The web has opened accessibility beyond measure and what a gift. A flip side is getting overwhelmed with information and proposed best practices, this happens to me daily. I have to practice letting go, keeping to my structure and mindfulness to keep me from surface hopping from one exciting option to the next. Keeping with the self-reflection and observation theme, today we turn to the masters in Japan to teach us about the Gemba Walk.
A Gemba (and sometimes genba) Walk is the term used to describe personal observation of work – where the work is happening. The original Japanese term comes from gembutsu, which means “real thing.” Taiichi Ohno, an executive at Toyota, led the development of the concept of the Gemba Walk. The Gemba Walk is an opportunity for staff to stand back from their day-to-day tasks to walk the floor of their workplace to identify wasteful activities. The Gemba walk is not designed to happen every now and then, the recommended time frame is 45-60 minutes every 10 days with a Sensei for six months to a year and there after we should regularly gemba walk on our own.
Quite simply, for rock bands, the “gemba” is the recording studio. For Formula 1 teams the “gemba” is wherever the car is. For manufacturers it’s the factory floor and so on. In other words, it is where the real work happens, so you can observe and analyze it.
A Gemba walk entails getting up from the chair … step step step step … to see the actual process, understand the work, ask questions, and learn. For me right now it would require a visit into an office and Belgium is reaching another COVID -19 peak with home work strongly advised so I will keep my Gemba walk to contacting people using an online platform and ask them to ‘walk’ me through their planning and strategies.
Do you Gemba Walk ? If no – give it a try, I would love to hear about your experience !
