Compass Instruments · LEAD · Discipline 03
Gemba Walk
Gemba sits in LEAD because it is a leadership routine, not an audit. It is how a leader activates alignment and accountability at the work: comparing the standard as written to the work as done, and converting what is found into commitments with owners and dates.
A walk that ends in a conversation changes nothing.
This is the process tool inside LEAD, worked under Activate Alignment & Accountability. Status reports tell you what people believe is happening. A gemba walk tells you what is happening — and then makes someone accountable for the difference.
The unit of analysis is always the process, never the person. When the observed practice differs from the standard, what gets examined is the standard, the tooling, the capacity, the decision rights or the measure. Every gap leaves the floor with a countermeasure, one owner, one date and a stated verification.
The Process
01
Prepare
Name the process, the standard and the question before you leave your desk.
- Name the one process being walked — not the department, the process.
- Bring the standard as written; if there is none, that is the finding.
- Tell the people doing the work what you are coming to look at, and why.
- Set the one question the walk has to answer.
Exit test: Process, standard, date and the walk question are all recorded.
Failure mode: A walk with no question becomes a tour, and a tour produces opinions.
02
Go and see
Compare the standard as written to the work as done, step by step.
- Watch the work where it happens, at the pace it happens.
- Record the observed practice before interpreting it.
- Record workarounds without judgement — a workaround is a design defect with a human patch on it.
- Grade each step: blocking, friction, watch, or holding.
Exit test: At least one step observed and graded.
Failure mode: Interpreting while watching. You will see the explanation you arrived with.
03
Ask why
Move from what happened to the system condition that produced it.
- Ask the people doing the work what makes the standard hard to follow today.
- For each gap, name the system condition: standard, tooling, capacity, capability or incentive.
- Note the ADKAR® dimension the barrier points to.
- Separate a one-off from a pattern.
Exit test: Every graded gap carries a system condition.
Failure mode: Stopping at the person. The unit of analysis is always the process.
04
Commit the plan
Turn each gap into an action with one owner, one date and one verification.
- One action, one owner. Shared ownership is no ownership.
- Choose the countermeasure type deliberately — do not default to training.
- Set the date on the floor, with the owner present.
- Say how the action will be verified, and by whom.
Exit test: No gap left without an action, an owner and a due date.
Failure mode: Leaving with a list of concerns instead of a list of commitments.
05
Verify
Return to the same work and check the countermeasure held.
- Set the next walk date before you leave.
- Close actions only at the work, not in a meeting.
- Repeat barriers become system changes, not more reminders.
- Carry what held into the standard, and what did not into the ARC Working Board.
Exit test: Next walk date set and every committed action is tracked to closure.
Failure mode: No return visit. The organization learns that commitments expire quietly.
Conduct and Document the Walk
Process tool · LEAD · Discipline 03
Conduct the walk. Leave with a plan.
A gemba walk that ends in a conversation changes nothing. This one ends in a plan: who is doing what, by when, and how we will know it held.
Prepare
Name the process, the standard and the question before you leave your desk.
Exit test: Process, standard, date and the walk question are all recorded.
Name the process, the standard, the date and the one question the walk answers.
Go and see
Compare the standard as written to the work as done, step by step.
Exit test: At least one step observed and graded.
Record at least one step: the standard as written, what you saw, and the grade.
Ask why
Move from what happened to the system condition that produced it.
Exit test: Every graded gap carries a system condition.
Every graded gap needs the system condition behind it, not just the symptom.
Commit the plan
Turn each gap into an action with one owner, one date and one verification.
Exit test: No gap left without an action, an owner and a due date.
Every gap needs an action, and every action needs a statement, one owner and a due date.
Verify
Return to the same work and check the countermeasure held.
Exit test: Next walk date set and every committed action is tracked to closure.
Set the return visit and say how each action will be verified, and by whom.
0 of 5 stage tests passed.
01
Prepare the walk
02 · 03
Go and see, then ask why
Record what you saw before you interpret it. Grade each step, then name the system condition behind any gap — standard, tooling, capacity, capability, decision rights or incentive.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
04
Commit the plan — who is doing what, by when
One action, one owner, one date. Choose the countermeasure type deliberately: training is the last option, not the first.
Action 1
Action 2
Action 3
05
Verify
What this walk says
Nothing recorded yet. Prepare the walk: one process, one standard, one question.
- Steps observed
- 0
- Gaps (blocking / friction / watch)
- 0 / 0 / 0
- Actions owned and dated
- 0 of 0
- Overdue / verified
- 0 / 0
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Open actions across every walk in this browser
No open actions. Save this walk to keep its plan in the roll-up.
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Walk register
No walks saved in this browser yet.
A management instrument, not a performance review. Record the process, the standard and the barrier — never a named individual's performance. Walks stay in the browser that created them until you export them.
Where this sits in the system
LEAD owns the cadence: the walk, the commitments and the return visit. What repeats across walks is not a discipline problem — it is a design problem, and it belongs to ARC as a system change.
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