GEMBA WALKS ESSENTIALS [ VIDEO 1 OF 6 ] 1

What is a Gemba Walk? In this first module we’re going to introduce the gemba walk which, as you’ll learn, is an activity essential to building and sustaining a continuous improvement culture. Let’s get started by answering two important questions. First, what is a gemba walk? You may recognize the word “gemba” is part of our company name, Gemba Academy. The word “gemba” means “actual place” and is a core part of the continuous improvement values of being customer-centric, fact-based, and personally accountable by making the effort to go see with our own eyes while engaging directly with people where they create value. Put another way, a gemba walk is an opportunity to get out of our chair, office, or building and to “go see reality.” The second question needing an answer is why is it necessary to “go see” in order to grasp our current condition? Aren’t reports and data enough? The answer, obviously, is no they aren’t enough. The risk of not going to see the process with our own eyes is that we get out of touch

with reality. Left alone, our processes and systems get worse, not better. In fact, Dr. Deming said that 94% of our issues belong to the common cause variation within a system while only 6% belong to what he referred to as special causes. He also said that it’s the responsibility of management to design, build, and manage the system. Unfortunately, traditional management often gets this backwards and over reacts to common cause variation that’s caused by inadequate, poorly designed, systems.

Even worse, these traditional managers often look for someone to blame for this common cause variation pushing employees to perform better when in fact the processes and systems simply aren’t capable. The good news is gemba walks allow us to see reality through direct observation. By going to gemba we may discover that our equipment is breaking down, methods and procedures aren’t updated, and knowledge is being passed on to new hires informally rather than through

GEMBA WALK OVERVIEW

GEMBA WALKS ESSENTIALS [ VIDEO 1 OF 6 ] 2

structured training. We might also learn that quality errors we thought were corrected are reoccurring because we never found the root cause, and, even worse, improvements we thought we made to process A actually make process B worse. What a Gemba Walk is NOT A gemba walk is not a random walk around the office, hospital floor, or warehouse to look for problems or to see how the day is going. A gemba walk is also not an exercise in being seen or in making management presence visible on the frontlines. A gemba walk is not just another way of auditing a process. A leader who’s doing gemba walks to point out problems for other people to fix is doing it the wrong way. While these activities can have value in the right context, by themselves, they don’t achieve the aim of building a continuous improvement culture. In fact, when the purpose of walks, observation, and questioning by leadership is misunderstood trust and credibility can be eroded. To be sure, we need to practice a style of gemba walking based on the right mindset, preparation, and human interaction during and after the walk. What all Gemba Walks Have in Common To wrap this first module up let’s turn our attention to what all gemba walks have in common… namely how we approach observation and human interaction. In essence, the gemba walk follows a learning cycle similar to the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. The gemba walk requires a specific way of visiting the workplace, observing, and asking questions. Fundamentally, the gemba walk requires that we do this with a particular mindset and attitude. The first, and most important, mindset relates to how we view people. We must approach the gemba walk with humility. There must be a foundation of trust and mutual respect since the natural reaction of people when leaders come into their work area is often fear and uncertainty. The employee may wonder… why am I being watched? Did I do something wrong? What does the leader want to know? If I share a problem, what will happen? Does this person REALLY want to know the truth? Is it worth taking a risk and saying what I actually think? Put together, these sorts of question often create an uncertain and fearful employee. As such, part of the preparation process is to

GEMBA WALKS ESSENTIALS [ VIDEO 1 OF 6 ] 3

communicate the purpose of the gemba walk while also explaining the blame-free attitude towards people. The second part of the gemba walk mindset is to have a critical eye on the process. While we always want to avoid blaming people, we must be tough on the process itself. During a gemba walk leaders should observe and ask questions with a beginner’s mind, demonstrating a willingness to listen and most importantly learn. The aim is to understand what’s happening in the process, how people work in the process, how people work on improving the process, and what the leader must do to get the best out of both people and processes. Finally, the third, but definitely not least, part of the gemba walk mindset requires us to look at the process from the customer’s perspective. We mustn’t make excuses or accept things as they are. Instead we should constantly ask, “Would I want to pay for that?” To be sure, there are activities the customer values, and we must question the need for anything else. During a gemba walk, we should imagine that an invisible customer is standing next to us, expecting that we’re asking questions and listening with their best interest in mind. Up Next In our next lesson we’re going to explore the different types of gemba walks as well as the many benefits gemba walks afford the organizations that leverage them with a spirit of humility and curiosity to learn.