Toyota Kata Coaching Programme for Healthcare

Coaching for continuous improvement in healthcare

A Toyota Kata-based programme empowering leaders and quality professionals with scientific-thinking coaching skills that are tailored to the demands and challenges of healthcare environments.

What is the Toyota Kata Coaching Programme for Healthcare?

Designed for healthcare leaders, managers and improvement professionals, you’ll learn structured, scientific thinking-based routines to help you lead change, coach effectively and tackle complex challenges.

Based on the Toyota Kata approach, the course develops two core habits:

Improvement Kata: a repeatable scientific pattern for reaching goals through small, iterative steps
Coaching Kata: a practical routine for teaching and reinforcing scientific thinking in others

The course is ideal for a variety of healthcare and healthcare-related settings, such as:

Hospitals and clinical teams
Pharmaceutical organisations
Biomedical and medical device firms
Healthcare IT and digital health providers

Who is the course for?

This programme is ideal for:

Leaders and managers: who want to strengthen their coaching and improvement capabilities using a scientific, people-centred approach
Quality and improvement professionals: who would benefit from a structured framework to guide and coach others through improvement initiatives
Organisations: who want to build a culture of scientific thinking to address persistent challenges and develop internal coaching capacity

Programme overview

The course includes:

Introductory workshops where you’ll learn the core routines
Hands-on practice that involves applying kata patterns to your own improvement challenge
Structured coaching pathway, so you can learn to become a kata coach in your organisation
Ongoing support and mentoring for individuals or teams
Custom tools for healthcare settings, including templates, real-case examples and coaching scripts

Course delivery

5-month core programme, including 2 days of classroom training and practice per month
On-site, remote or blended-delivery learning groups
Peer group support via our kata community network

Why book this course?

Unlike short courses that focus on theory, this programme:

Will take you from novice to kata coach: you don’t need any prior experience. We’ll guide you from your first steps in scientific thinking all the way to leading and coaching improvement routines with confidence.
Blends theory with real practice: focused monthly classroom instruction; weekly learning group sessions to ensure ongoing peer support; and real healthcare or industry-specific improvement challenges.
Is structured, supportive and certified: whether you’re a clinical leader, quality improvement specialist or improvement coach, you’ll get the tools, structure and mentoring you need to succeed.

“Thank you to Graham Canning and Peter Lowe of PCE for another fantastic couple of days of kata coach training. The fun, safe space you both create for us to learn, practice and grow our kata coaching skills is very much appreciated by the team. Revising the microskills, using the ‘second coach’ kata and practising at the dojo have been challenging but great learning experiences.”

Caroline Brown, Senior Quality Improvement Practitioner, University Hospitals of North Midlands

“I’m really proud of the way our community nurse leaders have immersed themselves in the Kata Improvement and Kata Coaching experience delivered excellently by Peter Lowe and Graham Canning of People Centred Excellence.”

Martin Hepke, Associate Director of Quality Improvement, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

“Thank you for the amazing scientific thinking journey that kata has been. The training has enabled me to change the way I look at finding solutions for problems I and my team encounter; using the kata approach to gain a better understanding of what the actual problem is before trying to solve it, stopping the usual approach of jumping in to fix the problem with solutions based on previous experiences and biases.”

Samantha Westwell, Head of Nursing, AHPs and Quality, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

“I have officially passed my KCS Level 2A qualification and am now a qualified KCS Kata Coach!

A massive thank you to Graham Canning and Peter Lowe of People Centred Excellence, for all the wisdom, guidance, and gentle (but firm) nudges in the right direction. Kata has taught me SO much, and I can’t wait to keep coaching, applying this learning.”

Melodie Mellor, Senior Quality Improvement Practitioner, University Hospitals of North Midlands

Pricing and options

Choose the package that best suits your development goals.

(We also offer group discounts, in-house delivery and bespoke training – contact us for details.)

Option 1: Full Programme + KCS Certification Pack

£4,670 + VAT per person

This package offers the complete kata training experience, plus everything you need to pursue Kata Competency System (KCS) Level 2A certification.

Includes:

10 days of classroom kata training in Manchester
Minimum of 20 observed coaching cycles
Full access to training materials and templates
Weekly facilitated learning group sessions
KCS certification pack, including:
- Verbal knowledge test
- Up to 5 ‘second coach’ observations
- Portfolio development support for certification submission

Option 2: Training & Coaching Only

£4,045 + VAT per person

For those seeking kata coaching capability without the formal KCS certification.

Includes:

10 days of classroom kata training in Manchester
Minimum of 20 observed coaching cycles
Full training materials and starter templates
Weekly learning group sessions
Supportive feedback and practical skill-building

Course features	Option 1: Full Programme + KCS Certification Pack	Option 2: Training & Coaching Only
Price (per person)	£4,475 + VAT	£3,850 + VAT
Classroom kata training (10 days)	✔	✔
Minimum 20 observed coaching cycles	✔	✔
Training materials and starter templates	✔	✔
Weekly learning group sessions	✔	✔
Verbal knowledge test	✔	❌
Up to 5 ‘second coach’ observations	✔	❌
Portfolio support for KCS certification	✔	❌
Formal KCS Level 2A certification	✔	❌