Oscar Roche & Gwendolyn Galsworth
(Visual Workplace Visual Thinking – 2nd Edition, Productivity Press, 2017).
We sometimes need to be reminded that effective work standards mean much more than information on a server or documents on a desk.
To reach their full value potential, work standards must be meaningful to the frontline. Like you, I know Mr. Kato’s thoughts by heart: “Without work standards, there will be no standardized work.” While it is a good start, documentation alone won’t get us there.
As many of you know I’m helping leaders understand and fine tune fundamental work standards—a2Milk, Discount Tire Company, NORMAC, S&C Electric, CSP Plastics—and Warburn Estate, to name a few. My work at Warburn Estate (WE) is going especially deep because I’m inspired by everyone’s will to learn (plus the site is only 15 minutes from our offices). Early in the piece I was listening to Josh, a WE supervisor, say that he really needed to make work standards easy for his frontline to use and understand. Visual Thinking immediately rose to the surface of my mind.
I rapidly linked what Josh said with a conversation that I had had 14 years before with Gwendolyn Galsworth, leading expert on workplace visuality. In 2007, Dr. Galsworth was in Texas, training trainers in her Work That Makes Sense method for operator-led visuality. Again and again I heard Gwendolyn say that “… a visual workplace is self-explaining … .”
Bingo! Josh, I said, can we try making key elements of your work standards user-friendly, handy, and very visual—so they speak without you saying a word? And let’s see what happens … My bet is you’ll become a more effective leader. As time has kept ticking, that is what is happening …
Join us on Tuesday, September 28 when I will draw from Dr. Galsworth her insights and discoveries about making work standards visual, brain function and visuality, and the building blocks of visual thinking.
To register, click here. We look forward to your attendance.
Oscar Roche.
President and founder of Visual Thinking Inc. & The Visual-Lean® Institute, Gwendolyn has been helping companies convert to visuality for over 30 years. She has written seven books on the topic—two of which have won the coveted Shingo Prize: Visual Workplace/Visual Thinking and Work That Makes Sense. Her website is packed with free articles, podcasts, and information about how to get visual: www.visualworkplace.com
