Read an Excerpt

Seeing is Believing

AMACOM Books

Chapter One

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to manage and be part of an organization that really works? Do you know what such an organization looks like, or how it feels to be in that kind of workplace? Have you ever had days when you wondered whether anyone in your organization really understands what your business is about? Do the people around you keep their heads down, work in seeming isolation, and appear not to understand the full performance requirements of the system? If any of this sounds familiar, you are not alone.

Have you occasionally thought about why you bother to come in to the office some days, given the number of people who just don't seem to care about the business or its results? Do you feel as though you spend too much time trying to figure out how to motivate the people around you? Do you sometimes get discouraged and feel that you are trying to carry the load by yourself? Do you wonder where all the good, energetic, and committed people are? If so, you are in good company.

Have you ever looked around your physical workplace and wondered why nothing there ever seems to change? Do you always seem to see the same furniture, the same color walls and carpet, the same photos and messages on bulletin boards? Do you even notice when new memos are posted or when information is updated? Does this familiarity create a comfort zone at the expense of a vibrancy and energy that could help channel people's efforts in more positive directions? Or have you given up on the idea that your workplace could become a new and different environment in which to spend time? We hear similar concerns from people in nearly every workplace we visit, and we have shown them, as we will show you, that workplaces do not have to be like this.

Imagine!

Imagine an organization that is a work of art, one that uses all the effective management tools and also the tools of an artist to produce an environment that is designed to work great. Imagine a vision statement that is more than just a bunch of words, one that captures the mission, vision, and guiding principles of the organization with a compelling image on a single page. Imagine a physical plant that is bright, airy, and open, one that has the most effective work flow and a workspace that allows people to both concentrate on their individual tasks and work together as a team. Imagine a workplace in which the walls, floors, and ceilings are decorated with a coordinated set of pictures, sculptures, banners, flags, and other displays that are all designed to link people directly to the organization's mission. Imagine that the employees are so proud of the workplace of which they are a part that they bring their families to see it. Imagine a workplace that is so visually coherent that it can instantly shape the impression or point of view of the outside world the minute a visitor enters. Visually, this would be a place that is special, a place that is filled with innovation and creativity.

Now imagine that same workplace as a place in which information is shared to an unprecedented degree, and shared with all employees in many different forms. Imagine that the employees in the organization know and understand the metrics and performance measures, and are working together as a group to try to achieve them. Imagine that the performance of the units and individual employees is posted, that all employees know exactly how they are doing relative to everybody else, that there are mechanisms in place to help low performers improve, and that high-performing teams and individuals are rewarded accordingly. Imagine a work environment in which people are celebrated in employee galleries that display photos of individuals and work teams, of the union leadership, of employee events, and of new and even former employees. Imagine that these galleries also contain photos of the families of employees. This would be an environment in which employees truly felt appreciated by their employer. Now imagine that this same environment is so compelling and so attractive that it enables the organization to recruit and retain top-notch talent. This would truly be a focused and effective workplace.

Finally, imagine that all of these different elements are brought together in one organization using modern management principles, organizational system design principles, and all the tools at the disposal of an artist. Imagine that the result is an organization in which employees are directly connected to the mission, in which information of all types is widely shared, in which employees consistently deliver top performance, in which employees feel celebrated and valued, and in which people have fun working. This is what visual management does, and this is what visual management can do in your organization. Now imagine that you can truly make this happen.

What is it that you want to see, feel, and do when you go to work? Have you made attempts to focus the efforts of people in your organization on common goals? Have you thought about how you might change from a scenario of complacency and build an effective, efficient, and fun (yes, fun!) workplace for yourself and others? If you are asking these questions of yourself, then this book is for you. Throughout the book, we share with you important lessons in how to reenergize, revitalize, and refocus your organization so that it works at its very best. We will show you a process for organizational improvement that encourages people to become more proficient, more committed, and more focused on attaining the goals of the organization. We will walk you through this process step-by-step, and we will show you how to guarantee performance improvements as a result of your efforts. We will show you how to do this across an entire organization or simply within your area or department. And we will help you do this by utilizing leading-edge management practice combined with the tools of an artist to produce a workplace that is deliberately designed to work great. In fact, we will introduce you to the art of visual management.

What Is Visual Management?

Visual management is a system for organizational improvement that can be used in almost any type of organization to focus attention on what is important and to improve performance across the board. It adds a new dimension to the processes, systems, and structures that make up the existing organization by utilizing strong graphic visualization techniques to heighten its focus on performance. This innovative management system adds visible and visual depth and consistency to an organization's messages about its mission and goals; it keeps information about the mission, goals, and performance in front of employees at all times; and it does this in the most visual way possible by converting information about the company, its customers, and its performance into graphic displays that cannot be ignored. Visual management appeals directly to the high level of visual literacy that exists among today's workforce.

The People-Performance Link

At its most basic, visual management establishes and reinforces a direct link between people and performance in organizations. It concentrates on aligning performance with the mission, vision, and strategies of the firm in order to ensure that the end results match what was desired at the beginning. Just imagine motivating people in your organization to attain performance improvements like these:

* 30 percent improvement in customer satisfaction

* 33 percent reduction in rework

* 25 percent improvement in overall productivity

* 20 percent improvement in accuracy

Real organizations have done this with visual management. And these are only a few examples of the performance improvements reported by organizations like those described in this book that are using visual management. What we have learned over time is that there are a number of results that can be anticipated as organizations adopt visual management.

Anticipated Outcomes of Visual Management

Productivity improvements are typical. In a visual management environment, each employee becomes actively accountable for her performance in terms of building expertise through training or education, applying that knowledge on the job, and ensuring that she is performing up to expectation. Skill matrices keep people abreast of what skills they have mastered and which ones they need to improve upon. Performance results are posted at the organization, unit, and individual level to ensure that everyone knows how the performance results are achieved. Low performers are encouraged in positive ways to improve, and they are given an incentive to do this. Results become transparent in a visual management system, and it becomes easier to identify gaps in the process and address them quickly.

Costs are typically reduced, often through increased awareness of controllable costs and reductions in rework. Employees who know exactly what is expected of them, who are well trained to deliver, and who know how they are performing at every given moment tend to focus their work effort on doing things well. Those who are given straightforward cost information and taught how to use it pay more attention to the costs that they can control and tend to reduce scrap and other waste. As a result, they improve the quality of their work output and reduce costs at the same time. There is less non-value-added work being done, and the result is greater efficiency and effectiveness.

The ability to serve the customer rises, often dramatically, in organizations that use visual management. You will read in this book about organizations that turned their cultures around through visual management, and helped their employees truly understand who the customers were and what they needed. By connecting employees to the organization's mission and customers, visual management helps organizations become more sensitive to customer needs, helps them find new ways to meet those needs, and enhances overall customer satisfaction. Employees who understand what customers need often go the extra step to take care of those customers. Perhaps as important, though, is the fact that these same employees no longer waste their time and energy on issues that are not important to the customers.

The use of modern visual learning techniques improves the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees, as they learn and retain information more quickly and easily if it is delivered visually, at least in part. Those who have learned well the first time will make fewer errors as a result. Accuracy typically improves, as does the completion of tasks. Those who will not or cannot learn and those who will not or cannot improve are easily identified so that their performance issues can be dealt with before they become a significant challenge. Visual management clearly addresses performance challenges in organizations.

Employee satisfaction also rises in a visual management environment. People want to be part of a winning team. When they see that an organization is actively engaged in a major improvement effort that includes them, when they begin to see the positive impact of this effort, and when they begin to feel that their contributions count, their outlook on work and the organization typically changes accordingly. They become more engaged in and committed to the work, and their overall satisfaction level increases. On another level, employees in visual management organizations tend to be grateful that performance problems are finally being addressed. The employees all understand how they are doing relative to the goals and their peers, and they all understand that action will be taken if poor performers do not improve, so there are few surprises and relatively fewer grievances.

When an organization adopts a performance-based reward and recognition system that is consistent with visual management principles, the overall credibility of the system naturally rises. Many organizations, over the years, have adopted reward and recognition systems that have no teeth: They are not based on measurable performance or controllable elements. This can result in complaints of unfairness or cronyism. It is difficult to be cynical, however, about a system that is based on data that employees get to see and can control, one in which employees are rewarded on the basis of preset goals that are directly linked to the organization's goals, and one in which they know and understand the operation of the system.

In tight labor markets, visual management organizations tend to have better opportunities to recruit new employees. Prospective employees are attracted to the culture, the physical plant, and the growing reputation for success that these organizations develop.

Of course, there is also the improved physical space, which is the most obvious, although not the most important, outcome of visual management. Physical space is used in an optimum fashion, work flow is enhanced and supported by reconfigurations of space, and wasted space is eliminated. Workplaces tend to become brighter, better organized around work and people, and more functional. They look better than before, constantly reinforce the mission, and remind employees every minute of why they are there. All of this helps support productivity improvements.

Managers often tell us that this all sounds great, but they don't really grasp what's different. They have struggled throughout their careers to lead and motivate employees, to get people to pay attention to the right things, and to improve results. Some are concerned that they won't know what to do or how to manage in a visual management environment; more are concerned that they wouldn't know such an environment if they tripped over it. We know otherwise. As managers learn more about this process, they find that it makes sense to them on an intellectual and emotional level, and they become hooked on visual management.

How Do You Know That You Are in a Visual Management Organization?

The easiest way to know that you are in a visual management organization is simply by looking around. In many organizations, the mission, vision, and guiding principles are printed on a piece of paper or a business card and given out to the employees. At best, employees will glance at the paper once or twice, then put it away and rarely refer to it again. It does not make a lasting impression on them, and the power that a clear mission or vision statement can have is lost to the organization. Sometimes you will see a mission statement in a frame on a wall, but typically it is not located in a place where employees see it constantly, so it has little impact on them or their work.

Continues...

---

Excerpted from Seeing is Believing by Stewart Liff Pamela A. Posey Copyright © 2004 by Stewart Liff and Pamela A. Posey. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---