If you want to make real change to your business then you really need to understand how it works, how it really works and there is no better way to find out other than by going and finding out for yourself.
In a small operation this could be by actually doing the different jobs, getting a feel for what the work entails and getting a grip of what works and what does not. As an organisation gets larger however, there are too many different roles to understand each of them fully, too many different variables to be master of them all and the interrelationship of people and processes plays an ever larger part in making the business tick. When this is the case it is a better option just to observe by standing (or sitting) in the middle of the operations and looking with your eyes to see what you can see, listening with your ears to hear what is happening and using whatever other senses that you have at your disposal to feel what is going on. You should let the people know why your are doing this first.
But this is not a five minute piece of work, it may take hours or even days over repeated periods to view the business through its many cycles or twists and turns. And this process takes real discipline on at least two fronts, firstly because the feeling of guilt will be immense in that you are in plain view of all of the people working away while you are apparently doing nothing. Secondly the temptation will always be there to fix those things that you see which are obviously wrong or not working as they should. But you need to overcome the feeling of guilt and resist the temptation to act and observe, note anything interesting that you see and ask yourself the questions ‘Why do we do that?’ and ‘Why does that happen in that way?’ Of course you should talk to those people actually performing those tasks to get a fuller comprehension but beware that they live with their own foibles and idiosyncrasies and all people are very good at justifying their own activities.
Once you’ve got as many interesting points or questions as you can handle then go back to the office and discuss your observations and finding with your colleagues, agree those that are worth pursuing and then dig deeper into each observation by asking what we need to know to understand what is going on. Repeat by analysing, questioning and observing, analysing, questioning and observing until you get to the bottom of what or why or how.
Then you are in the position to start making the decisions that you need to change your business but by this point, if you have observed and understood sufficiently well the decisions will be so obvious that they will make themselves. If you want to make real change to your business then your management attention should be moved from problem solving to problem understanding.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 