Defining and explaining what the goal is, sharing a path to achieving it, motivating people to take the journey with you, and assisting them by remov… - Jeffrey K. Liker

management has no more critical role than to motivate and engage large numbers of people to work together toward a common goal. Defining and explaining what the goal is, sharing a path to achieving it, motivating people to take the journey with you, and assisting them by removing obstacles — those are management's reasons for being.

Basically people will do what upper management wants them to do. So if that's consistent, if they're not whipsawed and being governed by different priorities, they learn what is truly important and what is not….

Some might debate whether people are born with talent, or whether it is developed. Toyota’s stand is clear — give us the seeds of talent and we will plant them, tend the soil, water and nurture the seedlings, and eventually harvest the fruits of our labor... Of course the wise farmer selects only the best seeds, but even with careful selection there is no guarantee that the seeds will grow, or that the fruits they yield will be sweet, and yet the effort must be made because it provides the best chance of developing a strong crop.

In the abstract, science is hard to define, and there are endless philosophical debates over what it means. Rother is not focused as much on defining science per se, but rather on developing a practical approach to teaching people to think scientifically in everyday life. He describes it as:8 a mindset, or way of looking at the world/responding to goals and problems, that’s characterized by . . . Acknowledging that our comprehension is always incomplete and possibly wrong. Assuming that answers will be found by test rather than just deliberation. (You make predictions and test them with experiments.) Appreciating that differences between what we predict will happen and what actually happens can be a useful source of learning and corrective adjustment.