1. 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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.
Starter
Kata
(begin here)
Skills grown
beyond the
Starter Kata
Beginner
Experienced
NEXT
Like
This!
Not
This
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 too much for the beginner! Be a coach, not a lecturer.
Instead, have the next beginner start with Starter Kata practice routines. Then they can build
from there — just like you did.

6. 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!

7. 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.

8. 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

9. There are Starter Kata for each step of the Improvement Kata pattern, and for the Coach
Please
start
practicing
this way
STARTER KATA
for the learner
STARTER KATA
for the coach

10. The Toyota Kata Starter Kata
LEARNER
COACH
Steps to establishing
a target condition
The experimenting
record
Learner’s storyboard
Steps of
process analysis
Obstacle
parking lot
Daily coaching cycles at the learner’s storyboard, with the five Coaching Kata questions
Instructions for these Starter Kata are in the Toyota Kata Practice Guide (TKPG)

12. The Learner’s Storyboard Start with this board format
FOR THE LEARNER
Start with this board format

13. Focus Process: Challenge: Target Condition Actual Condition Now
Achieve by:
Actual Condition Now
Experimenting Record
Obstacles Parking Lot

14. Steps of Process Analysis For grasping the current condition
FOR THE LEARNER
For grasping the current condition

15. Steps to Establishing a Target Condition
FOR THE LEARNER
Steps to Establishing a Target Condition
A desired outcome and operating pattern, as your next goalpost

16. Obstacle Parking Lot
FOR THE LEARNER

17. Current Condition / Target Condition Form FOR THE LEARNER Cut here to
post on storyboard

18. Use until you overcome an obstacle, then start a new form
Experimenting Record
FOR THE LEARNER
Use until you overcome an obstacle, then start a new form

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

20. 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 evidence side is where you record what actually happened, compare that with the prediction, and record what you learned
The prediction side is where you plan the next experiment and predict the outcome
It usually take a series of experiments
in order to overcome an obstacle

21. The Five Coaching Kata Questions
FOR THE COACH
The Five Coaching Kata Questions
A printer / copier 5Q card template is on the next two pages

22. Front of card
COACHING KATA
COACHING KATA
COACHING KATA
COACHING KATA

23. Back of card

24. Daily Coaching Cycles with the 5 Questions
- 20 minutes or less -
FOR THE COACH

25. 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.

26. 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.
1) What is the Target Condition?
• Is the target condition connected to the challenge?
• What do you want to be happening? • No verbs!
• Measureable? • Not 'lack of something' • Achieve-by date?
5) How quickly can we go and see what we Have Learned from taking that step?
• Numbers, not opinions. • Can you show me? • How do you know? • How did you get the data? • Is there a run chart?
2) What is the Actual Condition now?
What did you plan as your Last Step?
What did you Expect?
What Actually Happened?
What did you Learn?
REFLECTION
• What was being tested?
• Is the PDCA Cycles Record filled in?
• Was this written down? • Just read it!
• Only facts & numbers. • Are the numbers written down?
• Is there a run chart? • What is different than expected?
• Did the Learner really reflect on this?
3) What Obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition?
Which *one* are you addressing now?
• Is the Obstacles Parking Lot up-to-date?
• True obstacles (variation), not action items or lack of a perceived solution.
• 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?
The Starter Kata Coaching Questions
Example notes & clarifying questions
• 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?
• Strive for cheap and fast experiments
• 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!

27. Best wishes for
practicing how to scientifically achieve goals!