We wrote last year about Genchi Gembutsu – the lean idea to “go and see” the actual place to understand what’s really happening. But we think there are times we would suggest taking the concept one step further.
Lately, we’ve made a dedicated effort to spend more time working side-by-side with members of the team. Not check-in meetings or discussions about the work, but actually sitting in the process together. Opening the dashboard, making the calls, noting the activity, setting the next step, moving to the next task.
At a high-level, this can seem like micromanagement to the extreme. However, the goal isn’t to show that you know how to do it better (those in the role are the experts on their day!). It’s to ask questions, appreciate what you can’t see from a distance, and improve how work gets done collaboratively and iteratively.
What looks straightforward on paper suddenly has friction. Steps that seemed insignificant when the process was built become the places where momentum slows down. Things you thought mattered a lot turn out not to matter nearly as much, while smaller details you barely considered create outsized drag over the course of a day.
That experience reinforced something important for us: There is a version of the work that exists in your head. And then there is the actual work. They’re not always the same thing.
This shows up in hiring too.
A lot of organizations recruit based on what a role has historically looked like, or even worse, what someone told them it looks like.. Same job description. Same qualifications. Same assumptions about what makes someone successful. But when was the last time someone actually spent time with the employees who are in the role and observed what’s truly making them effective?
You may still be screening for prior industry experience because that’s what made sense when the role was designed. Meanwhile, your top performers succeed because they’re coachable and stay focused through the grind of a long shift. Two very different things.
If you wrote a job description a year ago and haven’t revisited it, spend a day doing the work with your top performer. If you built a process and handed it off months ago, sit with someone actually using it. If you think you understand how something operates just because you designed it, go find out whether the real-life experience matches the assumption.
So Go and see. Go and do. It’s still the best advice we’ve got.
Until next time,
Your Spherion WI & Northern IL team