Novayama LLC

A First-Timer’s Guide to KataCon

The 2023 Toyota Kata Summit, aka “KataCon9” is coming up fast – officially 14 and 15 March, with a extra breakout sessions on “Day 0” on Monday March 13th. Also the evening of the 13th is the Kata Geek Meetup, a less formal series of short presentations and discussion. Last year (2022) was “Old friends …

Continue reading “A First-Timer’s Guide to KataCon”

What is a “Socio-Technical System?”

*** Click through to read the entire post ***
The term “Socio-Technical System” has been bounced around quite a bit lately, but where does it come from and what does it really mean?

And what are the implications for your organization?

“95 Thesis” on Kaizen Events and TPS

Once again I am going through old files. These are some notes I wrote back in 2005 that I thought might be interesting here. Looking back at what I was writing at the time, I think I was thinking about nailing these points to a church door somewhere in the company. That actually isn’t a …

Continue reading ““95 Thesis” on Kaizen Events and TPS”

Don’t Tell Me Your Values. Listen to Them.

In the early morning of March 23, 2022 a leaked email with the subject “Why gas increase is good for hiring” surfaced on Reddit. (Click the hot link to see the actual post.) The email in question was sent by the Executive Director of Operations of Apple Central LLC, a major franchisee of Applebees restaurants. …

Continue reading “Don’t Tell Me Your Values. Listen to Them.”

Why Are You Asking Questions?

When someone brings a problem to a leader, it is typical for the leader to begin asking questions. The intent of those questions can make a world of difference. Diagnostic Questions In what I would contend is the more typical case, the questions are diagnostic. The leader’s intent is to get more information so that …

Continue reading “Why Are You Asking Questions?”