“For years, Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System would not allow anything to be recorded about it. He argued that to do so would crystallize the process and stall the drive for never-ending improvement. I can see that copying others will work well in an organization that has a command and control management style where employees are told to follow a certain path as it will be good for the business and good for them. But if you want to develop a systems-thinking environment, copying will get in the way of deep-seated learning.”

Seems like simply making a procedure can prevent learning from happening. So why do we make procedures? To outsource the work? To be consistent in what we build?

But if we become consistent by using a procedure, we prevent learning.

If you had to choose between having employees learn, and have employees be consistent, which would you pick?

“Let Learning Lead. Learning and innovation go hand in hand, but learning comes first. Learning is defined as the creation of new knowledge through experimentation.”

Do What The Boss Says, Or Not: It’s not what you would expect to find at a Japanese company, but at Toyota employees are encouraged to “Pick a friendly fight”. Employees are encouraged to speak up and contradict what their bosses have told them to do. Don’t do what your boss told you to do just because he/she told you to do it!

[via The Business of IT]

Here’s the part that so many companies that study Toyota miss: at Toyota they don’t believe that efficiency by itself can guarantee that Toyota will be a success. Instead, Toyota believes that its long-term success lies in its workers. It believes that the wisdom of its workers is what will allow it to improve.

Since its workers are its knowledge repositories, Toyota takes the time to invest in its workers and in its organizational capabilities. This is not a one-way street. Instead, Toyota is also open to new ideas no matter where they come from: production, development, sales, etc.

There are some good stories in there, I particularly liked those accompanied by sin #6 Complicating, and sin #7 Stifling. A good quick read when you have the time.

“researchers found that workers who used instant messaging on the job reported less interruption than colleagues who did not.”

Which is absolutely amazing because it’s the exact opposite of conventional wisdom. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve heard shoot down IM because it’s “more ways for people to interrupt me”.

In the context of a challenging economy and an atmosphere of reducing costs, what would you say of any business practice that (1) takes more time, (2) costs more money, and yet (3) appears to be less effective?

When you make presentations, do you create a stack of slideuments, or a stack of slides to go with a good presentation and informative handout?

Here’s what I know to be true, because I’ve seen and experienced it time and time again, in work and in life: you can’t attack “change” and “culture” directly. Why? Because the full-frontal assault only makes us hold on tighter to the current ways. 

The only thing I’ve ever seen work as a sustainable pathway to true change is to foster a learning mindset. I learned that from Toyota, the ultimate learning machine. Learning precedes all performance improvement, even personal growth. Learning IS how we change.

In a nutshell the advise is: use the the scientific method, give yourself time to think through things, plan for continuous improvement, use system thinking, simple is better than complex, and go for small improvements with the resources you have – not big changes.

Yet sometimes take big risks – like Toyota’s billion-dollar initiative that created the Lexus brand: “the decision was clear: start clean.” (p43)

Many examples in the book impressively detail out how successful Elegant Solutions can be. The book is worth the read if only for the examples. And yes, I do want to buy a Prius now – but I’ll settle for any Toyota.

Be sure to check out the book site, their blog and don’t forget the downloads to get a jump start on innovation in your own projects.