Gemba must be the center of management

Although they are sometimes very relevant, talks on business topics are always somewhat alike. Executives, usually in formal business attire, present data and facts about the company with a certain formality, in that executive language everyone already recognizes.

For all these reasons, a speaker recently caught my attention precisely because he departed so much from this stereotype, at a large management event I attended.

To begin with, instead of the traditional business attire, the executive gave the talk wearing the uniform that the company's “shop floor” workers wear in their day-to-day work. That alone was enough to catch everyone's attention.

However, what caught my attention most was what he meant – and said! – by doing so. It was to illustrate and reinforce one of the most relevant concepts and practices of the lean system. The idea that, in an organization, whatever it may be, the most important people are those who are at the gemba.

This is a Japanese expression that means the actual place, where things happen in practice. It can be the shop floor, the office, the customer's or the supplier's premises. But it needs to be the place where activities actually take place, where the product or service is concretely made or experienced by the customer.

In the lean system, everything should happen because of this. The gemba and the people who work there, effectively adding the value the customer expects, need to be the center, the very reason for being of a management model. The whole organization should work toward this, to support, facilitate, guarantee, provide the means... In short, to help those at the gemba do their work better and better. It is the famous inverted pyramid: those who have contact with the customer and with what the customer receives at the top; executives at the base, providing support.

This may even seem obvious, but it is not. Putting this idea into practice is not easy. In some companies, we still see people in operations facing a series of difficulties, and the hierarchy, instead of helping, sometimes even makes things harder, with a command-and-control view.

That is why this executive's appearance in gemba clothes drew so much attention. Asked by some people after the talk why he had come in an operational uniform, he emphasized that it was the least recognition he needed to give, since the improvements he was going to report had been made with the participation of the people at the base of the company, day to day.

That is why the lean system brings a series of concepts and practices that help companies perceive and change this. Starting with the habits of leaders, of going to the gemba periodically, with an eye to seeing how they can support process improvement so that the work is more productive, with quality, safe and enriching for the people involved. Interacting with people, guiding everyone in the correct use of problem-solving methods, recognizing and valuing the improvements they propose and pointing out new challenges, instead of just demanding results from their offices.

So giving a talk at a large business event wearing the uniform of those who are at the gemba, placing these people and the activities that take place there as the most relevant thing of all, is an excellent metaphor. It is putting on stage, at the center, those who really add value. Every company should act this way.