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R Rajesh has described how Yokoten can accelerate learning and growth and how the lack of it can impede the learning and growth. This is chosen answer for the question.

Reinventing the wheel can be an arduous task. It is basic common sense that we should try not to duplicate efforts, but build upon wisdom that already prevails. The distinctiveness with the Japanese companies is that they have demonstrated the art of picking up on an invention that already exists and take it to an unimaginable dimension. The transformation of the auto industry by Japanese 1980-90 period has awakened the US auto giants to revise their own standards on Automobiles. Similar is the case with many other products that the world has seen. It would not be out of place to mention the pioneering work by Indian Statistical Institute on Statistical Design of Experiments - many of those approaches have been practically applied on what came out as the very popularly accepted Taguchi methods. Indeed, a legacy has been left by Japanese in the ability to build and excel upon in many areas, be it Product, Process or Practices. Now let us see the Yokoten practice as applied within an organization. Yokoten, as many of you have figured out is commonly referred as lateral sharing of learning across organization. In many or our organizations, we continue to have pockets of good work going on, but with stealth publicity. People who have been in organization for long tenure would have seen the same or similar continuous improvement projects being repeated over time. We often talk about ‘sharing of best practices’, but from a yokoten point of view, shouldn’t we rather say “Building upon best practices”. In order to propagate the yokoten practices better in organizations, we need to consider multiple factors. Let’s discuss one such factor here. Usually when an improvement project is completed, there is a requirement to get the team to come out with ‘opportunities for replication’ and this gets presented and many a time, nothing much emerges out of it. The impression prevails that replication is a relatively simpler process and mostly, even if someone takes up sincerely, it is perceived as a low recognition effort. Instead, “building upon best practices” can be viewed as a creative ability and effort that carries equal importance, or maybe more in some cases. However the credit for the original effort will not diminish at all. Thomas Edison is still remembered as the inventor of the bulb, though in today’s world the bulb, from its original form has undergone significant transformations!