There are lots of ways to explore – surveys, workshops, meetings, audits, complex 10-step plans…but are we missing a golden opportunity to do something really simple?
The Japanese practice of ‘gemba’ was popularised by Toyota. There, managers would walk the shop floor working to three simple principles: ‘go see, ask why, show respect.’
This simple act of going to the ‘true scene’ of where the work actually happens was recognised as the way to find the most valuable insights to business operations. Those insights might improve productivity, quality, ease, profitability – and they came from the shop floor, not from the boardroom table.
For us, the first, real life visits after covid-restrictions lifted were a reminder of what can be gleaned from the ‘true scene’. Gemba principles gently build insight based on true practice, not theory – they are invaluable. And for us, they’re the launch pad for true learner-centred design.
Seeing the place of learning and working can reveal ‘unbriefable’ detail - the sort of insights that make good projects great.
Gemba brings three beautiful things to our learning design – things we wouldn’t get any other way…
1 – Finding the ‘unbriefable’ details
The best thing about a ‘true scene’ walk and talk is that it reveals things you would never otherwise know – clients often cannot brief the intricacies of their workplace, or real learning needs – they have to be witnessed.
Here’s an example: a recent trip to see clients in London to discuss gamifying their Health & Safety training means we know the environment they work in, in detail. Now we can create an experience that looks and feels immediately familiar (even down to the sounds they hear in reception or canteen), and people can easily put their learning into practice – there is no need to ‘translate’ into their own setting, it’s already there.
2 – Getting the culture and context of learning right
When we ‘go see’, we get to observe how learning fits into work, or the space people use for learning. We might even see the collective and individual attitude to learning and development.
This enables us to design learning to fit better in the client organisation and learners’ worlds. We can design something 100% ‘on brand’ and connected to a client’s strategic ambitions, and we can build it to fit better with learner needs, minimising the gap between learning and application. But we have to see and know the working and learning setting, and hear from learners how the interface between the two feels, fails and impacts.
3 – Bonding with clients and learners
It’s a happy accident that walking, talking and most importantly, listening, is a great way to bond with the team we’re working with and the learners we need to reach. It’s a great foundation for a partnership that’s about working together to solve problems.
But more than anything, talking to learners about their experience, expectations, wants and needs, means we come face-to-face with the real life problems that inform effective learning design.
Three little gemba tips we use to get the best out of client visits:
Watch. Listen. Learn: Gemba is an almost meditative practice in its purest form – it’s about gentle prompting, quiet observation, but not comment.
Be prepared: A key principle of gemba is that the team is prepared – it’s on us to brief our clients and even to share our questions in advance, so they can be prepared, too.
Virtual gemba can work: various sources have cited conducting gemba using Zoom, Whatsapp or even VR. It’s suggested that one-to-one virtual walks are more fruitful. It’s not ideal, but if we can’t physically get to our clients or learners, it can still help to focus on the learner in our work.
For more on gemba:
https://backlog.com/blog/what-is-the-right-and-wrong-way-to-do-a-gemba-walk/
https://www.raconteur.net/workplace/japanese-manufacturing-concept-hybrid-working-gemba/
https://www.inc.com/andrew-griffiths/10-reasons-face-to-face-meetings-are-more-important-than-we-think.html
https://sightmachine.com/blog/virtual-gemba-walk/