Gemba walk: a tool for getting connected with all employees

In today's world, business is growing rapidly; corporates are becoming mammoth in terms of number of employees. It is at times getting somewhat difficult for senior leaders of large corporate houses to stay connected with their employees. Over the years management gurus are striving to find effective ways and means to get connected with employees. One such technique being practised by the Japanese for many years is popularly known as “gemba walk”.

Gemba is a Japanese word meaning “the real place”, a place where work is actually done or value is created. The gemba walk is an age-old management technique to stay connected with the team. Although debated, in modern management term it is also known as MBWA (management by walking around or wandering around). To get connected, managers are expected to walk around, talk to their teammates on a continuous basis, work alongside them, ask questions, and be there to help when needed.

David Packard, the co-founder of Hewlett Packard (HP), is known for widely practising this approach in their company. At HP, the executives were encouraged to be out of their offices working on building relationships, motivating, and keeping direct touch with the activities of the company. The practice of MBWA at all levels of the company reflects a commitment to keep up-to-date with individuals and activities through impromptu discussions, "coffee talks", communication lunches.

The concept got popular in 1980s when the famous management guru, Tom Peters, included the learnings from HP and other companies in his widely successful book “In Search of Excellence” published in 1982. Since then successful companies have been using this technique. Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers, once outlined the importance of MBWA in this manner -- “You can't possibly make the best or quickest decisions without data. Information is the key to any competitive advantage. But data doesn't just drop by your office to pay you a visit. You've got to go out and gather it. I do it by roaming around.” He further said, “Don't want my interactions planned; I want anecdotal feedback. I want to hear spontaneous remarks.

I want to come upon someone who's teaching an elderly woman how to turn her system on for the first time. I want to happen upon someone who is stumped by a customer's question – and help answer it if I can. I want to experience this, because this is what our employees' days are made of, and it arms me with relevant information to make the best decision on behalf of our customers and our people.”

There are certainly enormous benefits of this practice. The most important benefit probably is, to have better understanding of the functions and processes around. The approachability between management and employees certainly increases. When staff members treat their leaders as a person not as a “boss”, they will more likely to tell the fact which will help management to learn about the issues before they become problems.

Trust among employees also gets better as people get to know each other better through regular interactions. In turn, people will be inclined to share more information and eventually communication barriers are broken down. Morality of staff members definitely goes up as they feel better about their jobs and organisation when they have opportunities to be heard. As a result, productivity also goes up. Many innovative ideas often do come up from casual exchanges.

The concept of gemba walk might get derailed if it is not applied with a proper intent and objectives behind. To get the best out of this, it takes more than simply strolling through the office, warehouse, or production facility. Senior leaders must remember it is not just a "walk in the park": they have to be absolutely genuine in their efforts to understand their staff, what they do, and what the leaders can do to make staff work more effectively.

When someone treats gemba walk just as an obligation, this probably will not work very well. Managers have to sincerely want to get to know employees and operations, and they have to commit to following up concerns and seeking continuous improvement.

Experts have some opinions and suggestions on how to apply this technique more effectively:

* Be candid in your approach while talking to your colleagues. Avoid formal ways of conversation as it results in rigid responses most of the time.

* Listen passionately. People tend to be more interested in talking and sharing when they see leaders are paying due attention.

* Instead of sharing your ideas, ask people to come up with their views and thoughts. People need to realise -- ideas are sought in order to make things better for them.

*An equal amount of time and focus need to be invested in every function. Biasness towards a section of people or function might ruin the whole purpose. A leader must be approachable by everyone in the organisation.

*Recognise people's success immediately. When things are not going right, avoid giving immediate feedback in public. This should be done later on in private.

*Be absolutely open and honest while answering any query or question. In case you do not have the right answer, please admit that, follow up and get back. If you are not in a position to share something, please say it upfront. Hiding facts or saying half-truths could completely destroy the trust.

*Communicate and share company vision, goals, values, strategies with all staff members. If the whole organisation is not tuned, success is hard to come by.

*Do not always talk about “work” only. Try to build relationship with your staff at a personal level. Simple things like smile, cracking jokes, and patting on the back have greater impact on building relationship.

Gemba walk is not a rocket science. It is easy and economical and more importantly can be done with lots of joy. The results are tremendous in terms of getting valuable information and building trust all across the organisation.

The writer is the managing director of Syngenta Bangladesh Ltd.