Masao Nemoto
In Katie Anderson's Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn, Isao Yasino says Masao Nemoto is as influential as Taiichi Ohno in building Toyota's culture. Masao Nemoto is well known for his quality control and process optimization expertise. He served as a senior managing director at Toyota Motor Corporation and was a key architect of the Toyota Way.
Total Quality Control for Management
On a recent European trip, I read Masao Nemoto's Total Quality Control for Management book. The book discusses Nemoto's "credo." As part of Toyota's mission, we often hear about their maniacal focus on learning from failures. In Nemoto's book, those ideas were discussed, but what I found fascinating was his unique perspective on motivation and improvement.
Improvement After Improvement
Nemoto suggests management must be involved in improvements in a very Demingisk way. According to Nemoto, leaders should constantly think what he calls “Improvement After Improvement.” In addition, he suggests that leaders should continually ask questions and listen to employees' improvement processes to show interest in their work. There should always be a symbiotic relationship between leaders and employees.
No Scolding
Also, in Nemoto's credo, he describes what we in DevOps describe as blamelessness." He also points out a specific trap in what he calls the "Never Say What Are You Doing That Kind of Improvement Now?" The English translation probably should have been why instead of what. It's essential to focus on the positive aspects of the improvement rather than the negative aspects of why it didn't happen sooner. This will prevent people from asking why it took so long to implement an improved process.
Improvement is Limitless
Another principle of Nemoto's is that improvement is limitless. There is no such thing as a one-and-done improvement or a fixed schedule. There can be many unforeseen improvements that can result from one improvement and one improvement can become many. Nemoto also points out the heavy use of Deming's Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) as critical to the improvement process.
Top Hearing and Everyone Speaks
What I like best about Nemoto's motivational and improvement ideas is how he manages suggestions in an orginization. At Toyota, as Nemoto suggests, "Being heard is the best prize." According to Nemoto, it is much more powerful for a suggestion be heard than to receive a monetary reward. To be listened to also requires implementation. Employees need to see activities related to their suggestions. Toyota's strong emphasis on the scientific method makes it easy to implement an experiment for almost every employee's suggestion. According to Nemoto, Toyota Motor's evaluation committee rejects proposals less than 10 percent of the time.
No Complaint is Compliant
Nemoto's philosophy of complaints is similar to that of Taiichi Ohno, who once said, "Having no problems is the biggest problem of all." Team members should actively seek out complaints if they believe everything is fine. In all things Toyota, Nemoto recommends always responding to complaints with a thank you, whether they are solicited or unsolicited.
