Page 350 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook

Chapter 14. Develop a Thorough Understanding 325

This rigorous questioning often leads to frustration for Americans, who
tend to feel that it questions their ability to handle the situation on their own (an
American characteristic), or that their evaluation was not complete. Within
Toyota, many people meticulously review the process of understanding the sit-
uation, and feedback is always given. Often, after initial rounds of questions,
additional rounds of questioning ensue. This is the “aim, aim, aim” phase.
Valuable insights can be gained by this repetition, perhaps bringing new things
to light through various reviewers, and in the long run much time can be saved
by not chasing errant issues of lesser importance.
If your organization hasn’t had an effective process for making improvement,
there will probably be numerous issues in the backlog. When the word “problem”
is mentioned or people know that you want to improve processes and are inter-
ested in knowing what the problems are, two things will probably happen:

1. You’ll be deluged with many problems, ranging from broken water foun-
tains and fans (which should be corrected without the need for long-term
problem solving) to issues that occurred years ago.
2. As soon as any “problem” is mentioned, solutions will be proposed. Since
the existence of a problem has not been confirmed, any proposal of solu-
tions is premature and a waste of time (not focused or leveraged).
Initiating this process may be like opening Pandora’s box. After looking
inside, you may wish you had kept the lid closed! It’s easy to be overwhelmed
by the magnitude of opportunity for improvement available (and necessary)
and the sheer numbers of problems that will surface.

TIP
You must be prepared to help people differentiate between
issues that can and should be corrected in the short term without
in-depth analysis and long-term endemic issues that affect the
performance of the person, group, or company.

TRAP
One of the signs of a “Ready, fire, aim” culture is the tendency to
“jump” immediately from the “problem” to the “solution.” In many
cases the problem may be mentioned casually and much time
spent proposing various “solutions” before the “problem” has
been clearly defined. At this stage in the process it is likely that
a symptom has been observed rather than a true problem.