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Coaching kata template (improvement kata storyboard)
Coaching kata is the short, fixed routine a coach uses to guide a learner through the improvement kata: five questions asked in the same order every cycle, about the target condition, the actual condition now, the obstacles and which one is being worked on, the next step and what the learner expects, and when they can go and see what was learned. The improvement kata is the pattern the learner practices: understand the direction, grasp the current condition, set the next target condition and experiment toward it one step at a time. Both were described by Mike Rother in his 2010 book Toyota Kata. Page 1 of the PDF is the learner's storyboard: the challenge, the target condition with its date and metric, the current condition, an obstacles parking lot, a PDCA cycles record for ten experiments and a run chart. Page 2 is a fold-over card with the five questions and the reflection on the last step, the four steps of the improvement kata and a worked example. The Excel version logs each cycle with what was expected and what happened, and works out the days between cycles, long gaps, the % of the gap to the target closed, cycles per week and a chart against the target.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a coaching kata template
- When a supervisor or manager coaches a team leader or engineer on one improvement over several weeks.
- To build problem-solving habits in daily work rather than in a training course, a few minutes at a time.
- When a team has a clear direction but keeps jumping to solutions without checking what actually happens.
- For a coach learning to coach: the card keeps the questions in order and the storyboard keeps the conversation on facts.
How to fill it in
- 1
Agree the challenge
The direction for the process in the longer run, and why it matters. The coach usually sets it or agrees it with the learner.
- 2
Grasp the current condition
Go and see how the process works now and measure it: timed or counted, not estimated. Write the date and the metric.
- 3
Set the next target condition
How the process should work and the number it should reach by a date not far off. Write the metric, the target and whether lower or higher is better.
- 4
Park the obstacles
List what stands between the current and the target condition as you find it, and tick the one being worked on now. Work on one at a time.
- 5
Run one experiment per cycle
Before each step, write what you expect; after it, the result, what happened and what you learned. The coach asks the five questions in front of the storyboard, with the reflection on the last step after question 2.
- 6
Plot the metric and keep the rhythm
Plot each result against the target line. The Excel version works out the days between cycles, flags gaps longer than the limit you set and shows the % of the gap closed.
What's on the coaching card
The five coaching kata questions and the reflection on the last step
On the fold-over card on page 2 and in the Excel version. The coach asks them in this order every cycle, turning the card over after question 2 to reflect on the last step, then going on to question 3.
The five coaching kata questions
Asked by the coach, in this order, every cycle
- 1What is the target condition?
- 2What is the actual condition now?
- 3What obstacles do you think are preventing you from reaching the target condition? Which one are you addressing now?
- 4What is your next step (next experiment)? What do you expect to happen?
- 5When can we go and see what we have learned from taking that step?
Reflect on the last step taken
Asked after question 2, then back to question 3
- 6What did you plan as your last step?
- 7What did you expect?
- 8What actually happened?
- 9What did you learn from it?
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkThe worked example on page 2 of the PDF and in the Excel version (illustrative): a team leader on line 2, coached by the production supervisor, working on changeover time.
- Target condition: changeover 15 minutes or less by 30 September, both operators working from one sequence. Current condition on 11 September: the last three changeovers took 23, 21 and 22 minutes, 22.0 on average.
- Obstacles: tool retrieval, an unclear sequence, waiting for the second operator, and later die clamping.
- Six experiments from 14 to 30 September: a shadow board (expected 20.0, got 20.5), a second wrench (20.0), a sequence card (18.5), calling the second operator early (17.5), a light on the counter at 20 parts to go (16.0) and clamp bolts set before the stop (15.5).
- Cycles 2, 2, 4, 6 and 2 days apart: 16 ÷ 5 = 3.2 days, or 7 ÷ 3.2 = 2.2 cycles a week. The 6-day gap is longer than the 4-day limit the coach set.
Latest result 15.5 minutes: (22.0 − 15.5) ÷ (22.0 − 15.0) = 93% of the gap closed, 0.5 minutes short on the target date. The learner keeps the target condition and takes die clamping as the next obstacle.
Common mistakes
Reading the questions as a script
The five questions are headings for a real conversation, not a checklist to read aloud. Ask, listen, and ask again when an answer is vague.
The coach supplies the answer
When the coach names the next experiment, the learner learns nothing about finding one. The coach's value is in the questions.
Cycles too far apart
Kata builds a habit through repetition. Coaching once a week or less does not; short cycles at the process, as often as daily, do.
Working from an estimated current condition
A current condition that was guessed rather than seen and measured sends every experiment the wrong way. Time it at the process.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite, Lean Studio is a shared whiteboard where a team draws with stickies, shapes and arrows and puts live KPIs against their targets on the same board.
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Coaching kata template (improvement kata storyboard): common questions
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A shift handover sheet, a red tag log, a changeover checklist for one machine: if your team uses it on the floor, ask.