The Benefits of Lean Visual Management

There’s a common phrase we use here at Clarity, ‘how can the team be expected to win if they don’t know the score?’ – it’s true! Visual management lets the team know exactly what’s important, and what the business cares about most; it empowers the team to focus on the goals needed to win and shows everyone in a work area why their work matters.

We hear it time and time again when we visit clients; they are sometimes even on their 3^rd or 4^th attempt at getting their Lean programme to work and have failed in the past due to poor engagement and a lack of buy-in. The unity that visual management gives is second to none and getting everyone aligned to the vision and engaged is unparalleled. Truly, effective visual management is the key to unleashing the power of Lean in your business.

What are the benefits of visual management?

Visual management is a tool used to quickly and efficiently pass on key information. It’s a proven fact that as humans we process information presented to us much more quickly than any other form of stimulus – 60,000 times faster than text in fact. This information is also stored in its own unique way; 83% of what we learn is visual so this data is retained much more effectively than if we were simply reading it.

What this means is that any information presented via visual management is not only understood quicker, it’s retained more effectively too! If nothing else, effective visual management is a fantastic time-saving tool for your workforce! Furthermore, teams that are managed via visual management are proven to be much more engaged than those who aren’t; as we mentioned above, how can your team be expected to succeed and win if they have no idea what’s going on? Empowered teams know the score, they know their performance and they know how they make an impact in the big picture. Visual communication ensures that everyone can see at a glance how their performance is tracking against the target.

Creating a culture of empowered workers is not an easy thing, nor does it happen overnight, but, with visual management in your workplace you’re helping to create ‘visual thinkers’ of your staff which is the first step in securing the bottom line improvements and company-wide alignment you can expect over time by managing your workplace visually.

Put very simply, the benefits of visual management are:

• That work actually happens – you’re putting the score up for everyone to see!
• That you’re creating a workforce of ‘visual thinkers’, soon enough it will become second nature
• That your workplace ‘speaks’. The physical environment of your workplace comes alive with visual management telling the story
• The bottom line will improve as workers start to feel empowered and everyone knows the direction, what’s important and what they can do to make a difference
• The company as a whole will be more aligned to what’s important