Book club summary #28 - Understanding A3 Thinking
A long-time proponent of the “A3″ reporting format (which aims to summarize a problem and its solution in a roughly 11″ x17″ sheet of paper) it was a delight to cover Understanding A3 Thinking in the book club.
Having authored some epic reports and PowerPoint slide decks in my time, the prospect of condensing findings into a single – albeit large – sheet of paper, immediately piqued my interest. It also brought to mind the quotation by Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
Perfection is achieved, not when there is noting more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.
Consider that it’s standard form to report out insights in essay format, with complete sentences; this is as inefficient as incandescent lighting. In Edison’s invention, only a few percent of the energy output is light (the rest is waste heat). In a technical report I’d be surprised if more than 20% of the words relate to the discoveries; I’d bet most of the words are “filler” required to make the communication of information, conform to grammatical rules.
While Understanding A3 Thinking did cover the guidelines Toyota uses for A3 reports (e.g. emphasizing visual methods, instead of verbal methods, for explanation) it suggested the overarching value was to ingrain rigorous problem-solving discipline in the employees. Over the course of the problem-solving, engineers submit A3’s to their supervisors and other senior staff, who provide guidance and suggestions, both on problem-solving approach and data presentation.
As such, by the time an A3 report is finished, it will have gone through extensive “peer review” (or “superiors’ review”) which helps improve the quality of the findings, the presentation, and the problem-solving skills of the author — who may in turn pass these best practises to future junior employees.
As always, if you enjoy the book summary, please consider supporting the authors by purchasing a copy. 
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