Erica steps outside to speak of the importance of “Gemba”, or going to the real place things are happening in your business.
Don’t stay cozy with your assumptions! Get out of the building.
When you want to solve a problem, you can sit back and guess what’s going on — or you can get up and go where the action is happening.
This concept has many names: ‘Get out of the building’ in Lean Startup parlance, or ‘Gemba’ in Lean circles. It can be tempting to stick with what we think is going on. Gemba invites us to go find out for sure – even when it’s cold out or we’d prefer not to interact with the messiness of a problem.
When you go check it out, you get additional context, updated info — even feedback on potential solutions. Try it! Even better, make it a routine, as some of my clients have done.
We can make better decisions, solve problems more effectively and more permanently when we ‘get out of the building’ first.
How can you can take this concept of Gemba and apply it to your own work or life?