I do not really know what my team’s day looks like
Go to the actual place. Observe, ask, and fix nothing while you are there.
A Gemba Walk, from the Japanese for the actual place, means going on-site to directly observe how work happens and talking to the people doing it, rather than making decisions from a distance. The practice began in manufacturing and extends to any function.
The point is not inspection. It is genuinely understanding the motivations and values behind how different people see a shared goal. You do not have to agree with a colleague's viewpoint to benefit from understanding where it comes from, and that understanding is what harnesses real diversity of opinion instead of flattening it into conformity.
The discipline that makes it work is counterintuitive: fix nothing while you are there. The moment you solve something on the spot, the walk becomes an escalation route and you will never see a normal day again.
What you get
- A four-item pre-walk checklist, including picking a normal day
- Five things to observe, with space for what you actually saw rather than what you concluded
- Four open questions about the work rather than the person
- What not to do while you are there, and what to do in the week after
Where should we send it?
One email with the worksheet. You can unsubscribe from anything else in one click.
On its way
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Adapted from the Mindfulness chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.