Managing to Learn

How Toyota develops talent: the manager as coach, not as problem solver

Most managers solve problems. Toyota's best managers teach their people to solve problems. That fundamental difference explains why Toyota continues to develop generations of strong leaders.

This book reveals how that system works.

The secret lies not in A3, but in the dialogue surrounding it.

A3 is renowned as a problem-solving tool: one page, structured thinking, visual overview. But that is only the surface.

The real power of A3 lies in how Toyota leaders use it to develop talent. Not by giving answers, but by asking questions. Not by solving problems, but by coaching. Not by telling, but by letting people discover for themselves.

Managing to Learn shows exactly how that works.

What makes this book special

Written as a dialogue
The book follows Desi, a manager, and Ken, his supervisor, as they work their way through an A3 together. You literally read the conversations they have: what Ken asks, how Desi responds, where he gets stuck, how Ken helps him further without taking over.

This is not theory. This is how real Toyota leaders develop people in practice.

By the only person who could write it
John Shook was the first Western manager at Toyota in Japan. His assignment: to "translate" Toyota's management system for international expansion. He was at the source, worked with the best Toyota coaches, and learned the system from the inside out.

Now he explains how it works for the rest of the world.

What you learn

A3 as a thinking system, not as a form
- How A3 structure stimulates systematic thinking
- Why the order of sections is crucial
- How one A3 page creates team alignment
- The difference between filling in A3 and thinking A3

Coaching leadership in practice
- Which questions to ask (and why those specific questions)
- How to let people discover things for themselves without telling them
- When to intervene and when not to intervene as a manager
- Dialogue techniques that stimulate real development

Understanding Toyota's development system
- Why Toyota consciously separates authority and responsibility
- How A3 is the key to talent development
- Building organizational knowledge through systematic problem solving
- From individual growth to team capacity

Applicable starting tomorrow
- Concrete dialogue examples you can follow
- Recognizable pitfalls and how to avoid them
- Practical mentoring techniques for A3 coaching
- How to introduce this in your own team

Who is this book essential for?

For leaders who want to coach rather than solve problems:
- Managers who want to make their team more independent
- Senior leaders who want to build a coaching culture
- Lean coaches who want to strengthen A3 mentoring
- Team leaders who want to develop people structurally

Recognizable situations:
- "My team keeps coming to me for answers."
- "We use A3, but it remains superficial."
- "I want to coach, but I'm not sure how."
- "Our people are not developing into the next generation of leaders."

Why this book is different from other A3 books

Other books explain what A3 is and how to fill it in.
This book shows how to use A3 to develop people, which is the actual goal.

It's not just a book about a tool. It's a masterclass in Lean leadership, packaged in realistic dialogue that you can literally follow.

About the author

John Shook was the first Western manager to work for Toyota in Japan before Toyota began its international expansion. His crucial task: to translate Toyota's Lean management system to the world outside Japan.

He literally sat at the table with Toyota's best talent developers. He learned the system from the inside out. And now he explains how it works.

Shook later succeeded Jim Womack as CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) in the US, the sister institute of the Lean Management Institute in the Netherlands.

What people say

"Finally, a book that shows what coaching really looks like, not just what you should do."

After reading it, I realized: I was solving problems for my team, not teaching them to solve problems.

Additional Information