Inspired by Mark Rosenthal’s blog Shifting the Learning Zone, I thought about yet some other extensions for the Toyota Kata model for establishing Target Conditions.
Introduction
From Mark Rosenthal’s BlogMike Rother’s Improvement Kata Handbook establishes a couple of key concepts about where a target condition should be set. The key is that the target should be somewhere beyond the learner’s knowledge threshold:
The knowledge threshold marks the point where the process is not yet fully understood. Setting a target inside that boundary is simply a matter of executing a plan, no learning is required.
A target beyond the knowledge threshold is true improvement, because we don’t know how to do it yet. We just have a reasonable belief we can get there.
This is the concept of challenging the learner, depicted here:
Extending the model
Here is another way to look at it after some more alteration:
What you see here is the continuum from Comfort to Fear. We tend to be comfortable when things are predictable and seem certain and we tend to fear the unknown and uncertainty. So somewhere on this continuum is the Threshold of Knowledge:
Threshold of Comfort
So far the model is still quite similar with the outline of Mark Rosenthal. I think the model can be extended with yet another threshold on this continuum: the Threshold of Comfort:
This threshold marks the point beyond where we do not want to move. Now lets combine these two to define the Learning Zone:
The Learning Zone
We could define the Learning Zone as
Learning zone = Threshold of Comfort – Threshold of Knowledge
The bigger the distance between the Threshold of Comfort and the Threshold of Knowledge the bigger the Learning Zone. Could it be that the bigger this zone, the faster we are able to learn?
Note that the Learning Zone as defined can have a positive and a negative sign…
Positive Learning Zone: Start Moving
If the Learning Zone’s sign is positive we feel comfortable to move toward our Threshold of Knowledge and we feel safe to experiment there.
Negative Learning Zone: Stop Moving
The situation can be quite different though, there could be a negative Learning Zone:
When people are in this situation they are still learning. They learn to move away from the Threshold of Knowledge seeking more certainty. There will be more and more things they learn to stop doing because not doing them is safer…
What does your Learning Zone look like?
Where should the Target Condition be?
Mike Rother states that the Target Condition should be beyond the Threshold of Knowledge to make it a learning assignment. I am not so sure…
Maybe the Threshold of Comfort is a better position for the Target Condition. Or maybe just a little beyond it…
Even with a negative Learning Zone, when people know more than they are willing to show, this may reverse the negative spiral and create some positive motion again. Then, the learning is not so much on the content side but more on the relationship side of work:
Is it really safe to start doing these things?