The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership explains how Toyota develops its leaders over many years, and why lean starts with lean leadership.
Why I picked up this book
I am always curious to learn how great companies keep excelling. Combined with my fascination for Japan and cars, this book was an instant standout when I saw it at my local library.
After reading the first few chapters, I felt a deep satisfaction that I am reading this book at the beginning of my career, as I am now aware how important long-term leadership development is.
The underlying message I learned is that employees are the most valuable asset and developing them over the long term is essential. Progress should be measured over a long horizon.
Toyota Way True North values
A fascinating insight was the management by objectives and how strategies are created to align with the true north vision. The True North values are:
- Spirit of challenge
- Kaizen
- Genchi genbutsu (go and see to deeply understand)
- Teamwork
- Respect
How TPS and JIT bring problems to the surface
The TPS (Toyota Production System) and JIT (Just in Time) approach to manufacturing means any flaws in the system rise up quickly and are addressed quickly. This improves the overall process iteratively, rather than dealing with one big expensive problem masked by a large inventory.
Four levels of leadership development
Lean starts with lean leadership. There is no way around this. The commitment to excellence starts with training the leaders. The 4 levels of leadership development are:
- Commit to self-development
- Coach and develop others
- Support daily kaizen
- Create vision and align goals
Leadership is not just attained from these values. There is a key focus on trust and self-development. The book also explains “shu ha ri”, a Japanese idea of learning a skill in three stages, from apprentice to master. I liked that Toyota trains its leaders over many years so they can develop the next leaders themselves.
What I took away
The key lesson I learned is that mindset and culture are more important than outright skills. Long-term thinking and continuous improvement go hand in hand with a focus on the process, as there are no quick fixes.