A Gemba Walk is a form of lean management where the leaders gain insight into the value flow within the organisation by visiting the work site and interacting with the employees. The management teams get to know the highs and lows of the work and participate in dealing with some of the problems that their employees are facing.
The word “Gemba” comes from a Japanese word meaning “the real place”. It means where the real work takes place. This management style provides an opportunity for the management to move away from its safe zone and create relationships.
So if you’re thinking of creating a Gemba Walk checklist, you’re in the right place!
The Elements of Gemba Walk
- See The Work Being Done
The Gemba management style helps the leaders walk around the work to evaluate how it is done. This way, they are able to identify and deal with wasteful activities. They can also streamline various processes to deal with repetition, time wastage, and inefficiencies.
It is unfortunate that most management teams manage employees from their offices. They never get a chance to experience the troubles that the employees go through when doing the work or learning the processes. With this management style, they are able to see the actual work being done.
- Listen to Them and Discover
The aim of the management style is to investigate the value stream in depth. This way, leaders are able to identify the problems through communication with the employees. With this management style, leaders are always looking for ways to listen to and know more than they are talking.
This management style gets rid of the “bossy” and intimidating perspective that most leaders are seen by their employees as more of a collaborative approach where everyone is part of the team. It creates an atmosphere of trust and synergies in ensuring that work is done according to the goals set by the organisation.
- Respect for Everyone
The aim of Gemba is to uncover the problems that the employees are facing. It refers to these as opportunities to help improve the company and its value delivery. However, for this work, the employees need to feel safe. The leaders should not victimise anyone.
This is not an appraisal, and no one should suffer from the results of the observation. Instead, everyone is to come together and come up with solutions to the problems they are facing. The focus should be on the weaknesses in the process and not the individuals doing the work.
However, this does not mean that the leaders cannot point out a gap in the skillsets required to complete the work effectively. However, the solution should be to help teams improve their capacity and not to get rid of individual members.
- Ask Questions but Don’t Make Change Suggestions
The management team and other leaders should never expect the employees to open up and explain all the problems that they are facing. It is good to pose questions that help them explain different processes and problems. As a result, the team should have a lot of who, where, how, what, and when questions when discussing various aspects of the work processes.
Again, the aim of the Gemba walk is not to solve problems on the spot. The management team is just observing and discovering. Therefore, the issues that they will encounter when on the walk will not be solved on the spot. Actions on them will come much later.
Most middle-level and management teams are tempted to correct situations right on the spot. However, during a Gemba Walk, this is counter-productive as it prevents them from getting input from the people who are actually doing the work. Given that the people on the ground have first-hand experience of the job and its problems, they are best placed to provide a way around the issues.
- Mix Up the Schedules
Some processes may change as the day progresses or in a few days. It is good to know what has changed at the workplace or service delivery by visiting at different times of the week. Therefore, Gemba Walks should not be scheduled at the same time every week so that the team can capture these differences.
After the management team has listened to employees, observed and discussed results with employees and implemented them, it is good to have future Gemba walks to check if the problems were sorted and if new ones have cropped up. This way, the organisation can improve its processes with time.