Jiro Kawakita believes that this problem has emerged due to the widespread use of the KJ method, which is done in groups.
If you have only experienced group KJ method from the beginning, it is difficult to develop the basic ability to perform individual work… However, since they have only done group KJ method many times, they feel like they have somehow mastered KJ method. They do not realize that they have not mastered the KJ method. (KJ method Let the chaos speak for itself p.209)
At an early stage, work was being done by more than one person. However, Jiro Kawakita believed that it was necessary to gain experience in doing the work individually first, and that the competence must have matured to maturity.
Around 1968, a training program began in which pairs of trainees worked together to assemble labels. However, this work was conducted only in the third round (pursuit of essence), after the participants had experienced the first and second rounds of labeling work on the same theme, one after the other, on an individual basis. It was only in this third round that the participants succeeded in working in flexible pairs for the first time. Prior to this, I judged that the individual competencies had not matured sufficiently. Operationally speaking, it seemed to me that an undesirable compromise would be made between the two of us. (p.201)
Nishio has been working individually all along, so he has been competent without even knowing it. Certainly more people in the world will be exposed to it as part of a team effort than those who start learning alone. I guess if that first impression makes you believe that it is a team effort, you won’t try to do it as an individual. We need to explicitly say, “Let’s do it privately.
This page is auto-translated from /nishio/KJ法は個人作業をしなければ力がつかない using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.