The A3 developed at Toyota has spread to be at the heart of Lean Management. It puts a story to facts and data to engage stakeholders in decision-making and rapid implementation.

Laying the foundations for more creative and meaningful work requires being more efficient and effective in the way we think. Especially in the way that we solve problems as the world moves faster and becomes more interconnected and complex.

Using A3 Thinking in Eight Steps allows you to work through simple work problems and complex cross functional issues. In addition to this it can be used to engage supporters for innovative ideas that you would like to implement.

To be continuously creative and make positive change happen requires us to implement processes and practice that are repeatable. We achieve this through a culture of Problem Solving - removing obstacles to change. This is not difficult, it just requires an integrated approach. All work, whatever it is, can be transformed to reduce the effort, chaos, and unpredictable frenzy that grow to characterise your day and rob you of creative time.

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This is a foundational course developed to create awareness and capacity for self-development of fast, high-quality decision-making at three levels, the individual, team, and organisation.  It is an activity-based program where time will also be allocated to sharing experiences.

This form of problem-solving is an excellent way to judge how you and your team’s thinking is improving over time. You will also learn how to collectively understand, or unpack and explain, a complex topic or problem efficiently and effectively.

Participants will learn how to:

1. Create and gauge how your thinking is improving and progressing over time to support structured long-term individual career planning and reflective development.

2. Quickly understand or alternatively explain, a complex topic or problem.

3. Evaluate and manage emergent thinking in areas in which you don’t hold expertise, identifying process flows that inform good judgement, input, buy-in, and subsequently make high-quality decisions.

4. Improve efficiency in report presentation, analysis, and record the thinking behind decisions and direction.

5. Identify and counter current and future problems.

This workshop series is for managers, team leaders, team members and continuous improvement managers in an organisation or business, large or small, looking to find ways to improve the speed and quality of decision-making and problem solving.

Barry McCarthy

The content of the workshop is based on the extensive learning of Barry McCarthy (Past President of AME) while working in development roles at Toyota. With the closure of automotive manufacturing in Australia, Barry is now sharing his unique experience and understanding with the broader community.  

Barry's career highlights include Plant Manager and Continuous Improvement Manager at Goodman Fielder and his most recent position with Toyota.  Barry has worked with the Manufacturing, Sales and Corporate Arms of Toyota in Australia.  With a grounded engineering background Barry has also implemented continuous improvement in food processing, manufacturing, packaging, printing, and front of house food service and management.  In addition to the practical experience Barry has completed a Master degree in Applied Positive Psychology, Graduate Diploma in Business, Diploma of Training and Assessment, Diploma in Competitive Systems and Practices. Interestingly Barry’s first degree was civil engineering.

Connect with Barry on LinkedIn

AME Australia is a not for profit association.  We may charge a small fee to cover the cost of administration.

You can become an AME member from $200.

This event may be cancelled by AME for any reason. AME is not responsible for incidental costs incurred by registrants.

AME may take photographs during events and may use those photographs for AME’s purposes.