9 Steps Cycle to do Go See (Gemba)

Do you have some workflows within your company that are painful right now?

Ever wondered how to optimize them?

Well, let me stop you right there…

Before you change anything, observe the system. And observe it in a thorough and unbiased way.

To do that, let me introduce you to a Go See instrument and a 9-step complete guide on how to actually implement it in your organisation.

All company level leaders, managers, mentors, Scrum Masters, Agile coaches, and consultants can benefit from this.

*This instrument originates from Toyota Production System which states its benefits as follows: ”Go to the source [the place of real value work — gemba] to find the facts to make correct decisions, build consensus, and achieve goals at our best speed” [Toyota01].

So now that you have the “why” behind this instrument, let’s dive into the “how” part.

1. Prepare the Team/Area of Interest

Before starting a Go See, make sure that the team is aware of your upcoming visit and understands the overall goal of your Go See.

Be transparent — outline what this initiative will bring to the company, the team, or even yourself. Transparency will help the team feel more secure in your presence.

This way, you align expectations with the team so you’re all on the same page about your role as an observer, not a participant. Remind the team that you will be observing the process, not individuals.

Once you have this covered, communicate the following:

• How the information you gather will be used
• Who else will have access to this information
• What the team will gain from it
• The expected outcome of the Go See and the resulting changes.

With this, you have to create a safe and clear process and intention to set up — and execute — a successful Go See.

2. Prepare a Plan

Before starting the Go See, have a plan. In this plan, define the lenses that you’ll use to observe the system.

Here are the lenses that I choose to use when working with teams in Manychat:

• Systems thinking to identify systemic chronic issues
• Lean thinking to identify waste and potential process improvement areas
• Empirical control to ensure that the iterative-incremental approach is effective

3. Follow the Value Stream

Often, the most valuable observations occur where the system of operations or value stream is.

As someone who is outside of the team or group, you have a great opportunity to impartially observe the process and its impact.

So, choose the most valuable part of your system to observe. These systems can be composed by people, structures, or business processes: e.g. product group, team, community, hiring group, Scrum implementation, etc.

Use an unbiased perspective and identify all potential moments of waste within the stream.

To help you, check out the most common types of wastes at work here.

4. Always Focus on Structure, Not People

To maintain a safe and inviting atmosphere when you’re with the team, observe processes as an observer rather than evaluating the people involved in them.

As an observer, pay attention to:

• Events, actions, decisions
• Patterns of behaviour and trends
• Structures and zones of responsibility that create them
• Mental models that underlie these structures (The Iceberg of Systems Thinking)
• Agreements and “rules of the game” that people in your system appeal to when discussing or making decisions

It is important to remember that “98% of problems in an organization, product defects, work, or services depend not on people but on the system and are determined by its inherent deficiencies. People, in turn, do what the system prescribes.” (William Deming)

5. Document Your Observations

Take notes during the Go See observation. When you do this, remember to focus on capturing facts rather than interpretations.

Facts in a Go See can include:

• Quotes from team members in conversations
• Metrics
• Specific actions and their sequence
• Events and their outcomes etc.

6. Ask Questions

The major value of a Go See is to observe and collect facts, patterns, and events, which then should transform into accurate interpretations.

You will need to put effort in to get rid of your projections.

To achieve this, conduct interviews and clarify your interpretations with people in the area you’re interested in. The goal is to get as close to reality as possible.

Your questions can be either clarifying or open-ended ones.

You can use the following questions:

• Am I correct in understanding that the team currently has an external dependency on translators?
• What other dependencies have you met at work in the past 2–4 months?
• Are there any expectations between team members during the development process (e.g., expecting a 4-hour response time for an asynchronous team test, unavailability of a designer/PM for a feature clarification, etc.)?
• What value does this feature bring?

7. Don’t Suggest Changes During the Walk

The primary goal of a Go See is to engage in unbiased observation. So, do not suggest changes or improvements during the Go See.

Afterwards, you, as the observer, should carefully reflect on all observations made during the Go See, before making any recommendations or suggestions for changes.

8. Follow-up with Employees

After the Go See, share what you observed and learned and what you plan to do with that information.

If you have recommendations, techniques, or possible improvement steps for the future, share them with the team.

This is crucial because it initiates a dialogue and alignment with the team or any type of system you observe.

9. Return to the *Gemba

If specific changes were implemented in a particular team after the Go See, set up a time to conduct another Go See with that team.

This way, you will understand how these changes have impacted the processes and the efficiency of the value-delivery stream.

Go See is an ongoing process where you continuously explore the system, make changes, and observe the side effects. It’s a continuous cycle of improvement.

And there you have it… The 9 steps you need for a successful Go See!

It is important to highlight that top management is responsible for conducting a continuous Go See in their organisation to stay tuned about what’s going on in their business and people who build it. They can delegate this responsibility to other managers or Scrum masters. But when it comes to initiating any high level changes in a company, their responsibility is to take actions and optimize the system.

Using this approach as a Scrum Master in Manychat has always brought me and the teams I worked with tons of great insights and factual leverage to initiate improvements in the organization together with other managers.

And most importantly, staying neutral and factual has helped to build more trust in the work I do thanks to the results it brings for people’s growth and our workflow optimization.