A weekly newsletter about letting the workplace speak
Issue 22/Volume 2                www.VisualWorkplace.com                 June 3, 2015
Quick Links

 

Visual Thinking Inc.

Upcoming Events
NEXT WEEK!
Friday, June 12
12:00 - 1:30pm Pacific
Visual Leadership:
Principles/Tools  
with Dr. Gwendolyn Galsworth

$75 per person or group

Visual Workplace Assessment
Alcon
Irvine, California
June 12-13
Visual Workplace Presentation
Beijing, China
June 30-July 8
On Sale in June
Podcast Bundle #3:
Smart Placement: Principles & Practices 
  9 Podcasts that will change your workplace for better  & forever!

3.1     Smart Placement & Why You Need It
3.2    Smart Placement: The Mapping Process
3.3     Smart Placement: People & Mapping
3.4     Smart Placement: Principles 1 thru 4
3.5     Smart Placement : Principles 5-6-7
3.6     Let the Flow Do the Work: Smart Placement Principle 8
3.7     Sort Universe/Design-To-Task/Double Up (Principles 9-10-11)
3.8     Store Things/Not Air + Double Function + Follow Flow (Principles 12-13-14)
3.9     Smart Placement: Final Steps + Poka Yoke Insights

Through June 30, you can buy this $25 bundle 
for only  $10 USD

 
Did You Know...

The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors. Some women can have a genetic mutation which causes them to see millions of more colors.

From the Editor: 
Doors Shut, Windows Open
Your job prospect falls through. Your vacation gets cancelled. Your car won't start. Your most recent visual device is a complete failure.

These can seem like doors closing, opportunities gone forever.

It's very hard, in those moments, to keep open to new ideas. We all have trouble considering that a moment of misfortune might be an opportunity.

Remember that with each door that closes, a window opens. However, you will only discover that window if you let yourself be open to the possibility of a breeze from an unexpected direction.

 

You don't have to LOOK for the window, just leave your brain open to noticing that unexpected breeze and be ready to turn a new direction when you feel it.
 
Cindy Lyndin
Editor-in-Chief
Visual Radio:   How to Become a Brilliant Visual Workplace Trainer
Listen to Gwendolyn this 
Thursday at 10am (Pacific) on
 
This Week's Episode
How to Become a Brilliant Visual Workplace Trainer
(ENCORE)
   

Are there natural-born visual workplace trainers? Is training visuality so different from training other topics? How much is a trainer responsible for people's learning--and for their implementation results? What are some common training mistakes? What are the tricks--and the golden secrets? In today's show, Gwendolyn Galsworth shares guidelines and insights into successfully training workplace visuality so the results build the bottom-line and strengthen employee engagement and cultural alignment. Tune in and learn the importance of:  

a) the training room space,

b) giving/receiving trainer feedback,  

c) continuity in teaching,  

d) relying too heavily on people's creativity,  

e) the central role of supplies on hand,  

f) not standardizing too soon,

g) doing your homework, and  

h) training effectively across multiple shifts.  

While we are at it, what are reasonable expectations of support from senior management?  

Feature Article
Dr. Galsworth is travelling this week. She will continue her exploration of why Lean Alone Is Not Enough in our next issue.

Memoirs of World War II: Churchill Leads (A Book Review) 
by Gwendolyn Galsworth   

Between January 2014 and April of this year, I had the pleasure of doing 43 episodes on visual leadership on my weekly radio show, The Visual Workplace. Visual Leadership is a topic of intoxicating interest for me-and the title of my new book, due to come out this winter. I thought and talked about the difference between leading and managing...a lot. Ask me for my favorite book on leadership and, hands-down, it is Winston Churchill's Memoirs of the Second World War- the 1,016 page abridged version of his six-volume set.

Opinions may differ the politics presented in the book, but Memoirs remains a remarkable, timely exposition on leading.

Being a boss is not the same as leading. The first job of a leader is to notice that difference and focus on good leading. When bosses don't, they spend precious corporate and personal resources in monitoring and tweaking and do not understand why they have not been able to move the enterprise forward-or, in some cases, prevent it from sinking.

 
Thought for the Week
When all items in the workplace are smartly placed in relationship to each other, the entire landscape of work becomes connected, letting material, information, and people flow into and through work areas with a minimum of struggle--a minimum of motion.
When smart placement is not applied, objects in your work area--tools, parts, materials, benches, cabinets, chairs, and even trash cans--are physically placed without careful thought and intention, the result can be a tangled muddle that feeds motion instead of supporting a smooth and elegant flow of work.
And the Visual Fail Prize Goes To...
Have you seen a Visual Fail that made you laugh?  Send the image to [email protected],
and we'll put it here and credit you with the funny find!
Visual Poem/Puzzle
Visual Tricks and Treats
Great signs, clever visual devices, artistic or humorous graffiti. If you find one to share, send the image to [email protected]