The Toyota Production System Works for Relationships, Too

The innovations of the Toyota Production System are well-documented in management literature and business school curricula everywhere. These concepts are usually discussed in the context of industrial operations, but they can also be applied to interpersonal issues.

The TPS term “jidoka” means “automation with a human touch.” Rather than ignoring problems and plowing ahead, Toyota assembly lines are designed to stop themselves so that higher-order thinking can be applied to address problems before production resumes. Here’s how Toyota describes the sequence of events:

— A machine detects a problem and communicates it.

— A situation deviates from the normal workflow.

— The line is stopped.

— Manager/supervisor removes the cause of the problem.

— Improvements are incorporated into the standard workflow.

— Good products can be produced.

This requires an organization’s willingness to stop production — repeatedly — and trust that these interruptions will ultimately result not only in better products, but also in more efficient and profitable operations.

While we have to change the terminology a bit, this concept can be applied to almost any interpersonal interaction, from a one-on-one conversation to a large meeting. Here’s how this interpersonal jidoka works:

— People are trained to sense and respond to communication problems, both conceptual and emotional.

— A communication problem disrupts the normal workflow of an interaction.

— Anyone involved in the process is empowered to stop the forward progress toward its current goal (such as an agenda item).

— Everyone involved is invited to talk about the communication problem.

— Improvements in communication (at both the one-on-one and group levels) are identified and implemented.

— Better interactions can be had.

Just as in industrial operations, this process requires an organization’s willingness to tolerate interruptions and trust that the result will be a better product and improved efficiency.

This is easy to grasp conceptually and often very difficult to put into practice. Here are three ways to apply these ideas:

— Establish norms that help the group acknowledge and regulate emotion.

— Make it acceptable for anyone to pause the conversation in order to assess how it’s going.

— Recognize that these interventions work most effectively in a feedback-rich culture.

When we habitually fail to interrupt dysfunctional interactions to address underlying communication problems, we collude in the perpetuation of bad meetings and organizational theater.

Ed Batista

(Ed Batista is an executive coach and an instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.)