Lesson Learned #16
Observations are a problem solving technique designed to get people to actually focus for a few hours on some part of a process to determine how much of a person’s (or a machine’s) day is adding value or not adding value. It’s like being a human video recorder with the added task of having to actually analyze what you are seeing. It can be a little boring if you are watching a repetitive task but it is remarkable what you see if you have the patience to really pay close attention to what is happening. We consistently find that as much as 50% of the time people are “busy doing something” at work, they are not actually adding any value to a product or service. It’s the time people spend reworking, or fire-fighting, or expediting, or doing something because there’s a breakdown somewhere else in the process. It might have to be done, and it can be hard work, it just doesn’t add any value.
When we introduce the concept of observations, managers are concerned that employees will feel uncomfortable if they have a “human shadow”. Employees do of course have some initial awkwardness, but once they get over that (which happens quickly) they appreciate the fact that someone is trying to see the world through their eyes. Managers also at first think that an observation is “artificial” in some way because surely a person being observed will be more diligent or harder working than normal. This turns out to be somewhat irrelevant. What we find when we do observations is that problems happen whether people want them to or not. Operating problems are caused by having the wrong information supplied to you, or a needed part is missing, or you have to re-do something or you simply have to wait for some reason. All of these problems occur whether someone is standing next to you or not. We rarely observe pure idle time but we still see as much as half a person’s day doing things that ideally shouldn’t need to be done.
On projects we get managers to conduct their own observations. We have found that it is important to get them to see the opportunity for themselves rather than just rely on a consultant’s opinion. Invariably managers will comment on how useful observations are. But also invariably, when we come back six months after a project ends to review the status of what was implemented during the project, we find that most managers have stopped doing them. The simple reasons they stop doing them is because they are time consuming, often boring, and they are not “required” activities of a manager. It’s too bad, it’s a very valuable problem solving tool that rarely gets used.
