Katie Anderson’s Insights on Leadership Through Continuous Learning

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Developing a Profound Connection to Japan

Katie shares her journey of gaining a profound understanding and connection to Japanese culture. Her unique opportunity to live in Japan allowed her to form a meaningful relationship with Mr. Isao Yoshino, a prominent figure at Toyota.

Deep passion and connection with Japan

Nick: I remember watching a video of you in Japan, and you were outside one of those barbers that have the lights and the whole lean process. And the energy you had just explaining, like, ‘Oh, this means this, and they have this to tell you how long it's gonna take.’ And I was like, who is this person? She got the most energy on the planet.

So I thought, wow, she really has this passion for, not just her work, but how things are done in Japan. So shall we start with a little history with the work that you do and your connection to Japan

Katie: Sure. And you know, one of the reasons I've started to call myself a learning enthusiast is because it really connects both my passion for learning and sharing learning with others, and just my innate enthusiasm that comes through.

I don't know where it comes from, but it's sort of my my secret sauce, perhaps, and we can explore more of that how we, you know, come and find our purpose together. But my connection to Japan began really 10 years ago, this month, July, we just started.

We're recording this in July of 2014, when I found out for my husband's job, that we had the opportunity to move to Japan for two years, and I had a consulting practice that I just started focusing on helping organizations bring in concepts of kaizen and continuous improvement in the Toyota production system into their organizations.

And that's what I'd been doing for years in healthcare and systems in the US and in Australia. But I was so excited by that opportunity. And so six months later, we moved to Japan, and I had met Mr. Isao Yoshino, the subject of my book, at a conference.

Serendipity, the stars were aligned, six months around the same time we found out about moving to Japan, and he gave me his card, his meishi, and said, ‘Look me up, I'll take you to Toyota City and show you around when you get settled.’ And I really thought wow, this is an incredible opportunity for me to not only learn for myself, but also to share those learnings with others.

So that began this deep passion and connection with Japan, and then personally with Isao Yoshino as well. And now Japan's forever woven into the core of who I am, you can see, I’m obsessed with Daruma dolls. I love so much about that Japanese culture.

And my passion is also about connecting those concepts for people who don't live in Japan and who aren't Japanese. Similar to you, we have this shared sort of passion about how do we make that connection in a way that makes sense to other people and that it's tangible and that it's not so foreign, and that it is accessible as well.

Serving as a Catalyst for Learning

Katie shares her goal of serving as a catalyst for learning and making a meaningful impact through her work, driven by her innate passion for sharing knowledge with others.

A catalyst for people to lead the change

Nick: You seem to wear many hats. So when people ask you, what do you do? What do you say?

Katie: That's a great question. I sometimes get stuck in sort of the technical side of what I do. But really the the core of what I am is I like to consider myself a catalyst for learning and impact and really using the, actually bolding on the word Kata from Japanese meaning routine and practice.

But how are we not just catalysts for change, but catalysts practicing the behaviors and routines that build learning as the source of progress and change in organizations or for ourselves. So this builds on the energy side to how am I helping to be a change catalyst for people to lead the change that they want in their lives personally and professionally.

Nick: You really seem to convey that, you have all this energy, you love sharing. It's almost like you do it with this incredible love, love for it, and love for sharing. So it's quite inspiring.

Katie: It's genuine. I don't know where it comes from. I just have this, like, it's been a core part of who I am when I look back from the very beginning. I think that's how we really end up finding our life's calling and purpose as well.

Lean Coaching: What is it?

Lean, originating in the late 1980s, highlights the Toyota Production System's success and Japanese manufacturing. It focuses on achieving more with less, continuous learning, and operational excellence, while valuing individuals' roles in business goals. Katie shares that Lean coaching applies these principles to enhance problem-solving skills and nurture capabilities, emphasizing supportive and growth-oriented leadership.

Enhancing individuals' abilities

Nick: So that leads us to this subject of lean, which you know a great deal about. So what is Lean? And more specifically, what is Lean coaching?

Katie: So Lean is a term that was applied by researchers in the late 1980s, about describing the Toyota Production System and other Japanese manufacturers’ success. How they came to sort of that world domination, especially in the automobile manufacturing space.

It's talking about how do you do more with less, and they came up with the word lean, which is accurate, but also leads to a lot of, I guess, negative impressions for people, they hear the ‘do more, or do it with less’, but not the underlying culture that supports that. It's about how do we challenge ourselves to do more with less, but not like berating people around that, but with a culture of learning and experimentation.

And so that's what I try and explain so much more in my book from Mr. Yoshino’s experiences of 40 years at Toyota from the late 60s to the early 2000s. But Lean is about how do we bring in this culture of operational excellence of continuous learning and respect for people into organizations so that we can get the business results that we need and want, focusing on people and process as the way to do that.

And Western culture is often sort of the opposite; we focus on that result or the outcome, and not the way to get there. And so that's a real difference. And there's a lot more of the production principle side of how you create flow and built in quality and all of this, it's critical as well. But at its heart, the engine that makes it work is around a focus on learning and on people.

Then the Lean coaching is how do we develop people's human capabilities around problem-solving and developing other people. And this is where it gets to this concept I call leading to learn, it's about how leaders set the direction, like where do we need to go? What are the challenges we need to achieve as an organization, as a team, or whatever?

And then how do they provide the support through coaching and development in the systems and structures that allow people to be successful? And then third, how do they develop themselves? That's really the foundation, and Lean coaching is about how do we develop people to do that.

The Concepts of Kokorozashi and Shikou

Katie, whose favorite word is “intention,” decided to incorporate it into her business card as her logo. She chose to represent it in Japanese using the word shikou, which she later learned signifies the strength of heart and direction. To Katie, intention came to embody both purpose and the actions required to fulfill it. She then encountered the word kokorozashi, which further deepened her understanding of intention.

Deliberately taking steps to achieve our purpose

Nick: Speaking of learning and goals, we could touch on our favorite Japanese words. Both of us have them written in Kanji or calligraphy, and they're quite similar. So I have kokorozashi, it's actually used by Japan's biggest business school, GLOBIS, and their MBA students develop kokorozashi, which is like this personal mission, where you're using your professional skills where you want to change an aspect of society.

It's a highly ambitious goal, it's going to take, potentially decades, and you need supporters, you need a team and you need an incredible leadership with lots of energy. But it's also rooted in Bushido. So it's a word rooted in Bushido. And it's sort of represents literally either the warrior’s heart, or the samurai’s heart or the samurai’s mind. And it makes what is part of your favorite word. So what is your favorite word?

Katie: My favorite word is intention. And you can see behind me, so the first of the two kanji symbols is kokorozashi. It was a few years later that I learned of that it was a standalone word as well. And then the lower symbol is compass or direction.

And when I moved to Japan, I didn't have business cards for my new company, I'd had been in practice for a year. And you know, it's very rare that we give out business cards in the West, so much so but of course, I knew moving to Japan, I needed a business card.

I didn't have a logo, and so I worked with a meishi business card company, and I said put the word for intention in Japanese on my card, I'll use that as my logo. I had no idea what it looked like, or what it represented. And you know, that's what it came back, shikou.

And so I started introducing myself, making connections in Japan, and contacts who were bilingual said, this is a very powerful word. And they explained that the samurai’s heart, and then direction, and actually I came to describe intention equals heart plus direction, you might even say the strength of your heart plus direction.

So what's your purpose? What impact do you want to have? And then what actions do you need to take to fulfill that purpose? And that's how I see is intention is about, knowing our purpose and then taking the actions that align with that. And then I later learned of the word kokorozashi. And it's like, oh, this is why it's so powerful. And it made sense. I mean, that was just innate to me.

And so I have shikou, intention written on my big Daruma, and it's on my business cards, and it's such a core part of who I am and how I show up. It's about how do we intentionally take action to fulfill our purpose. So we have to have knowledge of both, right? What is our purpose and then what are the things we need to do?

Three-Part Framework on Leadership

Katie created a three-part leadership framework inspired by Mr. Yoshino. These valuable insights came from her first meeting with him at a conference, where he shared stories and mentioned his experience as a manager at Toyota.

The simplicity of leadership

Nick: You also have this incredible three-part framework inspired by Mr. Yoshino on what leadership is. So would you like to share that three-part framework?

Katie: It came from that very first time I met Mr. Yoshino at the conference and saw him on the stage, and he's telling stories, and he made this offhand comment about his role as a manager at Toyota. And, to me, it really was so profound.

And then in later conversations, everything he said, and other Toyota leader said really came back to these three points. So he said, and I'm paraphrasing here the quote, ‘My role as a manager was to give the person whom he was reporting to him a mission or target, and then support him while he figured out how to reach that goal.’

And I was aware of that, as I was developing that person, I was developing myself at the same time, and I just reflected, this is the simplicity of leadership, really, if we can set the direction, then provide the support, create the systems and structures and develop people and develop ourselves.

So set direction, provide support, develop yourself. If you focus on those things, you're going to be more successful. There are gonna be failures along the way, but those are the key components of leadership.

Nick: I only got your book two days ago, and I was sort of flicking through it. And I read that quote, and I was like, wow, I'm gonna sit with this quote, and these three ideas, like set direction, provide support. And you're not just developing the person you're leading, you in the process are developing.

Katie: Right? Like, how do I need to ask questions differently? Or what does this person need from me? Or, I was I was impatient at this time, so I jumped in and gave an answer and maybe that wasn't helpful. And you know, so much, because there's so much we have to overcome. And even if we have a lot of experience, there's always opportunities to be better or do something differently.

For the full podcast conversation go to: Learning Through Leadership