Genchi Genbutsu: Leaders Develop Other Leaders

It’s often said that Toyota builds people, then it builds cars. To this end, it’s important to consider how Genchi Genbutsu as a principle helps us to develop other people.

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Other articles in the Genchi Genbutsu Series:

1. Genchi Genbutsu: Data versus Facts
2. Genchi Genbutsu: Develop Better Judgment
3. Genchi Genbutsu: See the Problem Clearly
4. Genchi Genbutsu: Develop Empathy
5. Genchi Genbutsu: Helps us to Develop Others

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The final aspect of Genchi Genbutsu I’d like to discuss is how it helps us accomplish the following:

• Genchi Genbutsu helps us to develop other people.

Involving people in understanding the problem and at arriving at solutions is a powerful countermeasure to resistance; it is disarming; it is a wonderful way to teach others, to stretch them, and to help others grow, learn, and develop personally and professionally.

By practicing “go and see” and employing socratic methods rather than telling others an answer, we help them to think through problems:

1. How can we make this better?
2. If a customer were here, what would he have us do?
3. If a customer were here, what would she have us stop doing?
4. Is there a better way to build this product?

These deceptively simple questions, when asked in the right spirit, could fundamentally transform a company, improve the customer experience, and help improve other aspects of the organization.

Genchi Genbutsu, “Go and See”, is a management practice of going to the actual place where the phenomena is happening. But is more than that: it is involving the people there by asking the right questions, in the right spirit, with the goal of involving others in the understanding of the problem and in the development of the solution(s).

And, when others are involved in this manner, they are growing, learning, feel part of something, and developing.