Gotcha Walks

Happy Spring! Here is a story about Toast Kaizen that I’ve never told: In 1998, as general manager at a medium sized manufacturing company, I created the original toast video for my management team. I was trying to get them out of their offices to ‘go see’ – not only to see the factory floor, but even to see their own departments. Managers needed this direct observation to understand our continuous improvement process.

The good news is that the short video was effective at prodding executives to step out of their offices and observe first-hand what they’d previously constructed from biases and assumptions. One manager, for example, who assumed that month-end hockey stick shipments were the result of production ‘dogging it’ in the early weeks of the month, was astonished to discover that the end of month push was a result of pulling future orders in to meet sales bogeys. One visit to the floor opened his eyes and resulted in a policy change that levelized shipments. A really big deal.

The not-so-good news was that a few managers did not know at first how to behave when they got to the floor. In practiced inquisitor fashion, they posed questions in an accusative style: “Why don’t you do it this way?” They felt compelled through habit to teach and preach rather than just observe and learn. Coaching for them was required -- and provided. Encouragement from our company President was, in retrospect, most critical to instilling some Gemba etiquette. Quoting Ken Blanchard, he encouraged “We need to ‘catch someone doing something right.’”

That advice was impactful. Managers adjusted their behaviors. For awhile it was definitely a fake-it-until-you-feel-it experience. But it worked. After a few Gembas, employees opened up, sharing ideas and problems. And managers learned why Gemba’s are important. Call it a culture change.

Today, Toast Kaizen is widely recognized as an effective primer to understand waste. Less well-known is a sequel to that video entitled, Go See, inspired by my early General Manager experience. In 2016, Go See was recognized by the Shingo Prize. While attending that year’s conference to accept the award, I was approached by a team of senior managers from a large transportation conglomerate.

One manager spoke: “We thought Gemba walks were a waste of time. Employees clammed up or scattered when we went to the floor."

Another manager joined in: "Then we watched the Go See video. We just looked at each other and laughed. We were the problem. We were scaring people! Now we’re more respectful and it’s made a huge difference."

How is your Gemba etiquette? Are you observing to understand or to find fault? Please share a story.

O.L.D.

BTW: The Toast Kaizen & Go See videos are available, along with other Shingo Prize-winning vids on GBMP’s LEANFLIX streaming content for only $99 per month.

Also, if you’re curious about the Shingo Institute’s breakthrough approach to operational excellence, there’s still time to join the April 22-23 Discover Excellence workshop, meeting virtually on Zoom and hosted online by Sensata Technologies. Avoid the travel expense and join from your home or office for some great learning and reflection. Click here for more info about the workshop. I hope you will join us.