Giving Wings to Her Team A Novel About Learning to Coach the Toyota Kata Way

Denise dreamed of being the kind of leader who empowered and engaged her people, but was becoming frustrated and disillusioned. Denise -- a fast-rising, young consultant at a large advisory firm -- lands a job as a manager in industry. Crisis strikes as low-cost competitors take market share and general chaos generates late shipments. Denise goes into Lean consulting mode but quickly learns her supervisors are not buying it. They're not engaged, and they find the Lean tools confusing and a distraction from their goals of getting product out. It's going to take some magic -- magic that's available to you, the reader, too! Come with Denise on a journey of discovery and skill development, as she moves beyond the tools and concepts of Lean and focuses on daily practice that helps her supervisors achieve their goals. It's about an approach called Toyota Kata that helps anyone develop and apply scientific thinking -- an exploratory mindset of curiosity and experimentation. A mentor from an unlikely place appears and shares with Denise how to coach her team. Once her supervisors dig into real problems they face every day, they begin to engage. Step by step, with insightful inputs from her mentor, Denise starts developing the skills to become a coaching manager. She watches her team meet their current challenges and be ready for more. When you teach and practice scientific thinking and coaching skills you give wings to your team, and new worlds of opportunity open up. If you're a manager you'll identify with how the team in this story goes beyond general preaching about best practices, to practicing how to get to where they want to be. If you're a Lean practitioner frustrated with applying tools with a limited half life, you'll learn how to develop people so they can achieve their most important goals and keep going. And if you're already a Toyota Kata practitioner, well ... you will love this book!

PART I - Learning to Think Scientifically while Producing Results Chapter 1 - Another day, another crisis Monday, January 17, 7am, The Bombshell Hits Chapter 2 - Getting to Work with Lean Monday, January 18, 8:30 am, Finally Something Interesting to Do Friday, January 21, 5:45 pm, Thank Goodness it’s Friday Chapter 3 – What’s our Challenge? Friday, January 21, 6:45 pm, A Pleasant Surprise at the Gym Chapter 4 – More Pressure Leads & a Breakthrough in Thinking Monday, January 24, Back to the Grind Monday, January 24, 7:00 pm, Retreat to the Gym Chapter 5 – Getting Down to Kata Planning Tuesday, January 25, A New Day, a Fresh Start Chapter 6- Telling a Story on the Storyboard Friday, January 28, Happy Reflections During a Drive to the Gym Chapter 7 - At Last, Experimenting! Tuesday, February 1, 7am, Small Steps, Big Progress Chapter 8 - May the Coaching Lessons Begin Tuesday, February 3, 6:35pm, Searching for Maggie in Desperation PART II - Coaching as Learning Chapter 9 - Starting to Coach (with Some Struggles) Thursday, February 3, 7:30am, Sorting out Maggie’s brain dump Chapter 10 - A Little Japanese Cuisine, and a Lot of Learning Thursday, February 3, 7:34 pm, To a Gourmet Dinner with Maggie Chapter 11 - A Coach for the Coach Friday, February 4, 9:35 am, Experimenting with Maggie’s Advice Chapter 12 - Spot-on Answers to Coaching Questions Monday, February 7, 8:00 am, Finally A Calm Day of Learning Chapter 13 - Digging Deeper into the Real Obstacles Tuesday, February 8, 8am, A More than Pleasant Surprise and More Learning Chapter 14 - A Green Drink, and Fresh Look at Storyboards Tuesday, February 8, 6:30 pm, More to Drink and Learn at the Gym Chapter 15 - Obstacles and Experiments: It’s Complicated Wednesday, February 9, 9:00 am, Another Day, More Coaching Experiments Thursday, February 10, 8:55 am, New Ideas to Test at Work Chapter 16 - We Deliver Same Day Monday, February 13, 12:00pm New Week, Fun at Sales Tuesday, February 14, 12:00pm, A Great Lunch Capped Off by a Beat Down from Dick Chapter 17 - Fun in the Learning Group? Thursday, March 2 - 10:45am, Two Weeks Later, a Fun Jaunt to Sales...She Thought Chapter 18 - A Big Promotion…and a Bigger Crisis Monday, March 6 -5:00pm, It Hits the Fan, Big Time! Monday, March 6 - 7:00 pm, Denise Desperately Tries to Unwind PART III - SCALING UP AGAINST THE ODDS Chapter 19 - A Confrontation, Then a Way Forward Tuesday, March 7 - 6:00 am, An Explosive Start Tuesday, March 7 - 7:30 am, A Breath of Fresh Air Chapter 20 - Denise Becomes a Motivational Speaker Tuesday, March 7 - 7:45 am, Talking with Joe Tuesday, March 7 - 2:00 pm, The Big Meeting Chapter 21 - Preparing for Launch Day Wednesday, March 8 - 6:05 am, Starting on a High Note Wednesday, March 8 - 6:45 am, Preparing for the Best Workshop Ever Wednesday, March 8 - 7:45 am, Getting a Trusted Ally on Board Chapter 22 - At Last: Grasping Current Condition Wednesday, March 8 - 8:10 am, Finally, Off to the Workshop Wednesday, March 8 - Noon, To Lunch and Meeting with Mark Wednesday, March 8 - 3:30 pm, Reconnoitering to Reflect Chapter 23 - Workshop Day 2: A Deeper Dive into the Current Condition Thursday, March 9 - 6:00 am, Sunrise, Rousing After a Delightful Night on the Town Thursday, March 9 - 7:00 am, Can Day 2 Go As Smoothly as Day 1? Chapter 24 - Establishing Goals to set up the 3-1-1 Thursday, March 9 - 10:15 am, Still deeper dive into current condition, all hell breaks loose Thursday, March 9 - 12:30 pm, A Productive Afternoon, What a Relief Chapter 25 - Prepping for Fun with Puzzles Friday, March 10 - 6:35 am, On the Way to Work with Maggie Friday, March 10 - 7:15 am, Finally a Chance to Play with Puzzles, but First… Chapter 26 - Kata to Grow Exercise Friday, March 10 - 09:50 am, Back to Kindergarten for Puzzle Time Chapter 27 - Welcome to the Coaching Dojo, Shoes off at the Door Friday, March 10 - 12:30 pm, Denise Gets Coached Again Friday, March 10 - 2:00 pm, Finally, Dojo Fun PART IV - Upping the Pace: It’s a Sprint and a Marathon to the Finish Chapter 28 - A Month Down the Road Friday, April 6 - 8:00 am, Four Weeks of Learning, and Some Stalling Friday, April 6 - 8:30 am, On Pace For the 3-1-1? Tuesday, April 11- 3:50 pm, Thunder and Lightning Chapter 29 - A Fleet of Coaches is Born Time passes, progress accelerates Wednesday, May 4 - 4:00 pm, Presenting to the Ghouls, Again Chapter 30 - If Only You Could Kata Your Love Life Thursday, May 5 - 8am, Something’s Up with David Thursday, May 5– Evening, Dinner is on Sales Friday, May 6 - 7:00am, Trouble in Paradise Friday, May 6 - 6:00pm, A Breakup? Chapter 31 - Victories and Setbacks Tuesday, May 10 - 7:00am, A Visit from the Big Boss Tuesday, May 10 - 1:00pm, Devious Dick at it Again Chapter 32 -The Grand Finale Thursday, May 18 - 4pm, Countdown, 3 Weeks to go Thursday, June 4 - 2pm, Times Up! Thursday, June 4 - 4:30pm, The Jury is Back Chapter 33 - New Beginnings Friday, June 5 - Celebration and an Offer Friday, June 5, 5:00pm - The Surprises Keep Coming AFTERWORD

Tilo Schwarz is a leadership coach, former plant manager and co-founder of the Campus for Leaders at the University of Applied Science Ansbach. He helps managers to successfully lead change and empower their teams for improvement, adaptiveness, and superior results. During his time as a plant manager at a renowned German power-tool manufacturer, he started practicing Toyota Kata with his management team as part of Mike Rother's groundbreaking research in 2006. By doing so, Tilo and his team established continuous improvement as a daily routine throughout all processes and areas of the plant. That led to winning the A. T. Kearny operational excellence competition "Factory of the Year" and a WHU/INSEAD Industrial Excellence Award. Tilo is the author of several books on coaching and Toyota Kata. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor Emeritus, Industrial and Operations Engineering at The University of Michigan and President of Liker Lean Advisors, LLC. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Toyota Way, Second Edition, and has coauthored nine other books about Toyota including The Toyota Way to Service Excellence and The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership. His graphic novel with Eduardo Lander and Tom Root tells the story of lean transformation at a mail-order company: Lean in a High-Variability Business. A more compact graphic novel, Engaging the Team at Zingerman’s Mail Order, illustrates how Kata unleashed the creativity of their team. His articles and books have won thirteen Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. He was inducted into the Association of Manufacturing Excellence Hall of Fame and the Shingo Academy.