Managing to Learn (NL)

Most managers solve problems. Toyota’s best managers teach their people to solve problems. That fundamental difference—who teaches and who thinks—explains why Toyota continues to develop generations of strong leaders, while other organizations become increasingly dependent on a handful of experts at the top.

Managing to Learn reveals the system behind that difference. Not as theory, but as a concrete dialogue that you can literally follow and replicate.

What will you learn in the Managing to Learn course?

Managing to Learn is structured as both a workbook and a dialogue. You follow Desi, a manager drafting an A3, and Ken, her supervisor, as they work through the thought process together. You read the questions Ken asks, see where Desi gets stuck, and discover how a good coach helps without taking over. That’s what makes this book unique: it not only shows what coaching leadership is, but what it looks like in daily practice.

The A3, Toyota’s one-page format for problem-solving, is the central tool. But Shook shows that the A3 is much more than just a form. He calls it the key to Toyota’s entire system for developing talent and continuously deepening its knowledge and capabilities. Its power lies in what it demands: anyone who creates an A3 must think clearly. Anyone who guides an A3 must ask the right questions.

Three insights that this book illustrates in a particularly concrete way are: first, the deliberate separation of authority and responsibility—not merging them, but rather pulling them apart as a prerequisite for genuine development. Second, A3 mentoring as focused, goal-oriented guidance that goes beyond simply asking questions. And third, the idea that complexity is a primitive state: simplicity marks the end of a process of refinement, not the beginning.

Why should I read *Managing to Learn*?

There are several books on A3 thinking. *Managing to Learn* is different because it treats A3 not as a tool but as a development system. The question is not how to fill out an A3, but how to use A3 to help people grow and thereby build the learning capacity of the entire organization.

John Shook wrote this book from a unique perspective: as the first Western manager at Toyota in Japan, he was tasked with adapting the Lean management system for international expansion. He learned the system from the inside out, drawing on Toyota’s own approaches to human resources and talent development. This firsthand insight makes *Managing to Learn* more than just a good management book; it offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Toyota truly develops its leaders.

This is the Dutch translation, published by the Lean Management Institute.

Who is *Managing to Learn* intended for?

• Managers and supervisors who want to empower their teams to work more independently and take on more responsibility for solving problems themselves
• Lean coaches who want to take their A3 coaching from a tool to a coaching practice
• Senior managers who want to foster a coaching culture within their organization
• Anyone who is already familiar with A3 and wants to understand how to use it effectively as a learning and development tool

What do fellow writers think of this book?

"Managing to Learn reveals what A3 really is: not just a form, but a way of thinking and a way of coaching. Shook has written the definitive book on this subject." — Jim Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute

"This book will change the way you view your own role as a leader. After reading it, you’ll realize that the question isn’t how to solve problems, but how to teach people to do it themselves." — Jeffrey K. Liker, author of The Toyota Way

Additional Information

About the author

John Shook was the first Western manager to work at Toyota in Japan, with the specific task of adapting the Lean management system for the company’s international expansion. In that role, he worked closely with Toyota’s top coaches and got to know the Toyota Production System from the inside, not as an observer, but as a participant.

After his time at Toyota, he co-authored Seeing Is Learning, one of the most widely used Lean workbooks worldwide, and later served as CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute in the U.S., the sister institute of the Lean Management Institute in the Netherlands. Managing to Learn is his most personal contribution to Lean literature: a synthesis of everything he has learned about how Toyota develops people into thinkers and problem solvers.