This blog explains what a team should expect after implementing visual management. In Visual Management, most important part is “Why” before digging too much into the “How.” That way, when the going gets tough, we have a reason to follow through on the effort. Benefits can really be broken down into two areas: the hard, measurable benefits, and the soft, cultural benefits. First, the measurable:
Measurable Benefits of Visual Management
“That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”– Karl Pearson
Adding to that when team members understand how their individual work impacts the process, real, sustainable improvement begins. By linking together the work of individual team members with the team’s tactical targets, and aligning those with the company’s overall objectives, magic happens. We have personally witnessed countless examples of this principle play out within both manufacturing and office settings. There is something magical about displaying current vs. target condition in real-time.
There are multiple reasons for this:
1] Team members understand what you care about most-you as an employer could have measured any metric, but you chose this one so it must be important!
2] Display it on the wall-this targets few items, typically personal and team pride in terms of ownership, a natural desire to do better than previous day
3] People desire to win- In every organisation, even semi-engaged team members show up to work every day desiring to do a good job. Now, you’ve provided a medium of measuring what a “better work” looks like
4] My hard work matters-as mentioned above, team members that are able to connect their individual decision-making and output to the overall team performance are dangerous, in a very good way
Visual management project implementation as part of your Lean Management System can be difficult, but the measurable, tangible benefits of the effort are many.
Cultural Benefits of Visual Management implementation
In an age where data-driven reporting and results-oriented management strategies are becoming the expected norm, it can be easy to forget about the relational and cultural health of your organization. The purpose of visual management is a far cry from trying to marginalise individuals and promote bottom line metrics at all costs. In fact, visual management and Lean ideology is based on a ‘deep respect for people’. Below are three of the impacts on your team culture you will observe after implementing visual management:
Unity
An unfortunate truth is that in many organizations, the relationship between manager and employee is one of constant tension, disagreement, and frustration. Over time, this starts to create a ‘managers vs. employees’ mindset where managers are after one thing and employees are working in different direction. If left unchecked, this mindset actually breeds all kinds of organizational waste. When leadership and team members are not aligned and are not excited about the same things, it results into an ineffective team.
Visualmitra actually provides a unique solution to this cultural problem by supplying a shared view, visible to everyone in form of Informative boards, Performance improvement board which is used to report in real-time how the team as one unit is doing. This ‘scoreboard’ is allowing the team to be privy to the same information at the same time, and make decisions in one accord.
Visualmitra custom designed visual management displays will start to point out problems in the process and not problems with people. When an entire team starts dancing to the same tune, and everyone can agree on what success looks like, any employer will find high level of sense of unity within the team.
Alignment of Vision
Similar to unity within a team, it is very common for members at different levels of an organization to have different goals for the company and the personal role they play. Many times the vision and mission of higher management doesn’t reach to the ears of front line employees. In this ‘telephone’ game where we expect vision and mission to be carried on through a conversation the CEO had with the Manager, and the Manager had with the Supervisor, and the Supervisor had with the Employees. Somewhere along the way things are going to get lost and people are not going to be operating on a shared vision.
Visual management provides a transparent information flow which constantly communicates the vision, objectives, and priorities of leadership to everyone, regardless of their job profile. When employees are aware of the metrics are being displayed and driving their day to day work are coming directly from leadership, it boasts their confidence and provide a sense that their work is valuable and important to an organization. Engaged Workforce
As you start to recognise more unity and shared vision across your organization, you will see that employees at all levels are becoming more engaged with their work and feel empowered to identify and solve problems.
As per the Gallup research, keeping employees happy or satisfied is worth to help build inspiring workplace. Just measuring employee satisfaction or happiness levels is not sufficient to create sustainable change, retain star employees, and improve the bottom line. Satisfied or happy employees are not always engaged ones. Engaged employees are committed and hard working ones.
If you’re engaged, you know employer’s expectations form your work and you feel connected with your teammates, and you want to be there. An employee has a feeling of being a part of something significant, which reflects into a want to be part of a solution, to be part of a bigger tribe. All of that results into positive performance consequences for teams and organisation.
In other words, employees who know what is expected of them become more engaged. When you start to feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself, it’s empowering, energising, and you will desire to do your part and add value to the whole. Visual management becomes a vital tool for always letting employees know what is expected of them. As more and more of your workforce becomes engaged with their work, morale will skyrocket and the atmosphere will become attractive to everyone on the team.
Successful visual management implementation has clear benefits creating inspiring cultures, and when you add those benefits to the significant improvement in the actual processes being measured, implementing visuals as part of your Lean Management is a win-win situation for an organisation and employees too.