To a greater and greater extent, time is money. This is especially the case in a market where the competition is growing steadily. Companies which are capable of optimizing tasks and using their time wisely and in the most efficient manner already have a leg up on their rivals in the market. Therefore, firms are always looking for new ways to streamline their management, focusing on results and taking every aspect of the organization into account. One of these new methods is visual management.
Relax. Before you start complaining about having to learn about yet another management technique in a world chock full of them, understand that this one can make a significant difference to your business. After all, visual management is a model that enables vital control items to be available to entire teams. They include graphs, data and managerial information that can be quickly and easily viewed and interpreted by all of the project participants. And this can be done in diverse manners: from a whiteboard in the break room to video screens in departments.
The principle is similar to that of an airplane panel, where all of the information needed to run the plane is easily visible. The difference is that in this methodology, the entire crew can see the relevant data, not just the pilots.
Why is visual management so important?
It is so important because it is much more effective than most other methodologies. Visual management is intended to clearly and succinctly disclose relevant information about the company’s current performance – and that of each sector in which it operates – to all of its employees, in an easily visible location.
Thus, everyone is aware of their targets and objectives. What’s more, they then learn how each team is performing in relation to the rest, thereby increasing productivity.
Precautions during implementation
Before we tell you about some examples of visual management, some precautions are necessary. Such as:
- Define the indicators that will be included in the visual management and also establish what visual standards will be adopted. It is fundamental to limit your choices to relevant metrics, avoiding the inclusion of unnecessary data that work groups have little or no use for. The creation of a team that is responsible for collecting all information safely and continually updating the standards.
- Prepare the leaders to use the tool efficiently so that they can disseminate the concept among the other employees.
Are there any practical examples?
Of course! Otherwise, the concept would remain an abstraction. As we said, a whiteboard with the team’s goal in the break room can already be considered an example of visual management. But let’s take a look at more structured methodologies:
Kanban – a system, created in Japan, that is often cited as an excellent type of visual management practice. It literally means record or visible board. It is one of the most used methods in visual management and consists of controlling stocks of raw material and products through the use of cards. This ensures that stocks are continuously monitored and updated, enabling rapid replenishment whenever necessary. The result is much higher control over production. Runrun.it makes it possible to use kanban intelligently in your project management. Take a look at this post on our RR-Board®.
Management Panels, or dashboards – also known as visual management boards, these panels often foster healthy, stimulating competition between a company’s different areas. This is accomplished by comparing goals, performance and targets reached. But keep in mind: the board must be regularly updated, to avoid your data becoming outdated and its value decreased.
>> Recommended reading: Trends in people management, according to Deloitte and McKinsey
Dashboard TV to enhance your productivity
Speaking of dashboards, Runrun.it has a feature that can give a nice boost to your visual management: the dashboard TV.
With TV visualization, the technology shows the team’s workload compared to the company-wide average. It also shows how many open tasks there are for the team, how many are being worked on, and so on.
It automatically runs through all the teams an active user can see. That is, if that person is a manager, they will see all of the teams in the company. If he or she is a leader, they’ll only be able to visualize the teams they lead.
Learn more about the dashboard TV in this article.
Cultivating a sense of ownership
In short, with good visual management policy, your team becomes more involved and dedicated. As your employees become fully aware of the company’s relevant targets and information, they become more cognizant of their share of the responsibility for achieving the organization’s goals.
That’s the concept of ownership, which is so talked about these days. However, visual management methodology allows managers to monitor the performance of the company’s processes in real-time.
This is what Runrun.it is offering: real-time monitoring of all demands and executed projects, both for leaders and collaborators. Everyone will be focused on the same goals, and, more importantly: without wasting time, your business’ most valuable asset. Sign up for a free trial: https://runrun.it
