Visual Workplace Radio: Let The Workplace Speak

What is Visual Thinking? Our ability to recognize motion (the enemy) and the information deficits that cause it—and then to eliminate both through solutions that are visual. A main outcome of a visual conversion is the emergence of a companywide competency: people who know how to think visually—Visual Thinkers. Such thinkers see workplace problems in a new way and solve them using a set of principles called The Building Blocks of Visual Thinking. Listen as host Gwendolyn Galsworth, visual system expert and award-winning author, introduces the first of these building blocks, sharing the two I-driven questions that power workplace visuality. I-driven is Galsworth’s way to involve all operational levels in creating an enterprise-wide visual language. From operator to CEO, manager to supervisor, engineers to purchasers and marketers, this is the dynamic that makes visuality rich, robust, relevant, and sustainable—the key to an aligned and empowered work force. A great ENCORE show!

What happens AFTER the Visual Where (“5S”) is in place? Do visual contributions from value-add associates stop? If no, then how do line employees continue to visually build a robust operational language for day-to-day work? That’s the topic of this week’s Visual Workplace show. In it, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, explains how operators can extend their visual thinking to new areas of challenge: motion triggered by information needed by internal (and later, external) customers and suppliers. She calls this extended or advanced visual thinking: “Customer-Driven Visuality,” one of the keys to sustainability through visuality. In this fourth show on SUSTAIN, Galsworth answers the double-sided question: How do we use visuality to anchor and sustain continuous improvement—and to also improve and extend visuality itself? When do, continuous improvement becomes a way of life in the company—and, with it, a spirited and engaged workforce. This is an Encore show.

What does “perfection” mean in a world of stress, struggle, and disease? What does it mean in our lives—and for our health? This week, Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual expert, takes a pause from visual workplaces to have a talk about the health and well-being of the people who work in them. She interviews Dr. Brian Clement, who for over 30 years has been researching and practicing natural health and progressive nutrition. For that many years, Dr. Clement has also been director of the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, world famous for building and re-building one’s immune system through whole, plant-based foods, consumed raw. Dr. Clement has worked with thousands of people, suffering from every imaginable ailment—heart disease, hepatitis, rheumatoid and osteo arthritis, Alzheimers, anorexia, and all forms of cancer. His take on “perfection,” not surprisingly, maps closely to Gwendolyn’s. Tune in to our LIVE show on the secrets of green health. Your call-in is welcome!

Why is getting improvement going so tricky? Why do companies so often bail in the early stages—long before they even have had time to fail? Why is it that the start stops us? Building on last week’s show when we learned the difference between the HOW of deployment and the WHAT, Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual workplace expert, maps out five factors that can doom our best efforts to launch successful improvement initiatives. The first factor, discussed last week, is the mistaken pursuit of perfection. Secondly, we are often far too casual about choosing the methodology itself—or it lacks a separate and robust implementation protocol. The third factor that can defeat us is when managers demand results too quickly and, in doing so, rob the organization. Fourth, our trainers begin to train groups for the wrong reasons. Fifth, implementers decide to re-shape the methodology long before they have learned it. It’s the start that stops us. Tune in LIVE and find out why.

It is a well-recognized fact that understanding WHAT to do is only half the battle in operational improvement. The other half is HOW—and then doing it. Knowledge + Know-how. In this week’s show, Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual workplace expert, shares the lessons she has taught—and learned—about getting HOW going. If you’ve already cracked this code and learned how to deploy and make it stick, launching another improvement initiative will only strengthen you. But if you are a newcomer (or have a history of “almost-made-its”), the challenge of putting knowledge in place—so it can be and is used—can be a mighty challenge. So much is at stake: 1) promised bottom-line results; 2) cultural growth; 3) hope and confidence; and 4) the reputation of the people who promised success. Your reputation. But few authentic roadmaps exist to help with this subtle, behind-the-scenes process. It’s the start that stops us unless we know that and what to do about it. Tune in LIVE. Call in.

Despite heroic efforts on the part of many, three decades after JIT/Lean reached our shores, most companies have not yet achieved one-piece flow or its material corollary, zero inventories (not more than three hours of WIP). In fact, many organizations are still packed to the rafters with stock—and just about everything else. Whether you fit this profile or not, today’s show is for you! In it, Gwendolyn Galsworth (yes, she’s back!), your host and visual expert, shares examples of addresses that support material handling and other such variable needs as changeover. Learn about, for example, addresses that are especially designed to handle unpredictable material movement. Also learn about the final of the three automatic recoil elements of the visual where: ID Labels. In powerful partnership with borders and addresses, ID Labels help to establish the accuracy, stability, and transparency needed to imbed flow into the living landscape of work. Tune in LIVE. Your call-ins are welcomed!

Imagine reaching such high levels of quality control—at such a low cost—that quality becomes free? Or actually pays? Last week, Martin Hinckley (quality expert and author of Make No Mistake) described the difference between mistakes and variation. This week, he explains that while many organizations still view variation as the enemy, few have learned how to control it without Statistical Process Control (SPC). They have yet to learned what Martin knows: mistake-proofing is the way to not only control variation and the other two sources of defects—but, at the same time, eliminate forever the need for data collection, process tracking, downstream inspection, and statistical analysis! For all their brilliance, W. E. Deming along with the developers of Six Sigma at Motorola (Mikel Harry & Rigel Stewart) failed to recognize this: how to reduce defects without using SPC. Tune in this week and learn more about achieving world-class through mistake-proofing. (Gwendolyn returns next week!)

Do you chase down defects with in-process inspection and SPC—and yet fail to control quality in your company? If so, it is not your fault. You, and millions of others, are looking for solutions in the wrong places. This week (while Gwendolyn presents on Visual Leadership in England), Martin Hinckley, world-renown quality expert and author of “Make No Mistake,” hosts the show and shares his expertise on the role of mistakes in defects and why statistical methods are useless in controlling them. Hear Dr. Hinckley disclose: 1) the inability of SPC/Six Sigma to ever predict system-level defects, 2) how statistical methods mask mistakes; and 3) the unique role that poka-yoke devices (Gwendolyn calls them visual guarantees) plays in addressing the exceptional challenge of mistakes. Get ready to change your mind about—well, about everything. We don’t just believe you can achieve defect-free work. We know you can! (This is a LIVE show, the first of several on this topic this summer.)

Too many companies make the mistake of training and implementing the visual workplace the same way they train and implement lean. In fact, the success of a visual workplace depends on a launch protocol that is very different from the one that works for lean. This week, Gwendolyn Galsworth, your host and visual workplace expert, shares the training and implementation secrets she has discovered in thirty years of hands-on visual workplace conversions. Her learning curve was like that of most: some important early failures and a ton of impressive successes. Learn why teaching people about visuality through simulations is not often a good choice. Discover the real purpose of the first visual conversion cycle in a company. Hear how Galsworth defines resistance and inertia. And why she says that success in addressing them usually begins by ignoring them. Tune in and hear lessons learned and make them part of your own process. This is an ENCORE SHOW for the 4th of July Holiday.

Addresses are like all visual devices: Standardizing too soon can create death by sameness. This week your host and visual expert Gwendolyn Galsworth discusses the importance of rich, vibrant, relevant addresses and the danger of robbing the company (and its employees) of this outcome by attempting to standardize them too soon. One of the hallmarks of a spirited and engaged workforce and a genuinely effective visual conversion is what she calls the “weird” factor—or, in polite company, the “local” factor. If your addresses look suspiciously similar and seem to occur on the same level of mind/imagination, something is not right. Either: 1) The “good enough” bar is set too low; or 2) No time—or not enough time—is set aside for improvement activity. In either case, your visual improvement process is short-circuited, along with excellent addresses. Tune in this week and learn about the importance of setting standards for your addresses—but not the standards most people think we mean.

What are the three things we now know for sure about sustainment? 1) A company that does not learn how to sustain its improvements will lose them. 2) A company that thinks audits creates sustainment has confused compliance with engagement—and will fail. 3) Sustainment requires a balance between people, imagination, and structure/tools. In today’s Visual Workplace show, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, un-nests the fourth understanding: 4) Sustaining means driving—and to drive you need a destination (a clear focus) and plenty of gas. Join us and hear specific ways to cultivate continuous engagement as part of your sustainment process. Learn how to re-fresh and re-fuel people’s thinking on a regular and scheduled basis (monthly/daily) so new ideas and inventions are continually generated and your KPIs improve. Learn more about why we say: Visuality doesn’t just drive work culture—it creates it. This is an ENCORE show. Gwendolyn is on-site in Mexico and back next week.

Which way is forward? What is progress? Is perfection really the goal? Back from her work in England, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, shares insights from her encounters there—with corporate giants, privately-held shops, and many continuous improvement (CI) specialists. Some of these companies are active in their deployment of visuality; others barely at the starting gate. Galsworth speaks frankly of the surprising similarity in their challenges and misconceptions as they seek a more effective and complete operational model. They go forth—boldly or meekly/sincerely or cynically—like so many spokes of a wheel. Though aligned closely to its neighbors, each spoke seems the opposite of the facing one. Yet all move toward the same compelling center: prosperity, stability, continuous improvement, and personal contribution. In short: unity. As ever, Galsworth stresses the relevance, usefulness and power of thinking—and warns us against its opposite: marketing. Tune in LIVE.

How do you achieve a fully-functioning visual enterprise and a workforce of visual thinkers? The roadmap for getting there is The Ten Doorways, a central framework that matches up specific company groups (managers, associates, CEOs, engineers, supervisors, etc.) with categories of visual function (methods): operators/visual order; engineers & managers/visual standards; supervisors/visual displays; executives/visual leadership; planners , engineers & managers/visual pull systems; and so on. It requires the entire enterprise to create a workforce of visual thinkers. This week your host Gwendolyn Galsworth, visual workplace expert and award-winning author, introduces you to the overall logic of her ten-door template. Then she delves into Doorway One: Visual Order/Visual Inventiveness, a category of visual function many refer to as 5S. But hold on to your hats! When Gwendolyn defines 5S, it is more like “5S on Steroids.” This is an Encore Show. Gwendolyn is in the UK for one more week.

What is Visual Thinking? Our ability to recognize motion (the enemy) and the info deficits that cause it—and then to eliminate both through solutions that are visual. A main outcome of a visual conversion is the emergence of a companywide competency: people who know how to think visually. Visual thinkers see workplace problems in a new way, solving them through the principles called The Building Blocks of Visual Thinking. Listen as host Gwendolyn Galsworth, visual expert/award-winning author, shares those Building Blocks and how to use them to create a fully-functioning, visual work environment and a spirited and engaged workforce. When you do, expect powerful, long-lasting visual solutions that directly and dramatically improve safety, delivery, quality, cost, and morale. If you’re just starting, stalled or well on your way, learn how to apply visual thinking to your company—whatever the work venue, from bank to dry cleaners. This is an Encore Show. Gwendolyn is in the UK.

Answer this: How did knowledge first reach us about JIT, one-piece flow, employee empowerment, suggestion systems, SMED, X-Type Matrix, Total Productive Maintenance, and cellular design? If you say from Japan or even Toyota, you are only partly right. The truth is these world-changing methods arrived on our shores thanks, in great part, to the tireless efforts of Norman Bodek. Rightly dubbed “Dr. Improvement,” Norman nearly single-handedly brought the knowledge wealth of the then “Japanese Miracle” and turned it into courses, videos, and nearly 100 splendid books. In today’s show, Gwendolyn Galsworth interviews her past boss, asking him to share the telling details of how, in the 1980s and 90s, he did this with such speed and on a stunning scale. Then hear how Norman re-invented himself in the last decade to become author of now seven books on productivity, continuous improvement, and the power within. Hear about his latest amazing discovery: The Harada Method. This is a live show.

Far too many companies apply addresses in a kind of get-it-over-with manner. Cookie-cutter fashion, they plaster white labels everywhere and on everything—usually with black numbers and letters (the most ineffective combination)—in the mistaken belief that this fulfils the requirement (usually under the umbrella of 5S). It does not. Small wonder that the very people who put these sad little addresses in place lose the will and the interest to maintain them. The standard has already been set: good enough, the enemy of excellence. This week, your host, visual expert, and award-winning author, Gwendolyn Galsworth, continues her series on addresses and drills down into the detail. First she reveals her Six Unbreakable Rules on addresses and then she shares insider tips on maximizing address effectiveness. Addresses, the prefect border partner—both indispensable elements of The Visual Where. Tune in LIVE. (Our interview with Norman Bodek is postponed another week while he fully recovers.)

An address is not just a label with a name on it! The logic of addresses goes far beyond simple naming. Yet, in far too many companies, addresses are overlooked or merely given lip service. Like a road map without any city or street names, without excellent addresses we have little chance of finding the vital workplace items stored on racks, shelves, on the walls and, yes, on the floor. Worse than that, without effective addresses, shortages, mix ups and even accidents are bound to occur—along with late deliveries, unhappy customers, and increasingly long lead times. This week on The Visual Workplace, your host and award-winning author, Gwendolyn Galsworth, begins her series on addresses. Count on at least three shows as Gwendolyn reveals what she has learned about addresses over the past 30 years: their importance and their very wide variety (although next week will probably feature the interview with Norman Bodek we missed today because of his emergency operation). Tune in LIVE.

You know what we know: borders are an indispensable and a powerful element in your language of operational visuality. Whether you are in discrete manufacturing, continuous process flow, high or low volume production, in a hospital or in a laboratory, borders can visually capture the where, what, who, when, how many, and how of performance. Add an address for that message to become robust. Today, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, walks you through the step-by-step process she created for developing a sturdy color-coded system for borders—or for vetting the one you already have. Get your pen and paper ready, this will be in detail and immediately applicable—categories of visual function that each border color represent, how much floor space each color commands, which colors need to be in held common across the enterprise and where flights of fancy are permissible. Full disclosure. Call in with a question or comment and receive our color-code border system template.

Our exploration—and exultation—of the power of borders continues. Completing the agenda from last week’s show, your host and visual expert, Gwendolyn Galsworth, provides three stunning examples of the double-border function—highly useful applications you can bring to your own company and your own area. She then moves on to color-coded borders and the secret of their success (as well as the most common mistakes). As time permits, Galsworth will detail two other border-strengthening processes. First, her tips for laying down borders that last a year but can be removed overnight. Then she shares her 11-Step Procedure for developing a color-coded system for borders that, among other things, ties each color to the percentage of floor space that color category actually occupies. This is a call-in show so don’t hesitate to tell us about your own border/color-code challenges. Time is not an issue. Anything we don’t finish this week, we can complete during next week’s show.