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“Walk the Gemba to Improve Your Leadership Abilities”
Michael Bremer
Shingo Research Award Recipient - 2016
“How to do A Gemba Walk”
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Wisdom requires effort!
Brush away your assumptions and
“See” what is really happening in
your work environment
Gemba = The Real Place
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Structure is Simple
• Define Purpose & Prepare
• Do the Walk
– Go See
– Ask ‘What’ then ‘Why’
– Show Respect
• Debrief the Walk
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But learning while you walk
is not simple
• Why doing it? – Seeking to understand – Develop people – Waste walk
• Different Type Walks – Supervisor (multiple times per day ) – Leadership team walk (2 or 3 times per day) – Value Stream walk (weekly) – Waste identification walk (a common starting point) – Executive walk (people from outside the facility -
periodic)
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Prepare for Walk
Define Purpose
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Do the Walk
• Do people:
– Understand purpose of work?
– Follow standard work practices?
– Understand performance expectations and why?
– Use a scientific thought process for problem resolution?
• Are people inhibited from doing their jobs by organizational support systems?
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Go See
Do the Walk
• Anyone can look around, good observations require skill
• What work are people doing?
• What are the targets?
• Why important?
• How are we progressing?
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Ask What, Then Why?
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Do the Walk
• Ask open-ended questions
• Listen more than you talk
• Create a safe environment
• Always jump to the 5 Whys, never the 5 Whos
• Don’t remove problem ownership, trust people to act when they learn to ‘see it’
• Help people gain confidence
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Show Respect
Debrief the Walk • What was done well?
• What could be done better?
• Did the questioner remain humble?
Close the debrief by asking these questions:
• Did we make any decisions during the walk?
• How to communicate that decision?
• How to follow-up on progress?
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Debrief the Walk
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Take a Walk
Change Your Perspective
Make it Visual
Care for Others Choices
Three Powerful Levers
Change Your Perspective
Make it Visual
Care for Others
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Changing Perspective Changes the Experience
Lever #1
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Is the ‘A’ Square and the ‘B’ Square the same color?
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_proof.htm
Get close to see with Your Own Eyes
• Go to the Gemba – where the “action is”
• See with your own eyes
• Probe beneath the surface
• Experience reality as others see it
• Find ways to change how you see the world
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Understand Why The ‘1’ Why or Key Purpose
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“….most problems in an organization are the result of the processes not the people working in the system”
Dr. W. Edwards Deming
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Increase Your
Process Awareness
Who Experiences problems during your work day
that typically requires a work around?
Ineffective Powerless
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Over Come Your Fear
This is a powerful way to change your perspective!
How would I feel Without the fear?
4 Power
Questions
Courtesy of Traci Fenton, WorldBlu
Take a Walk
Change Your Perspective
Make it Visual
Care for Others Choices
Three Powerful Levers
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Do You Trust People?
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Agreement
Openness
Credibility
Trust
Reduce Risk By
Coach more critical thinking skills
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• Open-ended questions
• Listen more than talk • Create a safe
environment
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Take a Walk
Change Your Perspective
Make it Visual
Care for Others Choices
Three Powerful Levers
Who uses ActiveLink, Fitbit or some similar device?
Lever #3 Make it Visual - Are we winning or losing?
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Can’t overdo this a great way to communicate
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Make the invisible
easy to see
Request for Proposal Info Board
Visual Work Mgmt. - Scheduling
Everything in life is an Experiment
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Learn by refreshing your perspective
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Take a Walk
Change Your Perspective
Make it Visual
Care for Others Choices
Three Powerful Levers
A Simple Structure
• Define Purpose & Prepare
• Do the Walk
– Go See
– Ask ‘What’ then ‘Why’
– Show Respect
• Debrief the Walk
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A powerful learning tool!
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Welcome to Connect
• Learn about your experiences
• You can use this material
• Happy to connect on LinkedIn or Twitter @michaelbremer
• 630-235-4210
• Thanks for being here
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