Go See: Observing and Questioning Your Value Stream is Not a One-Time Affair

When value streams don't flow properly, there could be a good reason: the skipped Gemba Walk. It is not just a walk. It requires a specific approach. Otherwise the transition don't really get going, new and old structures develop into a bizarre mix, and quite often it feels chaotic.?

Even if a value stream is identified and teams of agile teams are organized along the value stream, this complex construct is always based on a set of hypotheses. The value stream canvas is a good tool to define the alignment of the value stream and create transparency about it. However, the critical next step is to validate the assumptions captured in the value stream canvas. For this, the Gemba Walk is an excellent tool, which then also initiates the improvement measures. But who exactly is responsible for this? Is a value stream manager needed? And how can the Gemba Walk be used correctly to grasp the situation and act?

Gemba. What a wonderful word. The place—any place in any organization— where humans create value. But how do we understand the gemba? And, more important, how do we make it a better place—one where we can create more value with less waste, variation, and overburden.1

Jim Womack is synonymous with the phrase "lean guru." His formula for success: "Don't know, don't do, just watch and ask. He is the management expert who's never managed anything, the lean production guru who has never run a plant, and the Kaizen expert who has never led an improvement team. Jim Womack became a legend by being a bystander, and not by accident. Peter Drucker wrote in his great memoir Adventures of a Bystander, I'm perhaps the great management thinker of the 20th century and I never managed anything. Is it not that strange that there are such odd things in life? So there must be something in it to observe without knowing a solution or doing the work yourself. And that is exactly the Gemba Walk.2

Bringing all participants of a value stream for one product together at Gemba is the key to success. Gemba means "the place where value is created" and this is usually not the conference room or the CEO office. Systems thinking, focusing on activities that create added value for the customer, reducing dependencies and waiting times, continuous thinking from concept to money. These are all not one-off activities, but the hypotheses behind them should be validated and optimized regularly.

Who is Responsible for Value Stream Management?

Value Stream Management (VSM) requires active, ongoing effort by leaders in the organization with business, technical, and process expertise as well as strategic and tactical influence. In the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe for example, these responsibilities are shared among the ART/Solution triad and the Business Owners (Figure 2). Particularly when introducing a new Value Stream organization, it is advisable to appoint a person responsible for validating the Value Stream hypotheses.

In cases where a value stream manager has been designated, the person in this role would likely also serve as a Business Owner for one or more ARTs and assume the strategic VSM responsibilities listed above. If not, at a minimum, they would share the responsibility of managing the value stream with the individuals in these defined SAFe roles.3

The Process: Go See, Ask Questions and Show Respect1

In general, respectful treatment is understood to mean that employees should be treated fairly, given clear goals, trusted to achieve them in the best way, and held accountable for results.?Experienced lean management experts would answer the question of how to show respect during a Gemba Walk somewhat differently.

The manager begins by asking an employee he or she supervises what the problem is with the way work is currently being done. Next the manager challenges the employee’s answer and enters into a dialogue about what the real problem is. (It’s rarely the problem showing on the surface.)

Then the manager asks what is causing this problem and enters into another dialogue about its root causes. (True dialogue requires the employee to gather evidence on the gemba for joint evaluation.)

Then the manager asks what should be done about the problem and asks the employee why he or she has proposed one countermeasure instead of another. (This generally requires considering a range of countermeasures and collecting more evidence.)

Then the manager asks how they—manager and employee—will know if the countermeasure has achieved a positive result, and again engages in dialogue on the best indicator.

Finally, after agreement is reached on the most appropriate measure of success, the employee sets out to implement the countermeasure.

For many of us that doesn’t sound much like respect for people. But engaging in this problem-solving process is actually the highest form of respect. The manager is saying to the employee that the manager can’t solve the problem alone, because the manager isn’t close enough to the problem to know the facts. The manager truly respects the employee’s knowledge and his or her dedication to finding the best answer. But the employee can’t solve the problem alone either, because he or she is often too close to the issue to see its context, and may refrain from asking tough questions about his or her own work. Only by showing mutual respect—each for the other and for each other’s role—is it possible to solve problems, make work more satisfying, and move organizational performance to an ever-higher level.?

Lessons Leaned from Jim Womack

In his book Gemba Walks, Jim Womack reflects on a decade of walking by sharing lessons he has learned from all these Gemba Walks.1

1. The critical importance of the simple act of walking. When you get bogged down, distracted, or even discouraged rediscover the power of going to see.
2. Never walk alone. What is the benefit if only you see the current state and think of a better way to create a future sate? Always walk the value stream with the people who touch it. It will be their efforts who are needed to improve it.
3. Expand your focus. Many look primarily at the steps in the value stream and ask how to remove the waste. You must ask about the support processes to get the right people to the right place in the value stream at the right time with the right knowledge, materials, and equipment.
4. Reflect first on the purpose of the process. Focus on what problem the customer is trying to solve and ask whether the existing process, now matter how well, run, can effectively address their problem. Pay special attention to the way people are engaged in the operation and its improvement.
5. Make work fulfilling. There is nothing worse than seeing good people trapped in an unfulfilling process that they lack the power to improve.
6. Stability before full panoply of lean techniques. The process must be capable (able to produce good results every time) and available (able to operate when it is needed).

__________

References

[1] Gemba Walks, Jim Womack, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2011

[2] Take the Value-Stream Walk: Presentation by Jim Womack, 2011, https://youtu.be/M2lp1QDbXWE

[3] Value Stream Management in SAFe, 2022, https://www.scaledagileframework.com/value-stream-management-in-safe

[4] 10 Tips for Value Stream Identification, https://scaledagile.com/blog/10-tips-for-value-stream-identification/

[5] Launching an ART? Do a Gemba Walk, https://scaledagile.com/blog/launching-an-art-do-a-gemba-walk/