On Twitter, over the last few weeks, Mike Rother has been talking a lot about scientific thinking.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Mike Rother, he is the author of such lean classics as: “Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate Muda,” (1999) and “Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results,” (2009).
It is from the three books that Rother has written about Toyota Kata that the idea of scientific thinking is mainly drawn.
For me, scientific thinking is born through the joy of experimentation. In the case of Toyota Kata, this experimentation is guided by the five Improvement Kata questions.
What is the Target Condition?
What is the Actual Condition now?
What Obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition?
What is your Next Step? What do you expect?
How quickly can we go and see what we Have Learned from taking that step?
These questions aim to draw your coachee into the learning zone, where failure is the higher path to success. Our most significant learning and growth comes in our childhood years. The coach is almost like a caring parent, encouraging us to dust ourselves off and try again every time we fall over. However, in scientific thinking, this comes with the caveat “what did you learn and what are you going to do differently next time?”
Nowhere is the scientific method more noticeable than in the practice of preparing a dish in the kitchen. I have often used this metaphor in delivering training, but this weekend it struck me again like a fresh insight.
I was preparing a roast dinner, a British Sunday favourite. I had roasted a bit of ham, which should give a lovely bit of crackling. This achievement of this crispy layer was my target condition, but when the meat had cooked, the cracking was not quite ready.
Several variables can impact on the success of crackling.
- Scoring: had the skin been scored enough?
- Salt: had too much, or too little salt been rubbed into the surface.
- Had that surface been patted dry before cooking?
- Had the oven been pre-heated?
- Is the oven at the correct temperature?
In the end, I removed the crackling layer and returned it to the oven to achieve the desired effect. It may be that the two elements, meat and crackling, merely cook at different rates and none of the above has an impact. However, without experimentation and scientific thought, I might never know.
The second element of the classic Sunday favourite is the roast potato. Now, the perfect roast potato is an outcome of much debate. Every family in the land have their own sworn by methods and secret knacks.
This is where the scientific method meets standard work. Every recipe book is the culmination of years of scientific thinking, tweaking and disasters! The finished product is the ultimate expression of scientific thought.
Gastronomic experimenter, Heston Blumenthal, once dedicated a whole episode of his television show to the scientific pursuit of the perfect roast potato. His target condition was crispy and golden on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside.
I have been close, on occasions, but I have never quite achieved pure perfection in a roast potato. Every Sunday, I experiment further, asking myself what I have already learned. However, consider the variables:
- Type of potato: starchy, waxy, floury?
- Size of cuts – how big should they be?
- How long should they be parboiled?
- Have they been roughed up after parboiling?
- Have they been allowed to steam dry before roasting?
- Have they been frozen before roasting?
- Have they been pre-roasted (like triple-cooked chips)?
- What oil is used? (Vegetable, rapeseed, goose fat, beef dripping etc.)
- How much oil is used?
- What temperature is the oven?
- What gauge of roasting tin is used?
- How long are the potatoes roasted for?
- Are the potatoes regularly turned and basted?
As you can see, there are many variables to consider and many potential PDCA cycles to navigate. But as long as I keep asking myself what I think a tweak will change and comparing with what actually happened, I can approach my next experiment with confidence, in the knowledge that I will eventually reach my target condition. Will changing the oil make the potatoes crispier next time?
But it won’t be the perfect crackling or potato that will bring me growth as a cook. It will be the journey – the steps that weren’t quite right, but which took me one stage nearer.
That is where the value lies. And if everyone in your business goes on a similar learning journey, where will you be in a year, or two? What issues will you have solved, as a team? How will everyone in your organisation be contributing to a new, customer experience?
We can all see the benefits – it’s not exactly rocket science, is it?