“The person who knows HOW will always have a job. The person who knows WHY will always be his boss.”

- Alanis Morissette

While working on this blog series, I was reminded of the stories I’d heard about the Toyota company in a couple of audiobooks. It then prompted me to revisit the stories and that’s how we ended up talking about the company in this part of the blog. Toyota’s leadership in the car industry started with its leadership inside its organization.

The Toyota Way is a set of principles the company uses for improvement and to make sure its taking care of its people. For this blog series, I want to slightly amend the Toyota Way for our goal of reaching our “where”. I want to encourage you to use the philosophy of the Toyota Way for your self-improvement and take care of the people around you. I know that may sound cliché but look around you. How many people do you know or see that constantly, consistently, and consciously seek self-improvement?

Furthermore, how many people do you know or see that seek that improvement for the people around them? I don’t care how new or old your car is, it will always need maintenance and upkeep for you to stay on the road. Likewise, the intentionality of your self-improvement is what will keep you on the road to your “where” and a strong “why” will be the driving force behind that.

The “Why” itself sits in its appropriate spot right in the middle of this “Where, Why, What” philosophy. The “Why” is the heart of this philosophy. If you can master the art of why, you can master your mind on the road to your “where”. Mastering your “why” is to master your emotions, feelings, and moods because they have so much influence over your thoughts. You master your “why” because you’ll need clarity of mind and decisiveness on your journey. Thus the reason I titled this post, the Toyota Way.

The Toyota Way is comprised of 14 principles compartmentalized into 4 groups. Three of the four group subheadings stand out perfectly for this post. One group focuses on the long game, the “where”. Another group focuses on strengthening the organization by building your tribe or the people around you.

Mastering your “why” without a support system or group that you can build around will slow you down on the road to your “where”. Your support system could include your family, peers, your mentors or advisors. Whoever you choose to be in your corner is up to you, as long you can trust that they have your best interest in mind. Lastly, they focus on getting to the root of issues in their organization and learning from them. We touched bases on getting to root in the 5 Why blog post. When you can drill down, get to the root of an issue and learn from it, you can make better quality decisions.

Quality decisions via The Toyota Way embodies our “why” philosophy and offers a framework to get to the heart of our “why” while on the road to our “where”. The key take away here is improve, improve, improve. Work to improve yourself and the circle around you. For more on the Toyota Way, check out the book The Toyota Way written by Jeffery K. Liker.

Well, until next week my friend. I look forward to jumping back into the “Why” of things with you.

Chris Chaney

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, do more, and become more, you are a leader...”

- John Quincy Adams

4.29.22