.
2. We examine our present state or condition.
3. We determine the next target that brings us closer to the ideal future state.
4. We run an experiment, evaluating and learning in a Plan-Do-Check-Adjust (PDCA) or Lean Improvement Cycle to see if the results bring us closer to the ideal future state.

An illustration of the four steps of the Improvement Kata is as follows:

Figure 9.1 – Improvement Kata

An example of teams using the Improvement Kata is an Agile retrospective. A retrospective is a meeting held at regular intervals where the team considers...