Closing the Communication Gap: How a Gemba Walk Improved Collaboration Between Development Teams and Executives

The Story

Sarah is an Agile coach at a software development company. He has been working with her team for a few months now, and she’s noticed that there’s a lack of communication between the development team and the executives of the company. Sarah knows that this is a problem that needs to be addressed if the company is going to succeed in the long run.

One day, Sarah gets an idea. She decided to invite one of the executives of the company, Jack, to do a gemba walk with her. She believes that this will help Jack to see the development process in action and gain a better understanding of how the team works. Sarah hopes that this will help bridge the communication gap between the development team and the executives.

Jack is intrigued by Sarah's invitation and agrees to join her on the gemba walk. On the day of the walk, Sarah takes Jack to the development floor, where the team is working on a new software product. She introduces Jack to the team and explains the development process to him.

As they walk around the development floor, Jack sees firsthand how the team works and how they collaborate on different tasks. He sees how the team uses the agile methodology to manage their work and how they prioritize their tasks using the product backlog. He also gets to see the team’s progress on the new software product and the challenges they face in getting it done.

After the gemba walk, Jack has a newfound respect for the development team and a better understanding of how they work. He realizes that the team has been working hard to develop quality software products and that they have been doing it in an efficient manner. Jack thanks Sarah for inviting him to the gemba walk and expresses his desire to work more closely with the development team in the future.

From that day on, Jack starts attending the team’s sprint reviews and daily stand-ups. He also starts communicating more frequently with the development team and providing them with the resources they need to do their work effectively. The gemba walk had helped bridge the communication gap between the development team and the executives, which ultimately led to a more productive and successful software development process.