…was something my Nan used to say to me all the time.
I wasn’t even a teenager at the time, and I would always smile and nod at her. I didn’t really know what she meant, perhaps all those years working in the chain making factory during the war had taken its toll…
Scroll forward 40 years and I have learned that my Nan must have been a Lean Guru! Learning to see is the first step of any successful transformation, and it’s an essential skill to teach and learn early on.
Learning to see is about actually seeing what is there, right in front of you. Not seeing what others have told you to see, or seeing what you expect to see, but seeing what is there, for real and understanding the potential, the opportunity, in what you see. For many the first two points here are the roadblocks – not seeing what’s really there, for others, the challenge is not being able to see the opportunity. The phrase ‘a fresh pair of eyes’ is often used, and whilst any eyes are good, trained eyes are much, much better.
Over the years I have become very attuned to assessing any business by what I see…and hear. They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but in the world of industry, more so than reference to people, I believe that you can. Businesses, like people, may be dressed up or adorned to cover what lies beneath, but if you know where to look, it’s easy to spot opportunity, or indeed, excellent performance.
Networking with fellow consultants, our consensus is very much that businesses wait far too long before asking for assistance. By the time help is requested, there is a lot of unravelling to be done. The best approaches I have had so far have come from business leaders whose approach was that they thought that they were doing a good job, but wanted to know if they could do it better. All too often the approach is one of acknowledging something is wrong, which from experience, usually means a lot is wrong. From a consultants perspective, that may seem like a good thing – plenty of work, but trust me, I think we would all rather be working on more improvement activity and spend less time fixing that which is broken.
Having worked across Europe, it is interesting to see the stereotypes play out. The UK reputation is somewhat of more chaotic businesses, less structured etc. But the UK is renowned for it’s ability to adapt and deliver in a crisis with little/no planning – perhaps why we excel in areas such as Events and Filming etc. The UK is most certainly adaptable to change, something many other countries are quite envious of us for. When things go wrong, we don’t just stop, make the problem bigger or complex, and go back and start all over again. The tendency is to be quite nimble and creative, weave our way through and get back on track. There are certainly some areas where UK industry does really well, but asking for help early on, instead of battling through and making the most of what we have, isn’t one of them.
So how do you learn to see? It starts with having a coach, a guide, someone to help you on the journey. It has a lot to do with asking questions…and remembering to listen to the answers, even if you don’t like or agree with them. A coach will help you fill in the gaps in the answers, translate what has been said, and help ask the right questions to get to the answers that you really need to hear.
Gemba is a tool for going to the place where the work is happening, taking on board what you see, and taking action. Always on a gemba you are looking for ‘out of control’ signals – something that isn’t how it should be. In a HPO (High Performing Organisation), if there are markings on the floor, or on a worksurface, those markings will have meaning and that meaning will be clear. A chart on the wall will be up to date and clearly annotated, with indication of whether things are going well or not, and what actions are currently in progress. All these things are clues as to how the business is operating and where opportunities may lie.

Activity sampling is a process for seeing small snippets of time in a place, and adding all those small snippets together to paint a picture. For example, if I gemba a workspace 6 times in a day, and that workspace has 10 people working in it, and every time I gemba, there are 2 people not actively undertaking value added work, it is fair to assume that that team is operating at no more than 80% efficiency.
On the learning journey there is a series of words that really help you understand the challenge of learning to see. I always struggle with the wording as it seems a bit harsh, but the reality of it can be quite impactful.
- Unconsciously Incompetent – Actually nowhere near as good at doing something as you might think you are
- Consciously Incompetent – Never a great place to be – aware there are issues and wanting to do something about it
- Consciously Competent – Where we all want to be, and the starting point to becoming an HPO
The harsh reality is that far too many businesses think they are in the 3rd stage, when actually they are in the first. The second stage is a painful step in the journey to becoming an HPO, and just needs to be transitioned through as quickly as possible.
Whatever stage your business is in, be brave, invite someone in to critique it for you, there is absolutely nothing to lose.
- If things are going great, then, hey, who doesn’t love a bit of praise and appreciation.
- If things aren’t as great as you thought they are, then hey again, just think how much better the world will be when opportunities are realised.
The ability to see clearly is a rare talent, and it has taken me a long time to realise how right my Nan was.
It is easy to look back and think how much I would have loved to have the chance to discuss this further with her now, but she has long passed, and instead, my view is on the future, and how I can help others today, to make their futures better, without any regrets…