(LEI: Cambridge, MA) -- As you know, it’s difficult to achieve continuous improvement. Lean efforts generate many successes, but not so many sustained ones. Lean projects tend to rely on dedicated lean experts, and when they turn their attention to the next improvement project, the one just completed degrades. Overall improvement progress is slow, the cultural change to continuous improvement doesn’t happen, and we fail to tap the creative capability of the wider workforce.

The program, “Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata,” which is based on research by Mike Rother and his book, Toyota Kata (McGraw-Hill, 2010), shows you how to make improvement more sustainable and continuous. A key to creating a lean culture—where improvement occurs on a daily basis—involves moving away from a project approach led by lean staff, to an everyday activity coached by line managers. The Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata program focuses specifically on what leaders and managers need to do to make that happen.

 …