Gemba Walks

Genba (現場, also romanised as gemba) is a Japanese term meaning "the actual place".

In Lean management, “Gemba” is the most important place for a team as it is the place where the real work happens.

The Gemba walk is a concept developed by Taiichi Ohno, who is often considered the father of Just-in-time production. Ohno's objective was to provide a real opportunity for executives to leave their daily routine, see where the real work happens, and build relationships with workers based on mutual trust.

There are 3 important elements of this lean manufacturing tool:

Go and See
The main idea of the Gemba walk is for managers and leaders on every level to take regular walks around the shop floor and to be involved in finding wasteful activities.
Ask Why
A Gemba walk's main objective is to explore the value stream in detail and locate its problematic parts through active communication. A good leader is always eager to listen rather than talk. Ideally leaders are familiar with and use different techniques such as 5 whys in order to identify problematic parts of the process.
Respect people
Keep in mind that a Gemba walk is not a “boss walk”. Pointing fingers and blaming people is exactly what you don’t have to do. Leaders are not there to judge and review results. They are there to collaborate with the team and find problems together.

Gemba in Agile

In the world of agile, Gemba walks are more about building a mutual trust and respect, and non-technical people having an opportunity to learn and thus overcome any 'fears or frustrations of the unknown'. Knowledge work is the primary type of work undertaken, thus there is much to be gained from talking with the experts in your company who work on abstract concepts such as software development.

Encourage Gemba Walks

Often, the primary reason for a request for status is because the team is not radiating enough information (see below) back into the organisation. The speed and cadence of a well-functioning agile team rarely requires a status report partly because it will always be out of date.. If the team is being asked to produce a status report either there are lingering dysfunctions in the organisation beyond the control of the team OR the objective of the team should be to begin to radiate enough information until the status report is no longer necessary.

Trust from Transparency and Transparency from Trust

Stakeholders need to understand that they are being entrusted with transparency and the insight that results. Thus they must avoid abusing this trust and for any insights to be used as a measure of the team’s performance. In a high-trust culture, the insightful information is simply viewed as an honest reflection of the current situation...and the only assumption made is that everyone has good intentions and are trying their best. It is there to help everyone to be more informed and for better decisions to be made. Our Trust-Transparency Loop summarises this.

Radiate Responsibly

Information radiators are often the only view of what an agile software development team produces (other than the UI of the software system), so make it high quality. The engineering underneath the body panels of a Ferrari car is often excellent...don't let dents, scratches or some dirt lessen someone's first impressions of what lies beneath.

The Future of Gemba Walks

Ok, so how does this work in a virtual workplace or in an environment where people work remotely some of the time?

Being remote makes osmotic communication impossible, which in turn means that your team ends up losing one of the primary benefits of co-location.

"The Future Workplace" is a topic being discussed more and more since the recent rise of remote work, catalysed by the 2020 pandemic, which has led to the establishment of hybrid work settings, in which many knowledge workers physically meet their colleagues less frequently [1]. Practices such as Gemba walks are just one example of the challenges that we need to find answers to in the future.

So let's consider the main purpose of Gemba walks again and see what this could mean in a remote and hybrid working environment. We want to be present where the work is being delivered. And let's consider the three elements we mentioned earlier. With remote working, collaborative tools have become essential. It's likely that we already see how a team plans and manages their collective work with agile planning tools such as Jira during video calls. But what else can we utilise?

Go and See
Information radiators (IRs) have been an essential aspect both Lean and agile ways of working. And whilst the owner of the IR has fewer options for placing it in a prominent position it in a virtual world and as such who they can share its information with, there is more potential for highly interactive IRs. This, of course, requires time, effort and skill to help someone on a virtual Gemba walk to see the IR, choose to engage with it, know instinctively how to engage with it and to be more informed as a result.

In agile ways of working there is a strong emphasis on demonstrating progress, to inform, educate, seek feedback and gain approval. When conducted well, an attendee will see the actual product and the work done, an objective of a Gemba walk.

Ask Why
Your opportunities to 'go to the place of work' on a virtual Gemba walk are of course far more limited than compared to when working in the same vicinity. So it's important to leverage each opportunity. Still aim to explore the value stream in detail and locate its problematic parts through dialogue, asking and listening. You may need to speak with the meeting and session facilitators to gain their undersatnding and support of your needs.

With a reduced ability to pick up on nonverbal cues and sometimes difficulties with enabling efficient, impromptu question asking , it's important to ensure that moments are well facilitated with an emphasis on supporting a more in-person informal gathering type experience.

Respect people
Remember, you're there to collaborate with the team, solving problems and uncovering better ways to deliver value together based on reality. In a virtual workplace, this may take longer, so make sure you set aside enough time to reach this understanding.

References:

Richter, A.; Richter, S. Hybrid Work – a Reconceptualisation and Research Agenda. I-Com 2024, 23, 1–78. https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2023-0027.Search in Google Scholar