Learning the Toyota Way
What is the notion of time and what is “waiting” when you’re a leader ?
At Toyota, knowing how to maintain a lifelong learning attitude is essential to having effective leadership and creating a Lean organization. And at Toyota, to manage well, you have to know how to observe.
Companies that place their managers in “hot fix” positions achieve only short-term gains at best and slowly eat away at company culture and team morale.
In the TPS, leaders spend more than half of their time developing their teams, which leaves little time for the rest of the tasks, namely appointments, internal meetings, calls, emails, HR issues, KPIs, Management visuals, budgets…
Lead and learn
Another element of the Toyota Way, no one is supposed to know everything, including the leaders!
It is normal not to have all the answers or even to fail. In the Lean philosophy, failure is not serious, but above all it is necessary to ensure that the mistakes made are learned and not repeated. Any leader, regardless of level, experience or role, should always “lead and learn” because there are always opportunities to learn.
The key to the Toyota Way, which is the essence of Lean Manufacturing, is that leaders study more while their subordinates do! At Toyota, above all, they acquire a new way of thinking to set up systems, lines and standards. They build many new neurons at once, train themselves to think differently systematically, and train others to do the same.
“The Toyota style is not about creating results by working hard. It is a system that places no limits on people’s creativity. Employees don’t go to Toyota to work, they go there to think.”
Taiichi Ohno, the man who thought upside down
The goal is always to study hard, listen, learn, and engage others.
By doing this, everyone practices their own continuous improvement cycles themselves and immediately shares them to turn ideas into action.
These actions should be matched to a PDCA (Plan Do Check Act or Deming Wheel) mindset that supports the vision (Hoshin Kanri). The Toyota Way has embedded a culture where people are truly the organization’s most important asset.
At Toyota, everyone’s goal is to be one step ahead at all times. This affects the entire organization. There is no room for complacency when discipline is daily. Everyone engages in problem solving.
A manager must practice Gemba (Field Observation) daily, engage and encourage his collaborators. It pushes to ask the right questions and to develop the thinking of others. And people imitate those actions as managers have imitated other managers. This is how Toyota integrates more leaders than its competitors.
At Toyota “lead and learn” as a means of management is an expectation of managers, not a choice.
This is the main difference with companies trying to implement Lean. In the Toyota Way, nothing is called Lean, employees simply carry out improvement actions to support the business. No need to push Lean tools for this.
Lean is a form of “servant” leadership in the field in real time, asking questions and understanding the situation. This is the mentality transmitted in the Toyota Way to all. It is the key to success for every leader and the organization as a whole.
Leadership and learning create a long-term sustainable organization through Lean.
The Toyota Way in summary : How to lead and learn in a Lean organization
- The Toyota Way is a system of Lean management that fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement
- Leaders at Toyota spend more than half of their time developing their teams and solving problems in the field
- Leaders at Toyota do not have all the answers and are expected to study harder than their subordinates
- Leaders at Toyota practice Gemba (field observation) daily and engage and stimulate their collaborators by asking questions
- The Toyota Way builds more leaders than its competitors and creates long-term organizational sustainability
“The act of deeply thinking through problems, energizing people, and aligning them toward a common goal is the only way to practice and develop real leadership ability.”
Jeffrey K. Liker
Happy CEO 