Real Lean Leaders Think and Act Differently

Why 9 out of 10 Gemba Walks and Management Routines Contain Superficial Observation and Poor Decision Making and how to Move Beyond it.

How are you using Gemba Walks – as a deep learning tool, or as an industrial tourist? There’s a simple way to check.

As I’ve explained before, Gemba Walks are a type of lean management routine built on careful observation of how the work is actually being done, not how we think it is done. They are about developing a greater understanding of problems impacting performance and their causes, before learning about what could be done to help overcome those problems. It’s essential for leaders to learn this if they are to lead their team or organisation forward on a successful path.

I’ve been helping organisations and business leaders get their improvement journeys back on track for over 20 years and in the last five years I’ve witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of business leaders who are keen to adopt lean management routines and Gemba Walks to increase business performance and support their organisation’s improvement journey.

Now, some people may resist Lean terminology and ‘Gemba Walks’ and that’s ok. But no-one could argue that spending time observing how things really work and uncovering the real problems that impact our people, equipment and businesses is integral to successful leadership and strong healthy organisations.

I’ve talked in other articles about pitfalls that management can fall into in not knowing what to
look for and adopting the wrong mindset. There is another fundamental mistake that leaders
can make while on their Gemba Walks, one that is so widespread that at least nine out of ten
organisations seem to fall foul of it and their Gemba Walks are unstructured, lack purpose,
focus on the wrong things and are largely ineffective.

Put purpose before process!

The fundamental mistake that we often make is that when it comes to Gemba Walks, we put
process before purpose. The problem is a seemingly simple one, yet it has a significant
impact on leader’s decision making and behaviour. They develop bad habits that focus on
the wrong things.

Nowadays, we see scores of managers congregating together at certain times of the week to
visit the workplace/Gemba. Sometimes they are joined by visiting senior executives and
business leaders on organised benchmarking visits.

But despite the good intentions of these industrial tourists, and the leaders who invite them, the
routines can become shallow exercises where leaders go to be seen, stay busy, copy what others do, ask clever questions, come up with big ideas for others to make work and show who’s the
smartest. Unfortunately, these visits can be packed full of superficial observations and poor decision-making, rather than developing a deeper understanding of the real work, key problems we face that must be addressed if they are to help increase the maturity of the organisation.

Our organisations and staff do not need us to create more noise and yet, typically, 90 per cent of Lean management routines/Gemba Walks are ineffective and drive the wrong behaviour!

Creating the wrong chain reaction

Putting process before purpose feeds traditional management thinking where leaders and management are just thankful that they have completed another task and without the feedback loop and the check in place, they don’t give a second thought to performance in relation to purpose.

(1) Leaders don’t have a clear purpose for their Gemba Walk
(2) Leaders haven’t separated the different types of Gemba Walks or developed a process for each
(3) Leaders adopt the wrong mindset and lack an understanding of the thinking necessary to help lean tools and routines work effectively.

With no clear purpose, structured process or mindset, the leadership team sets off a chain reaction that leads to further mistakes and they often fall foul of one or more of the following common pitfalls of Gemba Walks.

Common Pitfalls of Gemba Walks

• Mainly go to the Gemba when there is a problem, or they need some information
• Spend their time chasing Lean waste and non-value-added activity (Muda/Lean Waste)
• Focus on random issues and problems
• Look to see if things are clean, tidy and organised
• Check to see if their employees are present, busy and efficient
• Don’t have a good understanding of what to look for and what they are observing
• Spend their time on a Gemba Walk moving from one department or area to the next, again seeking out problems and waste or having a chat with their colleagues
• They jump to solutions and try and come up with great big ideas
• Overlook re-occurring problems and key issues impacting performance
• Have a different understanding to their colleagues of how things really work, problems and actions required.