188 ◾ Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions
Being the Sensei: Gemba Walking
asaStructured, Repeatable Process
A Lean sensei, if he or she is worthy of the name, should be able to make
a Lean assessment in any area of your organization by following three
basicsteps:
1. Go to the place.
2. Observe the process.
3. Talk to the people.
He or she will likely ask you a bunch of questions, some of which you
may not have thought of and to which you do not have a ready answer.
Welcome to the sensei’s process for stimulating your efforts to see through
the surface and recognize application of Lean’s principles! That approach by
the sensei is probably fine if you are one of your organization’s identified
Lean geeks. You may well ...