Visual Workplace Radio: Let The Workplace Speak

How can a line impact performance? After all, it is merely—as John Casey, noted 19th century Irish mathematician, stated—a straight one-dimensional figure, with no thickness, and extending infinitely in both directions, without any ‘wiggles’ along its length.” Why not change the paradigm and turn your “lines” into functions, renaming them “borders.” Liberated from their restricted past, your newly-defined borders are now free to trigger a revolution in operational improvement. Listen this week as Gwendolyn Galsworth (your host and visual workplace expert) completes the 12 reasons for borders and her march through the 18 border types. Learn about person-width and photocopied borders, range of function, dashed, and slanted borders. Hear about directional and double-function borders, borders as controls, barriers and foam borders, and another visit to time-based borders that allow operators to apply core lean principles while retaining a powerful visual focus. Let the workplace speak.

What happens when your 5S lines find a new life and new purpose as borders? What difference does that make—and why is it important? Tune in this week as Gwendolyn Galsworth shares how borders produce excellence, ownership, and commitment on your operational floor. That HOW is directly linked to the brain’s relentless effort to find and interpret visual data. This pattern-seeking mechanism of the brain is both built in—and as involuntary and insistent as our heartbeat. Listen as Dr. Galsworth tells the story of her own discovery of this remarkable function of the mind when an operator team implemented a set of borders that transformed the behavior of forklifts drivers—to everyone’s happy surprise. Hear about the unbreakable connection between the pattern seeking capacity of the brain and the built-in capability of the human mind for continuous improvement. Borders have an incredible power to transform even as they create a sense of safety and alignment. Let the workplace speak

Until a company understands the logic and power of borders, they are treated as merely so many lines—useful for neatness and order but not much more. Few people expect “lines” to improve performance; and they don’t. Borders, however, do. And mightily. Borders function. What a surprise to discover that borders (especially when combined with robust addresses) can measurably increase productivity enterprise-wide even as they build a spirited, engaged, and contributing work culture if none yet exists. If such a culture does exist, borders strengthen it, almost immeasurably. On this week’s show, Gwendolyn Galsworth (your host, author, and visual expert) presents the first of twelve reasons that validate the role of borders on a functional as well as cultural basis. Listen to this first in her new series on operator-led visuality, as Dr. Galsworth describes examples of seven of the 18 types of borders—so you can imagine/re-imagine the role robust borders can play in your company.

Changing the consciousness of your company (and therefore its operational capability) can never happen through sheer dint of effort—as legions of exhausted and disappointed change-agents can attest. It happens when we tie into the deep force within us that is the source of all positive change. In combination with us, this force works to inspire, transfer, and translate the new thought. The kind of changes that take place as you implement, for example, the principles and practices of workplace visuality change the way that work gets done in your company -- and change you in the process. This is what you want to happen. This is what is meant to happen. Tune in this week as Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual workplace expert, completes the discussion she launched last week into chaos theory, morphogenic fields, fractals and leadership. Adding to this powerful mix, she shares the story of the 100th Monkey, tying its relevance to the transformation that every enterprise wants.

Strange how most of us think that change happens—and how companies learn and improve. Stranger yet is how we seek to validate the progress we think we are making by identifying exact causes and the concrete logic of the physical. But what if an entirely different set of causes pertain? What if an all-but-undetectable logic produces tangible, physical outcomes? What if reality ain’t what it’s supposed to be? Yikes! Tune in this week when your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, takes you into the world of chaos theory, fractals, and morphogenic fields. Listen as she shares scientific and personal research about the largest gap in human knowledge: “What we don’t know that we don’t know.” The implications are compelling for all of us, leaders included. When leaders decide to deploy a structured process to move their organizations forward, forces are set into motion that will challenge that decision—even as other forces are triggered that invisibly support it. Tune in/learn more.

What happens when supervisors use metrics that drive—instead of measures that merely monitor? This week, Gwendolyn Galsworth (host/visual expert) shares the telling difference as part of her Visual Leadership series. The focus? The role of supervisors and managers as leaders of improvement. Too many managers falsely believe that posting KPIs on a dashboard or bulletin boards will trigger improvement. They are wrong. When they deploy visual metrics instead, they illuminate cause, build local ownership of the problem, and use those metrics that drive us down the causal chain—and bridge naturally over to visual problem solving (VPS). Traditional PS organizes the noise around a problem. VPS doggedly pursues cause in the nested, multi-layered construct where cause resides. There is no silver bullet solution. Listen as Gwendolyn also shares her perspectives on—and experiences with—CEDAC®, ScoreBoarding, Rolls-Royce/Aerospace, Sheldalh, and Sumitomo’s great practitioner: Dr. Ryuji Fukuda.

Question: Don’t computers make visual displays redundant? Answer: No, the reverse is true; displays are often the only means by which we can, in real time, find and share data from multiple sources (including but not limited to from computers) and cultivate operational excellence. As importantly, displays provide supervisors with the margin and means to master daily dilemmas and become leaders of improvement, not merely logistical expediters. Join Gwendolyn Galsworth in this second installment of the indispensable role displays play in not just improving performance but, as importantly, in providing harried supervisors with that modicum of margin that allows them to grow and lead. Listen as Gwendolyn shares her “10 + 5” add-ons for building more powerful displays and a more actionable understanding of what production data really mean. Learn more as she describes the legendary impact Charles Minard’s visual display had in depicting Napoleon’s disastrous march on Moscow in 1812.

Change is never easy, especially when we are the focus. Join Gwendolyn Galsworth in the next show in her visual leadership series as she discusses the power of visual displays to help supervisors/managers learn the behaviors of becoming leaders of improvement. No longer harried expeditors of logistics, these hard-working lieutenants use displays to organize information into a single, centralized format so they can: a) see the dynamic relationship between complex layers of fast-changing data, b) derive meaning, c) make precise, useful decisions, and d) take timely, independent action. Through displays, supervisor gain control over their corner of the world, even when the pressure is on. Listen and learn how displays become the anchor for the supervisors need to know—morphing overtime into vital action centers for change. And, in the process of changing the workplace, these leaders-in-the making gain the internal margin they need to change themselves. Let the workplace speak.

How can structural limits be useful to Executive Leaders? Study the X-Type Matrix and find out. In this episode in her visual leadership series, Gwendolyn Galsworth delves into the importance of the very limits the X-Type incorporates in its layout. More than any other visual leadership tool, the matrix teaches executives their most important function: how to say yes to the few and wait to the many. As the X-Type teaches us discipline and clarity, it also guides us in developing greater skill in deciding and driving on ever finer levels of detail and effectiveness. The X-Type teaches—and it does not waiver. It doesn’t give an inch. You learn ... or the tool stops helping you. Set it aside, blame the tool—but the X-Type merely waits until we learn the lesson it was designed to teach: We will fail as leaders if we do not curb our appetite and cultivate discernment—lean-ness in thinking and action. This is why the X-Type Matrix is the supreme vehicle for attaining our improvement future.

Why do some executives shake their heads in disgust at mention of the X-Type Matrix—while other sing its praises and credit it for not just saving their company but their jobs. The answer to the first: They were taught incorrectly and badly. The answer to the second: They were taught well. The X-Type Matrix is a single-author tool that allows the visual executive (YOU!) to translate, align, and integrate your company’s vision, mission, and strategy into actionable, cross-functional goals, and projects. Listen this week as Gwendolyn Galsworth, visual expert and your host, defines the X-Type Matrix in detail and explains: a) how a leader develops it; and 2) how that same leader deploys it through others. Once in place, the X-Type connects with the projects, targets, outcomes, and resources required to achieve coveted enterprise outcomes. It is your annual plan on a single page—precise, actionable, and exciting. Yes, there are mistakes to avoid and victories to win. Tune in/Learn more.

What does it mean for a leader to name the horizon? And why is that important? When a leader names the horizon, he names where he wants the company to go together. The horizon is the destination (for example, a 40-Day Engine). Join Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual expert, as she continues her description of her Operation System Improvement Template (OSIT). “Deciding,” she tells us, is where visual leadership begins. The nine OSIT elements provide the foundation for this, allowing the leader to name: 1) customer; 2) vision; 3) mission; 4) values & beliefs; 5) strategy; 6) macro metric; 7) strategic principles; 8) tactical systems; and 9) methods. Attempting to run your company without a fleshed-out OSIT, she says, is comparable to the difference between skiing down the powdery slopes of your favorite mountain—or getting caught in a blizzard on that same mountain, without skis, without food, without a compass, and without anybody even knowing you are there. Tune in/learn more.

Have you seen this? Executives in front of dashboards and LCD monitors, eating up KPI and OEE data. Some, real time. Executives love it. We ask why. The answer is simple: Because they get answers to the question: “Should I worry—or can I relax?” This week, Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual expert, explains that such tools provide executives with information but not with meaning, context or direction—without which executives cannot function effectively. As remedy, Galsworth presents the first of her top three visual tools to help leaders decide and drive (their job): Operations System Improvement Template/OSIT. At first glance, OSIT may look like just another version of the Toyota House (temple), capturing key TPS elements and ready for the office wall. But when fully understood and used, OSIT becomes the premier tool for defining the company’s corporate intent and connecting that to the strategy and principles required for stability and then dynamic growth. Tune in/learn more.

What does a leader of improvement on the supervisory level do? Does that new role overlap with such traditional supervisory duties as expedite and firefight? This week, as her series on Visual Leadership continues, Gwendolyn Galsworth (your host and visual expert) maps out the seven elements that define improvement leadership for supervisors and managers—and then explains how visuality is the glue that holds them all together. With “improve” as the anchor element, she walks through the other six: stabilize, measure, target, problem-solve, coach, and model. Then she shares a simple way for supervisors to self-diagnose and put those skills into action, without over-reaching or making too sharp a turn away from their current duties. The key is understanding; then practice one new behavior at a time with a buddy—then another. Easy does it. It’s best to eat this particular elephant one bite at a time. Change is never easy, especially when you are its focus. But excellence requires it.

What is visual leadership? Why is it so important? How do leaders become more effective? What does “effective leadership” mean anyway? These are just a few of the questions your host and visual expert, Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth, tackles this week with the next installment in her visual leadership series. The fact is: Compelling, natural leaders are rare in any field—regardless of industry or venue. Executives, managers, supervisors! To make a compelling leadership contribution to the enterprise, you need to do more than simply chase down information, monitor KPIs, submit reports, and show up for meetings. You need to change your job description, and in the process, change yourselves. Fire the boss that you are—and hire a new one. You need to transform your identity. But identities shift only when we see and understand ourselves differently. Tune in as Gwendolyn maps out the seven behavioral elements that executives engage in order to become powerful leaders of improvement, visually.

Do not confuse managing with leading. Yes, they need each other but they are not the same thing. Each has a central role to play but sequence matters. Join us for the second show in the Visual Leadership series of your host and visual expert, Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth. Over 35 years of hands on experience in the field of visual transformation taught her that managing is a peace time activity; and its behaviors align: We keep things going and stay on an even keel. We monitor, track, and check. And then we check again. Management is about stabilization. Leadership is about growth. Management creates short term safety and a knowable future. Leadership creates short term risk and future expansion. Change is not easy but leaders make it possible. Listen as she shares how the head of one of Indias greatest family conglomerates pivoted his senior team into the first leadership step on a single Saturday morning but only after half the group quit. Tune in or Learn more. Let the workplace speak.

Lean is capable of improving the operational profile of so many companies and fast. Yet we ask: When lean turn arounds are so rapid, can culture be transformed as well? While it is imaginable, for most companies it is unlikely. And while many techniques impact the work cultural, none in the view of host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, is more powerful than visuality in transforming a work culture completely and sustainably. This week Gwendolyn launches the first show in her Visual Leadership series and describes how visuality does it. Hear how and why her visual approach engenders fierce commitment and very personal expression. Learn how visuality creates connectivity in an enterprise, even tough ones. Understand the power of margin that slightest bit of internal personal space that can and does liberate human potential and trigger a spirited, engaged and unified workforce. Learn for yourself, why she says: Visuality doesn't just support an aligned work culture. It creates it.

Did you know: visual management (VM) is only a subset of the visual workplace? Did you know there are seven other key categories of visual function? Though VM is important (especially to managers and executives), it contributes only about 10% benefit to your bottom line and work culture. Join us this week as your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, defines VM and its over arching goal: to clarify, connect and align operational results with the corporate intent through an array of highly visible (but flat) 2D formats charts, graphs, LCD monitors, KPI dashboards, etc. But VM only shows the results of behavior. It does not create behavior. It does not imbed it. It is limited and over estimated. It cannot replace the other visual functions it is only one of them. Expand your thinking expand your language. Realize the full benefit the visual workplace can contribute to your bottom line and to growing a spirited and engaged work culture. Understand what visual management is not.

Have you noticed? There are two leans in the world today. One lean is defined as a known and knowable destination, achieved by applying a closely defined, formulaic engineering protocol that uses time as the lever. The other lean is seen the same as continuous improvement a never ending process without a hard edge, co terminous with the pursuit of perfection. Join us on Visual Workplace Radio as your host and leading expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, presents the dilemma of two of lean two options or two rivals. First, she un nests each approach. Next she considers a third option, keenly captured in the saga of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot. Then, linking Alex and his solution to our day, she shares her experience with Delphi Automotive when the company set aside its own widely accepted definitions, rules, and practices to achieve a 30% increase in productivity on the shoulders of an already perfected lean production system. In a stroke Delphi defined what growth meant to it.

Do we really have to like all the people all the time—especially if “some people” are not cooperating with our very important improvement agenda? Can’t we just make them? Or are we forced, in today’s PC-zealous world, to “show respect” for everyone—even when some are clearly indifferent to the corporate intent and others actively push back? Join us this week as your host, Gwendolyn Galsworth, shares her take on this tricky scenario. Listen as she shares The Parable of the Rowers. What does she advise? Don’t cave in and sacrifice your improvement vision. And don’t push your agenda strenuously. Instead learn the telling difference between inertia and resistance—and how to handle both. Keep your eye on the main event: getting visual improvement going and growing in the company. To do so, you may have to learn a new and very different way: allowing, even encouraging, people to be themselves, without fear of penalty—even if they are grumpy. Let the workplace speak!

How do visual principles and practices create heroes at work? What are the mechanics? In this third show in her series, The Hero Within, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, un-nests the power of the two questions that drive workplace visuality: What do I need to know? and What do I need to share? This is the journey of the I. Building on last week’s discussion, Dr. Galsworth maps out how the first question builds self-sufficiency—and the second builds self-leadership among team members and across departments. Each question is designed to help individuals shift their identity as they build the details of their operations into the living landscape of work through visual devices. This impact is huge. That’s when managers and executives realize they are not just investing in a 15% to 30% increase in productivity when they bring visuality on board, they are also cultivating a spirited and engaged workforce—heroes at work. Tune in/Learn more. Let the workplace speak.