An overview of "How to Do a Gemba Walk" and also identifies three levers people can embrace to improve their leadership capabilities.

1. “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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2. 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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3. 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

4. • 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

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

9. Take a
Walk
Change Your
Perspective
Make it
Visual
Care for
OthersChoices
Three Powerful Levers
Change Your
Perspective
Make it
Visual
Care for
Others

10. 10
Changing Perspective
Changes the Experience
Lever
#1

11. Is the ‘A’ Square and the
‘B’ Square the same color?
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_proof.htm

12. 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

13. Understand Why
The ‘1’ Why or Key Purpose
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14. “….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

15. 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

16. Take a
Walk
Change Your
Perspective
Make it
Visual
Care for
OthersChoices
Three Powerful Levers

17. Do You Trust People?
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Agreement
Openness
Credibility
Trust
Reduce Risk By

18. Coach more critical thinking skills
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• Open-ended
questions
• Listen more than talk
• Create a safe
environment

19. Take a
Walk
Change Your
Perspective
Make it
Visual
Care for
OthersChoices
Three Powerful Levers

20. Who uses ActiveLink, Fitbit or some similar device?
Lever #3 Make it Visual - Are we winning or losing?
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21. 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

22. Everything in life is an Experiment
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Learn by refreshing your perspective

23. Take a
Walk
Change Your
Perspective
Make it
Visual
Care for
OthersChoices
Three Powerful Levers

24. 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!

25. Welcome to Connect
• Learn about your experiences
• You can use this material
• Happy to connect on LinkedIn or
Twitter @michaelbremer
• michael@cumberlandchicago.com
• 630-235-4210
• Thanks for being here
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