Kata Together 2026

Join Kata School Cascadia for Kata Together 2026, 
hosted by Kaas Tailored in Mukilteo WA USA.
Monday July 13 to Friday July 17, 2026

Kata Together 2026 will challenge your mindset, your leadership skills, and your Coaching Kata skills, too. 

Register now! 

Join volunteer Kata School Cascadia Coaches like Mark Rosenthal, Tilo Schwarz, Maria Grzanka and Tracy Defoe, and along with our host, Tucker Kaas and your kata friends from our Friday community zooms for a learning week like no other! 

Click on Register at the right to get your spot! Our ticket price before taxes is still $1395 for the week! 

Welcome back for more learning; or welcome for the first time! 

           This group photo is from Kata Together 2025.

Why join us at Kata School Cascadia's Kata Together 2026?

We are a community! Some of us have been on the kata learning path a little longer, sure. Everyone has something to offer and contribute, and we have extended our offerings and activities with challenges to strive for, for all of us.

Why kata? Why should you attend Kata Together? 

In the words of coach Mark Rosenthal, "What we're talking about here (with kata) is a structure for the conversations that typically occur when you, as a CI coach, are attempting to help that frontline leader learn to improve their processes. You could even think of this as job methods on triple steroids. (Because it is so much more general.)  And it's about teaching… it's about teaching their thinking rather than the mechanics of breaking down the process.

Is it different from other Kata Togethers? Yes and no!

We are back in the Treehouse at Kaas Tailored. You will spend a week with Kata School Cascadia's Maria Grzanka, Mark Rosenthal, and Tracy Defoe. Joining us again this year is Tilo Schwarz from the Kata Dojo Masterclass. That's a starting line up you won't find anywhere else. The participants will be people you want to learn with and get to know in person!

Together we will break down the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata, and beyond so we can refresh our practice, and push beyond our comfort zones. We slow down and emphasize reflection. Reflecting on learning is something we all practice and strive to improve. We aim to make it a winning part of Kata Together. There is something for everyone!

What's on your program this year?

Learning tracks, a bit of kata chaos, some surprises and lots of time for reflection.
For 2026, you can choose your main learning path by selecting which learning tracks you will take. 

New to Kata?  Take the Starter Kata introductory track. Then the Coaching in Action track.
We have designed the program so you can stay in one, or cross over and take both leadership and coaching, or introduction and coaching during our week together.
Our program design aims to keep you right at your learning sweet spot.  

What about the fundamentals? What about newbies? We will offer an introduction to kata track for anyone new to kata so they can learn and experience the Starter Kata with experienced coaches.  We got you!

Leadership is a process. That means it can be improved.
Too often, leaders hit a wall and default to blame.
But what if you applied the same scientific thinking you use on broken processes to the process of leadership itself?

Join the Leadership Track to  practice the skills that make you more effective at engaging upward, laterally, and across your organization. Not by overcoming resistance, but by getting genuinely better at the work of leading. Do you have clients?  This workshop with Mark Rosenthal and Maria Grzanka will give your new tools and perspectives to put to work right away.
If you joined last year's Leadership track, you know what is possible. If you have not, this is your invitation to find out.
The Leadership 2.0 Track will be offered twice during the week.

Coaching is more than fixing processes. It is shaping how people think.
Most improvement work focuses on the mechanics: break down the process, find the waste, implement the fix. But the leaders and coaches who create lasting change go deeper than that. They build the thinking skills that make improvement stick long after the coaching conversation ends.
Kata Together 2026 gives you a proven structure for exactly that kind of conversation. Think of it as a dramatically more powerful and versatile approach to developing people, one that works across any process, any team, any challenge.

In the Coaching Dojo Track, Tilo Schwarz and Tracy Defoe invite you to two different versions of the dojo training ground for coaches:
ALL NEW Coaching in the Planning Phase and the classic Coaching the Experimenting Phase. 

Whether you coach at a storyboard or in the wild,  practicing these coaching routines gives you to abilities to develop scientific thinking in the people you lead, not just build better processes. If you want to learn to coach at this level, this is where you come to learn how.

Coaching the Planning Phase will be offered once during the week.
Coaching the Experimenting Phase will be offered once during the week.

Introduction to Kata, the Starter Kata Track. We all start somewhere. With Kata Together, you will start right with an immersive hands-on group experience of all the Starter Kata with experienced coaches to guide you. If you are a self-taught coach, not sure if you have all the Starter Kata figured out, this is a good track to reset your foundation, too.  

Learning pathways

New to kata? Take the Introduction to Kata, Starter Kata Track first, then Coaching the Experimenting Phase Coaching Dojo Track.

New to kata and in a leadership role? Take the Introduction to Kata, Starter Kata Track first, then the Leadership Track. 

Returning coach? Take the all new planning phase dojo and then leadership.

New to coaching?  Leadership first, then coaching the experimenting phase.

Coming to really level up your coaching and max out your time with Tilo and Tracy? Dojo, both planning and experimenting.

Really need to become an influential leader or consultant? Want to spend more time with Mark and Maria? You can take the leadership track both times it is offered and work at your own level. 

Come to Kata Together, level up your learning. Here is the Monday noon to Friday noon schedule.

We are sharing practices and exercises you can try at home. 

What can you expect?  We aim to offer memorable, fun learning including:

• scientific thinking and how to do it
• the learning foundation and principles of the Improvement and Coaching Kata
• a chance to challenge yourself to improve a live process 
• practice with frequent microlearnings and reflections
• ideas and activities you can try back home.

There are many learning opportunities throughout the week.

We are hosted by Kaas Tailored

Our hosts at Kaas Tailored in Mukilteo WA are generous with access to their organization. Kaas Tailored makes high quality upholstered good and offers design services too.  The products are amazing! Kaas Tailored has been called "The Disneyland of Lean" by past Kata Together participant Pam White. You will want to see the work flow, culture and kata practices.  

Learn more about Kaas Tailored, their culture and products at https://kaastailored.com/about-us

Even More

• Share your insights and questions, or your kata story in a sharing session. 
• A renewed enthusiasm for learning
• The warm feeling from learning in community
• The Kata School Cascadia I-Don't-Know Yeti attitude!

Need a certificate?  We expect to send you home with a Kata School Cascadia certificate, too. 

2026 Registration is limited.          

Our program will certainly include over 32 hours of kata learning, and evening opportunities for connection, reflection and fun. 

Questions? Contact info@kata-school-cascadia.org

About Tickets

At $1395 for the week, Kata Together is still the lowest cost, highest value option for the kata community to learn together in one place.

We aim to be inclusive. We want to be accessible. A limited number of discounted tickets are available for those with financial hardship, individuals paying their own way and for our volunteers. Email Tracy at info@kata-school-cascadia.org to ask about discounted tickets or special circumstances.

Refunds?  We know it can be hard to plan ahead, and circumstances change.  

We offer refunds, minus the fees this site charges us,  until Friday June 26 2026.  Register now with confidence. 

What's included?

In addition to hours of kata practice and experiences, we will have five lunches together Monday to Friday, and four breakfasts, Tuesday to Friday.  Dinners are on your own or with your kata friends. 

You are also invited to join a social Happy Hour on Monday.  

We expect great weather, and plan to have a beach evening in Mukilteo, too. 

Our sunset cruise on the Washington State Ferry gets us out on the water.

Where to stay?

Once you register, you will receive a participant information package with maps, and details.  
There are several good options to stay nearby in Mukilteo and in Everett. 

We are all learners!

At Kata School Cascadia, we are ALL learners! Our Kata Together week isn't a conference. It's a comprehensive immersive workshop experience, 32+ hours, where we expect you to be actively learning and building your coaching references and skills. Learn by doing, alongside some great coaches.

Our mission is to rock people's worlds by supporting their learning and sharing in the Starter Kata and beyond. If you have joined our community zooms or any of our online training, or if you were at Kata Together before,  you know we are all about

• supporting learning that sticks

• deliberately practicing the Improvement and Coaching Kata

• finding obstacles and narrowing gaps in our practice and understanding

• building scientific thinking

• having fun in community.

If you like us on Zoom, you will love us in person!