I recently visited a very large and complex manufacturing operation struggling to produce enough material to meet demand. On paper, there seemed little room left for improvement. Conventional wisdom suggested investing in additional equipment or expanding capacity. My approach always starts by stepping onto the production floor—not as a casual observer, but as an active participant genuinely seeking understanding. I aimed to listen, learn and truly experience what it felt like to be part of that operation for an entire shift. My goal was to build trust, enabling operators and supervisors to openly share their experiences without feeling judged. I wanted to do a gemba walk.
"Gemba" is a Japanese term meaning "the real place," specifically where value is created and challenges are most clearly observed. Unlike the superficial 1990s management practice "management by walking around" (MBWA), a genuine gemba walk is purposeful, involving active engagement and focused inquiry. It emphasizes discovering and replicating the root causes of success, turning isolated high-performance moments into sustained excellence.
During this gemba walk, an operator revealed that frequent, brief equipment stoppages of just one or two minutes weren't recorded as downtime. Management’s data only included interruptions lasting over five minutes, leaving critical gaps in their understanding. As a result, leadership had inadvertently been trying to solve the wrong problem. Leadership had focused on the largest visible problem from the data, a mechanical failure. The larger, real problem, however, was a material feed issue that required more direct experience to understand. A complete picture enables leaders and operators to address the real loss.
This experience underscored a crucial insight: True clarity comes from directly engaging with the shop floor—where value creation and real challenges coexist—not from remote dashboards or meetings. Only through firsthand observation and genuine interaction can leaders uncover insights essential for unlocking their operation’s full potential—their “super performance.”
Super performance is sustained peak performance, where teams consistently operate at their highest potential. Achieving super performance involves systematically identifying and scaling best practices, clarifying expectations and actively engaging teams to remove ambiguity. Gemba walks are critical because they bridge perception and reality. By directly engaging with the actual work environment, leaders gain insights that transform brief episodes of excellence—the "golden hour"—into enduring operational success.
Three Keys to an Effective Gemba Walk
Identify and scale success, not just problems. Leaders often excessively focus on fixing problems rather than recognizing successes. For instance, during a factory visit, managers initially blamed poor training for productivity issues. However, a gemba walk revealed that successful teams had developed effective undocumented methods. Capturing and scaling these practices transformed sporadic successes into sustained improvements.
Clarify expectations to erase ambiguity. Operational inefficiencies often stem from ambiguity, not incompetence. A motivated workforce struggled because different shifts held varying definitions of "correct." A gemba walk highlighted this confusion, and clear, standardized expectations resolved ambiguity, empowering employees to consistently achieve peak performance.
Engage actively and authentically. True gemba walks involve active engagement, meaningful questions and genuine listening. One manufacturing leader's passive walks changed dramatically after a quality issue prompted direct dialogue. This interaction uncovered crucial insights, significantly improving performance and fostering mutual respect.
My "aha" moment about gemba walks came from a retired operations executive who advised, "Find your superhero." Initially puzzling, this advice proved brilliant. Every operation has heroes—indispensable individuals routinely solving crises. While valuable, these heroes often mask deeper systemic issues. Observing when and how heroes intervene reveals gaps in systems, training and team knowledge. Relying solely on heroes provides temporary relief, like a sugar rush, but sustained excellence requires robust systems and clear processes. Effective gemba walks identify heroes to uncover underlying weaknesses rather than merely relying on their temporary fixes.
If you truly want to "walk the talk," be prepared to genuinely engage—even if that means getting a little dirty. Asking "Show me?" encourages valuable demonstrations, and "Can I try?" shows genuine interest. Avoid pitfalls like acting as a compliance-focused "cop," which limits openness and empowerment. Focusing exclusively on problems fosters negativity, while failure to follow up erodes trust. Merely seeing without learning misses the point entirely. True learning requires authentic interaction and active engagement.
Organizations consistently extending their golden hour of peak performance have moved beyond repetitive troubleshooting. Instead, they embrace the deeper insights gained by understanding root causes. Every initial lesson has a price, but failing to act differently afterward comes at an even greater ongoing cost. Viewing your operation as interconnected systems—beyond merely machines and people—offers a transformative perspective. When people engage with robust, supportive systems, they can extend peak performance from brief moments to sustained, record-breaking achievements. Gemba walks illuminate these systemic opportunities, creating shared clarity and empowering employees to proactively sustain and build on their successes.
