As business leaders, we all need our teams and processes to run as efficiently — and leanly — as possible. Equally, we expect to drive a culture of continuous improvement to ensure that we stay ahead of the competition. To put it bluntly, we all need to constantly do better, to achieve more with less.

Achieving this is not easy. People and organizations can be resistant to change and high-performing teams are likely to be satisfied with the status quo. Yet the benefits of embedding a culture of continuous improvement can be truly transformative.

In this blog, we discuss the results of a decade-long experiment in continuous improvement undertaken by our SAP Delivery Studio team. Using the lean management concept of "Gemba Walk,” the team revolutionized its management strategies, transforming a small team into a powerhouse of industry-leading productivity and innovation.

What is Gemba Walk?

A Gemba Walk is a deceptively simple method that can deliver very powerful results. It is, first and foremost, a quality assurance methodology that seeks to identify risks, issues and opportunities for improvement early in the process with the goal of improving the effectiveness of your delivery team.

"Gemba" is the Japanese term for "real workplace," and this is its guiding principle. Gemba Walk is a proactive approach that brings managers face-to-face with the front lines of work, replacing isolated decision-making with dynamic, real-time problem-solving and continuous improvement. The methodology brings management to the work floor to engage directly with employees, understand the processes and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

The theory is that managers can drive significant enhancements in efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction by observing actual processes, engaging with frontline employees and verifying the effectiveness of improvements.

Adapting Gemba Walk to SAP service delivery: A case study

Taking our first steps toward Gemba: Adopting lean practices

In 2014, the nascent HCLTech's SAP Delivery Studio team undertook a simple yet profound experiment that sparked a groundbreaking shift in how we managed our team dynamics and leadership approaches.

When we started this experiment, the team consisted of our SAP Basis capability — a Center of Excellence (CoE) responsible for pre-sales, expert services and shared delivery functions across various contracts. We intended to grow the delivery footprint, and to this end, we introduced lean management practices, including stand-up meetings, backlog planning, demand forecasting and incremental planning.

This approach quickly yielded positive results, increasing productivity and enabling the team to scale to multiple delivery locations.

Moving towards Gemba: Challenges and adaptations

As the team grew, we encountered daily operational challenges, including situations where simple problems or dependencies were not reported on time and escalated. The quality gates, which typically identified issues only at phase ends or during weekly reviews, were too late to prevent or correct problems.

To address these issues, we drew inspiration from Vineet Nayar's (our CEO then) book Employee First, Customer Second and adopted the Gemba Walk methodology.

We customized the Gemba Walk to fit our context, initially starting with a set of ten questions during daily stand-ups, which was later refined to three core questions to foster more focused and meaningful interactions:

• "How are you today?" ('kaise hain aap')
• “How is the work progressing?” (‘kaam kaisa chal raha hai’)
• “Any challenges?” (‘koee samasya’)

1. Organizational restructuring

   The Gemba Walk shifted how we approached program governance and quality assurance, beginning with organizational restructuring. We instituted several changes, including:

   1. Office layout: Delivery managers would work alongside project teams in open workspaces, eliminating corner offices and isolated cabins.
   2. Organizational hierarchy: The structure was flattened to three levels — consultants, leads and mentors, regardless of seniority.
   3. Ground reporters or delivery leads: A small, designated group known as ground reporters conducted the walks, taking leadership roles in their respective programs and mentoring others in technology and process improvement.
   4. Editorial board daily stand-up: All ground reporters became editorial board members. They collectively discuss the Breaking News and make decisions. The actions and decisions that come out of the editorial board's daily stand-up are as follows: The "seniormost" is the one in charge and is a tie-breaker if there is an impasse. They meet daily to discuss risks, actions, issues and decisions tracked in a RAID log.

2. Empowering our "ground reporters"

   Ground reporters engage directly with project teams to observe operational processes and collect firsthand insights. This practice fosters a culture of continuous improvement and empowers employees by integrating their feedback into daily operations. Ground reporters also help verify whether these changes have been effectively integrated. The insights gathered help assess whether improvements are effective, whether they deliver the intended value to customers and whether they need iterative adjustments from time to time.

   Ground reporters need to have two distinct qualities. One is active listening, where they focus on understanding employee feedback without directing or instructing, ensuring that all voices are heard and looking out for potential risks and issues to bring back to daily stand-up. The second is active follow-up. Post daily stand-up, ground reporters communicate to employees actions and decisions based on their feedback, reinforcing a culture of trust and continuous engagement throughout the program.

3. The central importance of the editorial board

   The editorial board played a crucial role in maintaining oversight of ongoing issues and steering the direction of group efforts. It utilized interpersonal skills and analytical tools to address challenges effectively.

   To be effective, we found that this board needed to have a balance of both people skills and hard-core technical skills. While Gemba Walk does not require any advanced statistical knowledge or tools to conduct walks (like in Six Sigma, Safe Agile, Activate etc.), the editorial board did make effective use of statistical tools like the Pareto Chart, Value Stream Management, 5 whys, Six Sigma etc. to fix recurring issues and undertake Business Process Improvement or Process Re-engineering.

Implementation and impact: Transformative outcomes

The Gemba Walk is now a cornerstone of our management strategy, enhancing engagement and pre-emptively addressing potential problems to improve overall productivity and quality. This group has developed automation and quickly adapted technologies and is now recognized as an industry leader. The team actively writes community whitepapers and participates in (and wins) global contests. Attrition is low, and overall employee satisfaction and engagement are high.

Indeed, adopting Gemba Walk has transformed our operations. What began as a team of a few scores of consultants has grown into the SAP Delivery Studio, now a robust team of over 450 skilled SAP consultants successfully delivering more than 80 contracts.

Conclusion: Why you should consider adopting Gemba Walk

Gemba Walk is a simple yet powerful method to enhance quality, standardize processes and foster innovation in the workplace. By engaging directly with the workforce, Gemba Walk facilitates the faster identification of issues and fosters a proactive approach to quality management, leading to significant improvements over traditional methods.

Implementing Gemba Walk requires significant planning and preparation. It involves more than casual interactions; it's a structured approach that connects with employees personally and professionally, demonstrating management's genuine interest in their contributions. The result is higher employee engagement, increased morale and improved productivity.

To conclude, our top three takeaways from a decade of performing Gemba Walks are:

• Higher people engagement with those who actually do the work and create value.
• Achievement of continuous improvement: The team now proactively and quickly identifies opportunities for improvement and takes action, keeping the focus on efficiency and quality.
• Proactive rather than reactive issue resolution: Gemba Walk identifies problems before they are reported as issues or risks, making teams proactive rather than reactive about quality.