Customer Reviews

Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
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In a readable and accessible style, John Shook provides an excellent introduction to the "A3" plan for problem solving. It is the most accessible and understandable beginners level book I have seen on the subject.

Pascal Dennis' "Getting the Right Things Done" also covers the A3 process - though for strategy deployment. Personally I find John Shook's "Managing to Learn" more readable and a better introduction to the A3, though they do cover different ground and the one doesn't replace the other.

If you want to know more about the A3 planning and problem solving process - that ties everything in lean together - this is a great place to start.

THE FIRST BOOK I RECOMMEND TO EXECUTIVES AND LEADERS ON A LEAN JOURNEY.

John Shook, building upon his Japanese language and work experience including 10 years with Toyota has again written a practical book which will accelerate those on a lean journey.

Of 250+ continuous improvement books studied over the past 19 years, this 2008 release immediately ranks amoung the top 5 in my library. Helpful for those biased through exposure to Six Sigma and DMAIC, this book is ideal for practitioners, leaders and consultants.

The soft side of change is very well addressed. Advocacy, inquiry, gaining buy-in, fear, frustrations and jubilation are presented in a creative and highly effective format (although some may not appreciate nemawashi and hansei at first) . The soft skills are the hardest part of any lean journey and normally receive too little attention.

Most pages are divided into a right and a left hand column representing the project leader and the executive who is the coach of the project leader. The use of this unusual format addresses one of the most challenging issues (and opportunities for improvement) when embarking upon a lean journey......engaging leadership in their role of driving organizational learning through coaching.

The introduction felt "slow," but do not let the first 7 pages discourage you. The story told is rich with real world emotions, dead ends, and rewritings, including numerous additional A3 case studies.

For those without a flexible mind and the ability to think in processes, the document translation process improvement story line throughout the book may not seem applicable to manufacturing processes. A lean journey requires this mental agility in any case, so Shook likely choose this story because if the reader is not flexible enough to relate to the example, they are not ready for lean.

Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management System compliments well Managing to Learn with a slightly different view of technical aspects. Mr. Sorbek's work contains a tasty case study which the reader is invited to complete and compare with one excellent example.

Looking forward to the next thought leadership from Mr. Shook, perhaps on TWI and standardized work?

John Shook has written a solid book that can stand proudly alongside the other books in the Lean Enterprise Institute's lineup. This book is especially useful for those new to lean who want to understand the nuts and bolts of how the A3 management system works. Most people new to lean begin applying the tools without a full appreciation of the management system or the real thinking that goes on behind it. Without these supporting mechanisms, people's efforts at lean deployment generate small results and sustainment is poor. A3s are one of the key tools to successful deployment.

As with other books in the LEI lineup, this book is very readable. The illustrations are simple, the examples are straightforward, and the text is well-edited and well-structured. This book takes a fictional company as an example. As one who helps teach others, the narrative style has irritated me because authors frequently use it in a pure storytelling format. Books like these often have little instructional value because they are difficult to study from. Managing to Learn tells a company's example story, but it also explains and discusses the narrative events in a second column of text in the margin. Its almost like your floating above the players with your sensei, hearing the thoughts of the actors and an explanation by your lean leader. Combined with sidebar comments and uncluttered illustrations, the layout and style of this book make it a rich reference and a great study and teaching tool.

As the book points out, there are a number of ways A3s can be used, and Managing to Learn shows examples of each. The theme linking all of these together is the systematic problem solving thinking that is at the heart of A3 thinking.

I am a consultant and I currently manage a consortium of over 50 companies working together to become lean organizations. For a number of reasons, I have made the preparation of A3s for every kaizen improvement event a MANDATORY requirement for all my clients and consortium members. One of the key results of doing so is that it gets people oriented from day one understanding that lean is more than just using tools - you are solving problems, and going from problem, through analysis, down to root causes, and on to a plan that you implement and check, is the structured thinking that A3s create.

I recommend this book highly, and it is now on the short list of required reading I endorse for anyone using lean tools and principles.

I'm convinced that one of the key requirements for lasting, growing and leading companies is the ability of its _people_ to accurately perform root cause analysis. Not all companies call it the same thing, but they can all do it.
This book will show you how to mentor, manage and lead people to learn how to do this, but if that's all it did, then it would not be as great of a book as it is.
Yes, this book is about A3's. Yes, it teaches good root cause analysis, and yes, it has a unique and effective way of illustrating the coaching / mentoring process, but...
...the biggest value of this book is that it teaches an effective management style that focuses on people's learning by doing, by going to the floor, by garnering others' input, analyzing the whole, and gaining what this book calls pull-based authority.
It is in pull-based authority that I see the huge breakthrough, and yes, this is a breakthrough book. Other books can and do teach good A3, 8D another RCA methods, and many companies use these methods. Still...
I cannot tell you how many companies have responded to our corrective action requests with an 8D filled with verbiage, but also with weak and limited logic, failing to come close to anything even resembling a root cause. Most are "check to box" efforts aimed at getting us off their backs. Continued responses like this lead us to attempt to help them or worse, leave them, have us looking to other suppliers.
The mentoring and pull-based authority methodology presented by this book, of time, largely prevents this, instead causing personnel growth in both mentor and me tee while providing real solutions to challenges that all agree on.
I also cannot tell you how many employees we used to have coming to us or filling our mailboxes up with, "what should I do here" questions.
Now they are beginning to tell _us_ what they should do, via an A3, singed by all the stakeholders, with sound logic, and illustrated visually so that the solution is easily presented and approved. What's more, they are mentoring others, so our pool of critical thinkers is growing faster.

This book, applied with diligence, develops people and produces around thinkers, at EVERY level of the business.

What a rewarding experience we have had, applying the principles found in this book. If there is a first Lean book to read, this is it.

If you are looking to improve your organizations ability to solve problems at all levels you must read Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process (John Shook), Getting the Right Things Done (Pascal Dennis), and The A3 Workbook: Unlock Your Problem-Solving Mind (Daniel D. Matthews).

Shook's book provides a fly on the wall look at the mentoring process used by Toyota to develop problem solvers. It is almost as if you are looking over the shoulder of the person being mentored. While Dennis' book leads you through the process of developing and managing your organizations strategic goals. The icing on the cake is Matthews' workbook which not only explains the A3 Problem Solving process it gives the reader examples and case studies designed to enhance the learning experience.

These three books provide a comprehensive top-to-bottom training program for any organization.

"Managing to Learn" is an excellent book for managers and coaches of A3 authors/advocates. John Shook is a true sensei with 11 years of Toyota history and real world experience in helping organizations with Lean transformations. I have been learning a lot from his incredible blog posts recently as well.

My organization is about 5 months into our A3 launch so I have been researching a lot for best practices and ideas. I initially thought this book was going to be a "how to" guide for the author of the A3. You can probably understand how to write an A3 from this book but it is not as explicit as Sobek/Smalley's book. I believe managers and coaches should read both books.

Where this book truly shines is getting into the head of the A3 mentor. A lot of Lean books are written from an academic standpoint but this book feels more like a day in the life of someone actually doing the work. The pressure the manager feels organizationally to get things completed in contrast to allowing the A3 author time to learn is a true struggle I have seen in Lean transformations. The book has a part where the manager is dealing with multiple A3 authors all at different stages in their learning. I know these are true mental challenges for coaches so it is nice to relate to a character going through the same things.

Coaches can learn a lot from this book to help the A3 author's growth and deep understanding.

Some great things I learned from the book is how to encourage more than one counter-measure, using respect through conflict, helping the author make valid decisions and transition from author to advocate, pull-based authority, using 5 whys after implementing in the check/act cycle, and how to help the A3 writer become a coach themselves.

I think this book would be interesting to Project Managers as well. The last few chapters offer some great insight on how to deal with iterative changes and dealing with cultural resistance.

A good friend recommended this book late last year. I bought it and have skimmed it a few times; getting a general flavor. At his recent prompting, I sat down and read it through---and I'm glad I did. There is much to learn from Mr. Shook's able description of the A3 process and he teaches using a method similar to that used in The Goal---however, this is much better. There are a few moments when the scenarios seemed a bit contrived, but the point was made. I plan to re-read and put into action in several areas of interest. This book is highly recommended.

This book has helped clarify my long held belief that the A3 plan is a very important and useful tool regardless of the setting. Have never had a business read that you cant put down! despite the price well worth it. Thanks

I will leave out the gushy fluff intro.

I found this book thought provoking and easy to read; almost inspirational. By the time I finished reading it (a quick read) I was ready to get busy with the groups I am part of. So many problems I've seen in the past could be solved by applying these "A3" concepts with the intent to USE them.

If you are on a school board or any other institution that may not be a business, but could use some business rigor, get, read and promote this book and its processes within your organization. You won't regret it.

I found this book to provide a useful and well-rounded description of the various nuances of the A3 Process. Some of the concepts around developing people and skills are very thought provoking and probably won't be fully appreciated until I put this all into practice.