ABSTRACT
All quality improvement work requires scientific thinking. Implementations of Lean in healthcare, and in other settings, often struggle to spread within the organisation. One reason can be too much of a focus on tools without the essential understanding of scientific thinking that underpins Lean and other Quality Improvement methods.
Toyota Kata is a systematically applied set of steps to support scientific thinking developed in Toyota and described by Mike Rother. Improvement Kata is designed for all staff. Coaching Kata helps to train and support the use of Improvement Kata. This chapter describes the large-scale use of Toyota Kata in healthcare in England. It describes the theory and shares learning from the use of Kata in the Vital Signs project in NHS England. The examples explain the stages in implementing Kata in healthcare including the essential role of senior executives and other managers; the role of specialist Quality Improvement staff; the engagement of the wider staff group and the role of strategic alignment.
“Imagine 1.7 million staff who know what they & their team improved last month? And what they and their team are striving to achieve this month … and next … and who enjoy doing it … and who are learning doing it … every day.”
NHS England, Vital Signs 2018
