The fog is thick and the morning is dawning. I quickly searched the web to update my knowledge of how a motorboat should behave when sailing in fog. I found out that a motorboat should emit a long signal of 4-6 seconds every 20 seconds, as well as keep a low speed and have a scout watching over the water. With a plotter, i.e. an electronic chart with GPS, we would have no problem knowing where we are. But without radar, we would not detect ships and other boats. I mentally prepared myself to go home with these conditions. But then I thought that I would first take a walk in the silence. I walked so that I could see the water better. That’s when I realize it. That there is much less haze and fog out there, now that I see it from outside the boat and at a better height. It struck me, what I teach others; that you see reality in a clearer and better way if you go out into it. Sitting in the boat, the chapel was obscured. In addition, the windows of the chapel were foggy on the inside and raindrops on the outside. I saw reality through an unfavorable filter. Reality looked worse than it was. The same applies as a leader in a business. You need to go out into the business to understand what is happening and how things look. In a traditionally managed business, it is not at all unusual for decision-making to be based on rumors and other people’s reports, and on what you hear from those responsible for the various departments in the business. Pipelines that do not take into account the value-creating flows of the business. That is to say, it shows things that are not true, based on how you really create value. You assume that what you see from the head office, from the seventh floor, from the office at the end of the corridor, or similar, is what is reality. You trust that what you hear and see from there is reality. It gets even worse when the organization allows the one who is heard the most to be the one who is also taken into account the most. Just because someone is loud or articulate, it does not mean that they are the best source of information for decision-making.
You need to go out into the business
As a leader, you need to go out into the business to find out for yourself what the reality is. Talk to employees out there. See what customers experience. Meet reality as most people in the business see it. Because only then can decisions be correct and grounded in reality. Within LEAN and the twelfth management principle, there is a concept called genchi genbutsi, which translated means go out and see for yourself. In an organization that successfully works according to LEAN or similar principles, visible leaders in the organization constantly go out in the business. They visit the “floor”, i.e. where the value-creating work takes place. Example:
- Go through the production and talk to the employees.
- Accompany the home care workers to the users to see what their reality is like.
- Ride in the garbage truck to pick up waste and then drop it off for proper handling. Employees are asked about their experiences.
- Go with the salesperson on customer visits, not to take over the meeting, but to learn and see what customers are talking about.
- Join a night shift on a Saturday in the emergency room, not because you might be able to contribute, but to learn.
- And so forth.
Note that I am not talking about the kind of visits we sometimes see from politicians who put on a helmet, whether required or not on the spot, and have the media with them to document. This behavior is more for show, not for learning. As leaders who have to make decisions about things that are important to the business, they don’t need to be seen, it is the wise decision that is more important. It is doing the right thing for the business. If you do the right thing for the business and are in the right business, then those decisions will stand for themselves and you will naturally be seen as a wise leader.
To think about…
So, if you are now a manager and leader in your business, think about two things: How can you be more constant in reality to get a natural flow of information that is important for the business in your decision making? How will you use go and see for yourself the next time you are faced with a particularly important decision? Write down your thoughts, so you have them for review going forward. So what happened to the fog? Well, when I got out into the real world I saw that the fog was lifting. You could easily see a kilometer or so, which can no longer even be called fog. So it was a nice trip home, where the sun broke through and turned the dark water into light blue again.
