Managing to Learn
Hello and welcome to Small Batches. I’m your host Adam Hawkins. In each episode, I share a small batch of software delivery education aiming to help you find flow, feedback, and learning in own daily work. Topics include DevOps, lean, continuous delivery, and conversations with industry leaders. Now, let’s begin today’s episode.
This episode continues the theme of lean leadership and management. Let’s start with a Toyota-ism. There are a few variations of it, but it goes like this:
> If the student hasn’t learned, then the teacher hasn’t taught.
Lean leaders, and especially managers, are teachers. Their core responsibility is developing the capabilities of others. This is the topic of the 2008 book “Managing to Learn” by John Shook.
John Shook was the first American manager in Japan at Toyota. He’s member of the Lean Enterprise Institute and also the author of another book “Learning to See” on value stream mapping.
“Managing to Learn” demonstrates how managers teach problem-solving to advance the organization and develop capabilities in others. This scientific approach is known as the “A3”.
Toyota pioneered the practice of putting the problem, the analysis, the corrective actions, and the action plan down on a single sheet of large (A3) paper, often with the use of graphics. At Toyota, A3 reports have evolved into a standard method for summarizing problem-solving exercises, status reports, and planning exercises.
You may be thinking: So what’s the big deal about writing all this down? Well, the big deal is how the knowledge was gathered to be able to write it down.
First, it takes at least two to create an A3. I’ll explain.
“Managing to Learn” tells the same story from two perspectives. Desi Porter is the subordinate tasked with solving a problem with document translation. Ken Sanderson is the veteran manager tasked with coaching his subordinate through the process. Document translation is just one of Sanderson’s many ongoing challenges part of launching a new plant.
Each page is split in half: one column for Porter and another for Sanderson.
Porter, eager to please and with a can-do mindset, immediately jumps on the challenge. Equipped with a cursory understanding of the current condition, he starts a draft of the A3 using the proposed solution in the title.
Sanderson immediately realizes the beginner’s mistake. Porter does not have sufficient understanding of the current condition. More investigation is needed.
Sanderson, the veteran manager, knows his responsibility is to teach Porter to understand the current condition using socratic questions, gemba walks, and the all-important _genchi genbutsu_ mindset.
This kicks off the organizational drama that is iterating on an A3.
The story follows Porter as he learns more about the current condition, the problem, the challenges, possible countermeasures, and subsequent action plan. We see Sanderson deal with the frustrations of a slow-moving process, his own desire to jump and get to work, thinking through how to develop Porter’s skills, and of course the well-meaning (but not always perceived as such) questions.
The chapters follow the sections of the A3: Background, Current Condition, Goal, Analysis, Countermeasures, Plan, and Follow Up. Each chapter concludes by showing the current iteration of the A3.
The book demonstrates common mistakes making an A3, and thus the learning opportunities inside the process. Here’s an example.
Porter believes he has understood the background, set a reasonable goal, conducted deep analysis, and proposed a solution. The key word is “a” solution. One solution is never enough. Multiple options must always be considered. So, Sanderson asks Porter what other things were considered.
Porter has no answer, so he must return to gemba to continue dialoguing with stakeholders. Through this exercise he discovers that more countermeasures exist, some are not viable, and some are better options.
The story ends when Sanderson finally approves Porter’s A3, the work starts, and the A3 process starts again on new problems.
The reader sees how using the A3 process shifts collaboration from authority-focused to responsibility-focused. Dialoguing with stakeholders about the real challenge and all possible countermeasures is a radical shift in decision-making.
Individuals earn the authority to act through the manner in which they frame the issue. They form consensus and decide by relentless focus on indisputable facts that they and their peers derive from the gemba.
There’s one more thing to highlight in this story. It’s the fact that Porter moves on from the original problem to focus on the next one. Developing and implementing the plan in the A3 involved creating maintainable systems that others could manage. Deploying the countermeasures, then following up, allowed others to take responsibility and thus accountability of their work. This allowed Porter to scale problem-solving in the organization by taking himself out of the critical chain and developing skills in others. In this way, Porter became a teacher as well.
I highly recommend _Managing to Learn_. It’s a fun read that demonstrates the power of leading by coaching and developing the capabilities of others. I’ve been modestly applying its lessons and adopting A3 problem-solving with my team. Results have been positive. I’m sure they will be for you too.
Alright, that’s all this batch.
Go SmallBatches.fm/77 for links to _Managing Learn_, my personal annotated A3 template, and the Small Batches Slack app.
I’ve loaded the app with the best passages and pro-tips from _Managing to Learn_. Get the app today and start learning as a team.
Anyways, I hope to have you back again for the next episode. Until then, happy shipping.
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