On three separate occasions throughout my career, I’ve had my boss tell me: 1) That I produced more work, more quickly, than they had expected, however, 2) I seemed to spend a lot of time away from my desk. Despite my productivity, I was chastised for being “too chatty” or “spending too much time talking with others.”
Don't wait for permission to build relationships.
What these managers failed to realize, was that I was able to be as efficient and productive as I was not through some sort of wizardry while at my desk, but because I was busy building relationships at the personal level. If I needed some finance data, I didn’t ask “Accounting” for it, I asked Anne. If I had time, I didn’t phone or email Anne, either, I walked up to her desk and asked how she was doing, how her family was, what her vacation plans were. I genuinely cared what the answers were to these questions, since I believe people are far more interesting than the work they produce. Oh, by the way, I’d also ask for my data, too.
When I didn’t have time to be chatty and had to work through email or phone, I still received the data, exactly the way I needed it, quite quickly. By making friends, my requests moved to the front of the laundry list of hassles everyone confronted, every day. Not only that, but I would receive exactly what I needed, no more and no less, because I spent time the time to talk with the person providing it, and we identified what could be provided and how. I wanted to help them, so they wanted to help me. No meetings, no telecons, no 3-hours-long email exchanges just to refine the data sets so I could do my work. Just people helping each other to put out a fire.
In the workplace, we’re often discouraged from leaving our desk, cell, post, office, station or whatever place has been given to us. While some jobs do require you to maintain a fixed position (let’s say a security guard, or a machine operator, for example), there’s still no reason for not becoming more familiar with the environment. Most of us have been told that there are office suites we shouldn’t enter, factory floors we can’t disturb, and the like. Why do these places exist? Certainly, it’s possible for the company to conduct tours, at the very least, where anyone can go and see what’s going on in another area. More often than not, however, we don’t go and visit other areas due to some preconceived notion that we’re not supposed to go “over there.”
Lean Thinkers utilize a method called the “Gemba walk” for managers and other members of the leadership hierarchy to go and see what’s happening away from their offices as a way of understanding the “real work” of the organization. Why should this practice be limited to management, however? Understanding how the work is done, and who is doing it, by name, personalizes the workplace. It is far too easy to blurt out an email that is even more easily misunderstood, or that comes across as terse or condescending.
Get up from your desk, get out of your usual workspace, and go see the people you work with and the work that they do. You just might find that the time you spend away from your desk is the most productive part of your day.
©2010 David M. Kasprzak
David,
Thanks for your post. I’ll support your basic idea of the value of relationships with my own brief story. Last week I walked over to the college bookstore. The Director is a friend of mine. I mentioned a book that could benefit students. By the time I returned to my office there was an email waiting. It said, “I’ve ordered the book you suggested. I’ll let you know when it’s on our shelves.”
Keep up the good work.
Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
Hi, Dan!
Thanks for the great example. Sharing knowledge is a fundamental aspect of continuous learning. Everyone knows something that someone else doesn’t. By talking and sharing, we all gain, if even just a little bit. By the way, what was the book?
David,
Thanks for your post. I’ll support your basic idea of the value of relationships with my own brief story. Last week I walked over to the college bookstore. The Director is a friend of mine. I mentioned a book that could benefit students. By the time I returned to my office there was an email waiting. It said, “I’ve ordered the book you suggested. I’ll let you know when it’s on our shelves.”
Keep up the good work.
Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
Hi, Dan!
Thanks for the great example. Sharing knowledge is a fundamental aspect of continuous learning. Everyone knows something that someone else doesn’t. By talking and sharing, we all gain, if even just a little bit. By the way, what was the book?
David, Great Post! I agree with your thoughts! I would like to mention two things.
First is that yes by communicating and talking with your colleagues you can gain a lot of info, specially if your work is getting priority then why not. The company’s approach of keeping an check on what is going on will create lack of trust and demotivate the employee.
Secondly the Gemba example, I would rather use for customers than managers, it would help me identify the emotions, reactions and needs of the customer.
Thanks
Kapil
@kapilpoojari
Hi, Kapil!
I’ve been places where customers are shuttled into the “Customer Conference Room” or only allowed to see certain areas of the building that were “Customer Ready.” What a shame. Customers should be invited into the workplace, not banned from it. No customer should ever have to worry about the quality of our work or the nature in whcih we do it. In a perfect organization, they’d even be able to help us deliver to them better!
Thanks!
Hi David, Agree with your comments on inviting the customers to workplace, but that is not a practice which is happening anywhere I guess ? Its always that customers are invited well decorated places. I will share an example. I remember there was a glitch in one of the confectionary product of a global company, this glitch was found by a consumer and soon the word spread like fire. The company agreed that there was a manufacturing glitch, further they rolled out ads to show that they use the safest and best quality standards to make these products. The best part was the company encouraged customers to come and have a look at their manufacturing unit, to see and believe it for themselves. This is a great act of transparency. Imagine the level of faith and confidence they might have regained from their customers.
Wow! Powerful stuff. You’re right – “transparency” should be a goal. That’s a very good term for it. I think it happens more in some industries than others. I’ve worked in defense-related industries where customer tours are expected. I’ve also been exposed to a few companies who gladly open their doors for guided Gemba tours for members of various Lean organizations to come and see. Something I’ve got in the wings for a future blog post has to do with seeing problems from someone else’s point of view. Problems that we simply look past because they are part of the norm might be well beyond a customer’s tolerance level. If we look at our work through their eyes, what would we see?
Great stuff. Thanks for the conversation!
David, Great Post! I agree with your thoughts! I would like to mention two things.
First is that yes by communicating and talking with your colleagues you can gain a lot of info, specially if your work is getting priority then why not. The company’s approach of keeping an check on what is going on will create lack of trust and demotivate the employee.
Secondly the Gemba example, I would rather use for customers than managers, it would help me identify the emotions, reactions and needs of the customer.
Thanks
Kapil
@kapilpoojari
Hi, Kapil!
I’ve been places where customers are shuttled into the “Customer Conference Room” or only allowed to see certain areas of the building that were “Customer Ready.” What a shame. Customers should be invited into the workplace, not banned from it. No customer should ever have to worry about the quality of our work or the nature in whcih we do it. In a perfect organization, they’d even be able to help us deliver to them better!
Thanks!
Hi David, Agree with your comments on inviting the customers to workplace, but that is not a practice which is happening anywhere I guess ? Its always that customers are invited well decorated places. I will share an example. I remember there was a glitch in one of the confectionary product of a global company, this glitch was found by a consumer and soon the word spread like fire. The company agreed that there was a manufacturing glitch, further they rolled out ads to show that they use the safest and best quality standards to make these products. The best part was the company encouraged customers to come and have a look at their manufacturing unit, to see and believe it for themselves. This is a great act of transparency. Imagine the level of faith and confidence they might have regained from their customers.
Wow! Powerful stuff. You’re right – “transparency” should be a goal. That’s a very good term for it. I think it happens more in some industries than others. I’ve worked in defense-related industries where customer tours are expected. I’ve also been exposed to a few companies who gladly open their doors for guided Gemba tours for members of various Lean organizations to come and see. Something I’ve got in the wings for a future blog post has to do with seeing problems from someone else’s point of view. Problems that we simply look past because they are part of the norm might be well beyond a customer’s tolerance level. If we look at our work through their eyes, what would we see?
Great stuff. Thanks for the conversation!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Steve Browne, David Kasprzak. David Kasprzak said: New on My Blog: All Employees must get up and get out. http://ow.ly/1Qxyw #leadchange #mgt #lean #employees #gemba [...]