Katie Anderson on Whether "Lean" is Easier or More Difficult in Japan

The last time I interviewed Katie Anderson, in episode 233 of my podcast series, she spoke to me from her then-home office in Tokyo. Here in episode 275, Katie spoke to me from California, having wrapped up her 18-month-long stay in Japan. In that first interview, Katie shared some stories and thoughts about her visits, networking, and experiences in Japan. This time, she was able to share some reflections from her entire time there. 

“We've been back about six months now. The reflections I have, they're not different from what I had after the first six months. They're just more deeply enriched from having more experiences. The last six months that we were living in Japan, I had accelerated opportunities for going out to go see and connecting with people,” Katie said. “The experiences I have just confirmed some of the initial experiences and observations I was making around not only Japanese culture but around what we consider Lean thinking and practice in the western world.”

Katie recently published an article titled “If You Think Lean Is Inherently Japanese, Think Again” based on some of her experiences, which you can read at planet-lean.com.

As she explained, Katie used the trip to Japan not only as an opportunity for her own learning, as she has been a Lean coach and consultant for over 10 years primarily in healthcare, but she also started blogging and sharing that learning with other people. Today, Katie runs her own Lean coaching and consulting practice and teaches some courses for Catalysis (formerly the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value), as well as the Lean Enterprise Institute.

“For me, one of the biggest takeaways, [was the wrong assumption] I and many other people have about Japan being much more Lean thinking in totality than it actually is. Lean culture or Lean thinking is not the same as Japanese culture and Japanese thinking. Although there are some things that are common and make the Toyota Production System easier, there are many cultural traits, or human traits, in Japan that actually seem to run counter to what we might consider Lean thinking. I thought that was very interesting as a Lean practitioner.”

One concept present in everyday life in Japan that runs counter to Lean thinking, in a way, is “kata,” Katie explained; kata being the practice of detailed choreographed patterns of movement observed either solo or in pairs. 

“There are kata for everything in Japan, from exchanging your business cards, to how a sumo match is conducted, to who sits where at a business meeting or in a taxi. The deep level of apprenticeship to learn the kata, the craftsmanship, culture that exists out there,” Katie said.

“Typical Japanese businesses are not Lean thinking [businesses]. People look to the leader to have the answer and start follow whatever is happening, what the leader says.”

Being willing to follow a “kata” (or “standardized work”) is a good thing, but not if people are unwilling to try to improve the way the work is done. Toyota and Lean emphasizes not just following a process, but also working to continuously improve it, through the practice of “kaizen.”

Katie pointed out how Toyota has been able take this limiting cultural trait, which has a reliance on hierarchy and on looking to leaders for the all the answers, and change it into the apprenticeship model wherein leaders become coaches and teachers for the people working with them and below them.

Another limiting cultural trait that Katie touched on was the fear of failure.

“Failure is not seen as OK. You want to be perfect. You want to have what's outwardly projected to be perfect. People are less willing to take risks,” Katie said.

“Tied to that too, is also following the rules and what was weighed out, not necessarily thinking outside the box…and not challenging the status quo.”

Katie and I both spoke about examples of organizations in Japan that were finding success from creating a culture that’s willing to take risks, and how culture can differ from one organization to the next, even within the same industry, like automotive.

“Something else I've been reflecting on lately is that when Taiichi Ohno and other Toyota leaders were starting to bring in what is now known as the Toyota Production System and the Toyota Way, they were really just dealing with the human traits, cultural traits or just specific human traits, that they saw in front of them that were barriers to innovation and the problem solving thinking.

She continued, "That was their current condition to improve. These same principles around TPS are really the best of the Western management thinking and Japanese management thinking combined,” Katie said. “We all have different limiting cultural and human traits that we need to overcome in service of delivering better value to our customers, or in healthcare to our patients. It's not necessarily Japan that's perfect on this; in the Western world things that are challenging for Japanese may be more easy for, say, someone in the US and vice versa.”

On the topic of the cultural aspects of Lean, I asked Katie about what she learned, saw, or was told in Japan about the idea of “respect for people,” in terms of the dual pillars of the Toyota Way.

Katie said that one thing that was universal across the organizations she visited there was this pillar of respect for people, meaning the way they engage people in problem solving, and how they develop people.

“Not just employees, but how do you deliver good for the community? I feel like this emphasis on people development and creating a culture of respect where it means everyone is supported and engaged and not constrained, is one that we don't necessarily see as much focus on in the US or potentially other countries as well; we've gone more towards the tools side of the Toyota Production System,” Katie said.

“Even smaller organizations out in the communities, [they are saying] we want to be there to respect our employees and get them engaged. We also want to provide them with employment, and then in that way we're creating a better community. We also want to be good for the environment. How do we improve our processes that whether we're contributing for a better environment? How do we give small things that might add joy that we might consider customer service for the employees and their families?"

Katie explained that there's a deep sense of connecting with people, the community and doing good. Another related concept Katie regularly heard was “revitalization,” as in practicing principles to revitalize the industry and community, which also meant bringing in jobs and money back to the community.

“It wasn't just in rural areas I heard this word applied, but in a Tokyo word office, like a government office,” Katie explained. “That concept, of revitalization is linked so tightly with respect for people and respect for humanity.”

To listen to the whole podcast and to read a PDF summary with this content and more, please click here. You can also enter a contest that Katie is running to give away a daruma doll and a copy of my book Lean Hospitals.

?Mark Graban (@MarkGraban) is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “Lean healthcare” methodology. Mark is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals (the 3rd edition was released in 2016)  and Healthcare Kaizen. Mark is also editor for the book Practicing Lean. He is also theVP of improvement and innovation services for the technology company KaiNexus and is a board member for the Louise M. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. Mark blogs most days at www.LeanBlog.org.