Book excerpt: Have you experienced initial success with your Agile change initiative but found that improvement seems to have plateaued? Did you set out to become Agile but failed to truly understand what it means across organizational levels beyond vague terms like "empowerment," "high-performance teams" and "trust"? Are improvement efforts based on projects or workshops but failing to become an integrated part of your daily work and culture? Are leaders not given the responsibility and framework to become active drivers of organizational improvement and are Scrum Masters acting more like facilitators than active improvement drivers? Are your improvement efforts grounded in reactive problem solving and good intentions but failing to deliver true and measurable results? All these questions indicate that there is a "missing link" between Agile and its Lean foundations: an underpinning of continuous improvement that so many Agilists want but rarely find they can execute. Toyota Kata provides this practical framework, the keystone of culture, that allows an organization to attain that elusive state of continuous improvement. This book is based on the last six years of experience working with Toyota Kata in an Agile setting, helping teams, departments, business units and organizations learn how to set ambitious and measurable improvement goals and work iteratively toward them. Applying Toyota Kata to the context of innovation and knowledge work requires us to rethink some of the original elements. To that end, the book is packed with examples and cases that allow you to move beyond abstract theoretical principles. You learn a lot from mistakes but not all mistakes must be repeated by everybody (and I have made many). "I find myself paying attention and learning again, and I encourage you to do so too."-Mike Rother, author of three books on Toyota Kata"My electronic copy of the book is full of marginal commentary and highlighted sections. I found so much here to absorb and apply."-Diana Larsen, Co-founder of the Agile Fluency Model and author"Inspiring, insightful and actionable alternative to the often failing agile transformations"-Tomas Eilsø, Enterprise SAFe coach"This book is by far the most comprehensive and thoughtful approach I have seen to applying Toyota Kata in Agile IT organizations. You will find yourself going back to this book over and over again to mine the treasure trove of experience and knowledge that Jesper has meticulously laid out. In my opinion this text will be regarded as a standard that both Agile practitioners and business leaders refer to in years to come."-Michael Blaha, Director of DevOps Provation Medical"Agile practitioners take note: By 'mastering' Scrum, Kanban, or SAFe you have taken the first step. Now, read this book to continue your journey!"-Adam Light, Lean & Agile Consultant and Speaker and Toyota Kata coach"This book brilliantly shows how to apply Toyota Kata in knowledge work. This is a must read for agile leaders"-Håkan Forss, Lean/Agile coach passionate about continuous learning and LEGO