he Improvement

What are the Kata Kata

A routine that you repeatedly practice, so it becomes

Improvement Kata
our-step platform for scientific thinking. a habit, creating a new behavior pattern. The term
“kata” comes from the field of martial arts. In lean

and Coaching Kata? management, kata refers to two linked behaviors:

Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata.

An Introduction by Beth Carrington 1

3 Get the
Direction or
Challenge
Establish Intentionally practicing the Improvement Kata, a repeating four-step
your Next routine by which individuals improve and adapt their work, will create a
Target new default way of working. Through this practice, individuals make a
Condition habit of using the scientific problem-solving method of plan, do, check,
act (PDCA) when faced with a problem or striving to improve their
work processes.
2 4 The Coaching Kata is a framework, a series of questions, used by lean
Conduct leaders to provoke and reinforce the effective practice of the Improvement
Grasp the Experiments Kata. The coaching practice occurs in the gemba, where the work is done,

Current to get there in service to teaching those who do the work how to achieve new levels of

Condition performance, innovation, and adaptiveness through the scientific problem-

solving method of PDCA.

The Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata were introduced to the

lean community by Mike Rother in 2010 in his book Toyota Kata. In
2021, Dr. Jeffery Liker highlighted the practices in The Toyota Way, 2nd
Edition, crediting the use of the two kata as an effective way to develop
the scientific problem-solving method of PDCA and embed it in an
Adapted from Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata Materials and 12 years of Kata practice and coaching
organization’s work processes.
 Improvement Kata
The four steps in the Improvement Kata that a process owner, aka the
learner, practices are as follows:
1. Create a Challenge (goal or objective) in your work that,
if you achieve, will help move the organization toward its Vision.
2. Grasp your work process’ current condition as it relates
to your Challenge by collecting facts and data.
3. Set a Target Condition to achieve in two weeks that moves
you toward meeting your Challenge.
4. Conduct experiments to learn how to overcome obstacles
in the way of achieving the Target Condition.

Coaching Kata

The five questions of the Coaching

Kata, asked of the learner by a coach,
guide the learner through the desired
scientific PDCA thought pattern. During
the coaching session, the teacher or
coach also gives the learner procedural
guidance—not solutions—that help the
learner successfully overcome obstacles.

Adapted from Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata Materials and Beth Carrington’s 12 years of kata practice and coaching. Learn more at lean.org/kata
 Improvement Kata is a routine deliberately practiced
to develop scientific thinking skills while working
Faculty Highlight toward achieving a Challenge.

Beth Carrington Like many concepts, graphic models are used to convey
President and Master Coach the routine’s sub-routines. Here are three other models
Carrington Consulting typically used to depict the Improvement Kata, each with
its strengths (+) and limitations (–).

Let’s take a look!

Model 1

Beth is an Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata instructor and

program developer at Lean Enterprise Institute and other
global organizations such as the University and Michigan.

Since 1999, she has led organizations in lean transformations,

helping a wide range of clients, including small and large,
repetitive and custom processors in the manufacturing,
healthcare, service, and government sectors. Model 1 illustrates the four sub-routines of the Improvement
Kata as a series of discrete steps.
Before becoming a consultant, Beth accumulated over 20
years of experience in leadership within the personal care, +  Simplicity. It depicts the practice pattern from the start
furniture, and automotive industries. of a learner’s journey, highlighting the need to grasp the
current condition before setting the target condition.
She has worked with organizations deploying the
Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata since 2008. – By conveying the sub-routines as a series of discrete
steps, it fails to show that, in reality, one sub-routine
influences prior ones and the next one as the learner’s
Knowledge Threshold changes with each learning step.

Adapted from Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata Materials and Beth Carrington’s 12 years of kata practice and coaching. Learn more at lean.org/kata
 Model 2 Model 3 Model 3 uses a funnel to illustrate that
the routine’s goal is to achieve a long-
term vision through daily PDCA.

+ 
Illustrates that the Current
Condition is not static but
rather constantly changing.

+ 
Puts the Threshold of
Knowledge at the Current
Condition, showing that the
journey’s goal is to learn how
to achieve desired outcomes.
Model 2 depicts the four sub-routines in chronological order,
not as a series of steps. + 
Effectively portrays the overall
timeline from the learners’
+ Accurately shows obstacles, PDCA, and target daily PDCA to achieve a
conditions aligned between the Current Condition and Target Condition in two weeks,
the Challenge, or what the learner is striving helping them progress toward
to achieve. the Challenge in six months
to two years and ultimately
+ Correctly positions the Knowledge Threshold at the
enabling the organization to
Current Condition, showing that the journey’s goal
fulfill its vision decades in
is to learn how to achieve desired outcomes, not the
the future.
implementation of “tools.”

– Suggests that the Current Condition is static when, + 

Shows how the pinpoint
focus on daily PDCA at
in reality, it is ever-changing based on learner’s
the gemba aligns with the
experimentation and other influences.
organization’s vision.

– Complexity.

Adapted from Mike Rother’s Toyota Kata Materials and Beth Carrington’s 12 years of kata practice and coaching. Learn more at lean.org/kata
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