The Toyota Kata

STARTER KATA
By Mike Rother

To get better at scientific thinking begin

with these Starter Kata, and build on
them once you master their patterns.
Instructions for each Starter Kata (and
much more) are in the Toyota Kata
Practice Guide
 After an Introduction on the black-edged pages,
this ppt file contains the Starter Kata for practicing
the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata patterns:
• Learner’s storyboard format (for the learner)
• Steps of process analysis (learner)
• Steps to establishing a target condition (learner)
• Current condition/target condition form (learner)
• Obstacle parking lot (learner)
• Experimenting record (learner)
• Five-question card (for the coach)
For instructions refer to the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG)

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STARTER KATA TO PRACTICE SCIENTIFIC THINKING SKILLS
Starter Kata are structured routines that
you practice deliberately, especially at the
beginning, so their pattern becomes a
habit and leaves you with new abilities.
Starter Kata are a way of learning
fundamental skills.
The Toyota Kata (TK) Starter Kata are for
practicing scientific-thinking skill and
mindset. Instructions for the TK Starter
Kata are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide
(2017, McGraw-Hill).
At first you should try to practice each
Starter Kata exactly as described, until its
pattern becomes somewhat automatic
and habitual for you. That can take a few
weeks of practice. When you reach that
point and have learned through practice
to understand the "why" behind a Starter
Kata's routine, then you can build on it
to develop your own style, as long as the
core pattern remains intact.
Toyota Kata helps you build scientific-
thinking skills and mindset, via its well-
proven set of Starter Kata to practice
daily. They come from the Toyota Kata
research and have been used for
practice at thousands of organizations
around the world.
Begin with the Starter Kata presented
here and then, as you gain skill and
understanding, add to or adjust them to
fit your situation as needed.
 
Best wishes for practicing how to
scientifically achieve goals!
 
Mike Rother
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Starter Kata are structured
practice routines that put you on the
road to learning fundamentals and
developing new patterns of thinking.

Practicing Starter Kata increases the

speed of learning and is particularly
helpful when you want to create a
shared way of thinking and acting in
a group of people, because everyone
starts with the same basics.

For scientific-thinking skill,

begin by practicing the
Starter Kata presented
here and in the Toyota
Kata Practice Guide.

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 Don’t Make This Mistake
Don’t overload a beginner with the more advanced
stuff you’ve learned. It's too soon. That just confuses
their initial practice and slows down their learning.

Beginner Experienced
As we grow more proficient in
any skill, we learn and develop
our own style and techniques.
When a new learner comes
along it’s natural to want to
share that with them. But it’s Starter Skills grown
too much for the beginner! Be a Kata beyond the
(begin here) Starter Kata
coach, not a lecturer.
Like Not
This! This
Instead, have the next beginner
start with Starter Kata practice
routines. Then they can build NEXT
from there — just like you did. Beginner

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 It’s About Developing
Some New Patterns in Your Thinking
Information entering our mind self-organizes
into the existing patterns of our neural
library.

Toyota Kata is about practicing scientific

patterns of thinking. Those patterns are
embedded in the Starter Kata.

Practice the Starter Kata, internalize their

patterns, and you’re on the way to greater
scientific thinking.

Then you can apply that new skill

to whatever goals and challenges you have!
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Benefits of Practicing Starter Kata
• They help beginners start to acquire a new skill by providing simple
predefined, step-by-step practice routines for internalizing
fundamentals.
• They give the coach a point of comparison for gauging the learner’s
performance and providing corrective feedback and suggestions.
• They help to develop a shared mode of thinking and acting across a
team or organization by providing common routines for everyone’s
initial practice.
• Perhaps most important, Starter Kata help bridge a gap by translating
theoretical principles and concepts into something real and teachable.

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The Improvement Kata Pattern
A pattern of scientific thinking
to improve in the direction of a challenge

This is the pattern of scientific thinking we are trying to teach

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 There are Starter Kata for each step of the
Improvement Kata pattern, and for the Coach
The
Improvement
Kata Pattern

Please
start
practicing
this way

STARTER KATA STARTER KATA

for the learner for the coach

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 The Toyota Kata Starter Kata

LEARNER
COACH

Steps to establishing The experimenting

a target condition record
Learner’s Steps of
storyboard process analysis

Obstacle Daily coaching cycles at the

parking lot learner’s storyboard, with the
five Coaching Kata questions

Instructions for these Starter Kata are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG) 10
The Learner’s Storyboard FOR THE LEARNER

Start with this board format

Focus Process: Challenge:

Target Condition Actual Condition Now Experimenting Record

Achieve by:

Obstacles Parking Lot

Steps of Process Analysis FOR THE LEARNER

For grasping the current condition

 FOR THE LEARNER

Steps to Establishing a Target Condition

A desired outcome and operating pattern, as your next goalpost
 FOR THE LEARNER
Obstacle Parking Lot
 Current Condition / FOR THE LEARNER

Target Condition Form

Cut here to
post on storyboard
 Experimenting Record FOR THE LEARNER

Use until you overcome an obstacle, then start a new form

 The scientific learning cycle is embedded in the
experimenting record, to make the cycle easy to practice.
ACTION

PREDICTION EVIDENCE EVALUATE

 Layout of the Experimenting Record = one obstacle per form,
one experiment per row. Predict what you expect and compare
that with what actually happens. That’s how you learn.

This is the one obstacle to the

target condition that you are
currently working on

The prediction side is where you The evidence side is where you record
plan the next experiment and what actually happened, compare that
predict the outcome with the prediction, and record what
you learned

It usually take a series of experiments

in order to overcome an obstacle
 FOR THE COACH

The Five Coaching Kata Questions

A printer / copier 5Q card template is on the next two pages

COACHING KATA COACHING KATA
Front of card

COACHING KATA COACHING KATA

Back of card
Daily Coaching Cycles FOR THE COACH

with the 5 Questions

- 20 minutes or less -
 With beginner learners, ask the five
Coaching Kata questions after each step.

Next
Target
Condition

Learner's Storyboard
Learner

Coaching
Cycle
Dialogue

Current
Condition

Coach
TIP: Identify the learner’s
threshold of knowledge
and have them plan their
next experiment there.
As your coaching abilities grow you should evolve your own coaching style, which
includes adding your own questions. Of course, any additional questions should be
consistent with the principles and pattern of the Starter Kata.
Begin with the Starter Kata five-question card. As you get used to the card, start
adding notes and your own clarifying questions. One technique is to make a folding
card as shown below. The folded card still fits in your pocket, but has space on the
unfolded right-hand side to jot down notes and test your own questions. Example
notes and clarifying questions are shown here, just as thought starters.
The Starter Kata Coaching Questions Example notes & clarifying questions
• Is the target condition connected to the challenge?
1) What is the Target Condition? • What do you want to be happening? • No verbs!
• Measureable? • Not 'lack of something' • Achieve-by date?

2) What is the Actual Condition now? • Numbers, not opinions. • Can you show me? • How do you
know? • How did you get the data? • Is there a run chart?
• What was being tested?
REFLECTION

What did you plan as your Last Step?

• Is the PDCA Cycles Record filled in?

What did you Expect? • Was this written down? • Just read it!

What Actually Happened? • Only facts & numbers. • Are the numbers written down?
• Is there a run chart? • What is different than expected?

What did you Learn? • Did the Learner really reflect on this?

3) What Obstacles do you think are preventing • Is the Obstacles Parking Lot up-to-date?
you from reaching the target condition? • True obstacles (variation), not action items or lack of a
perceived solution.

Which *one* are you addressing now? • Where does this problem occur? • Can you show me?
• When does this problem occur?

4) What is your next step? (Next experiment)
What do you expect?
• What is the current knowledge threshold?
• Did what was learned in the last experiment frame this one?
• Is expectation written down? • Please read it.
• What numerical outcome do you expect?
• How will you measure it?
• How many cycles do you plan to measure?

5) How quickly can we go and see what we • Strive for cheap and fast experiments
Have Learned from taking that step? • Can we run this experiment today? Right now?
• When is the next coaching cycle?
• Accompany the Learner if necessary.

Card folds
here The underlying pattern of the five
Coaching Kata questions should remain!
Best wishes for
practicing how
to scientifically
achieve goals!

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