Visual management: 5 advantages of this lean practice

Kanban board, mind-mapping, boards… Many tools allow you to obtain a graphical representation of an entire project: this is called visual management. Here is an overview of the advantages of implementing this management method, an innovative and agile lean practice.

 

What is visual management?

Visual management is part of the methods of Lean management (a model of thinking created by Toyota in the 40s, in order to boost a company’s performance by eliminating sources of loss and waste).

This visual managerial mode refers to the use of visual tools within the company, to manage a project, change management, a profound transformation, etc. The main objective of this form of management is to communicate information (ideas, directives, steps, actions, tasks, results, indicators, etc.) in a clear, explicit, intelligible and easily memorable way.

 

The 5 benefits of visual management

• Streamline communication and information transmission

The first objective and main asset of visual management is to facilitate the sharing and exchange of information at all levels and in all departments of the company.

Indeed, information is transmitted in an immediate, efficient, transparent and easily understandable way. Visual management involves all the actors involved in the project and offers A global vision of tasks of each. This method makes it possible to transmit a large amount of information and to manage a large-scale project in a simple and accessible way. Colours, pictograms, tables, graphs and other visual tools provide employees with information at a glance on the degree of urgency, priorities, next actions, possible obstacles, etc.

Visual management is particularly useful for facilitating remote communication, when setting up teleworking for example.

• Improving collective performance

Visual management can also be a powerful performance lever for the company. Indeed, it offers considerable time savings and greatly accelerates processes. Errors are also reduced. In addition, visual management is a collaborative tool that is very often integrated into a form of transversal or participative management, known to boost team cohesion, commitment and productivity of employees.

• Facilitate decision-making

Visual management offers a 360° view of the company, processes, flows, tasks, and current and future projects. True An agile method, this management method also makes it possible to better prevent risks and to quickly identify flaws, areas for improvement and opportunities to be seized, which considerably facilitates decision-making at all levels of the company.

• Reduce errors

Visual tools allow each employee to follow the progress of the project in real time and to immediately identify any malfunctions, delays, drifts, brakes and obstacles. This management method also simplifies the transmission of directives and allows Avoiding misunderstandings or ambiguities that could cause harmful errors. With visual management, errors are therefore reduced, which helps to improve customer satisfaction.

• Stimulating creativity and collective intelligence

Visual management, which is very collaborative, also makes it possible to strengthen autonomy, collective intelligence, and a sense of innovation, the creativity and agility of the teams. Internal communication is streamlined, desiloed and all stakeholders are actively involved. This contributes in particular to empower teams and improve individual and collective organizational capacities.

 

How to set up visual management within your company?

The implementation of visual management within your company implies, above all, identifying the stakeholders involved in the project or in change management.

It will then be necessary to set the scope of use, the objectives, the expected results, the actions to be deployed and to prioritize this information.

The local manager will then be able to identify the most effective visual tool that is best suited to the project and the needs encountered.

Here are some of the physical and digital tools that can be used in visual management:

• Bulletin boards
• The Kanban method, to visually organize the project according to its progress around 3 parts: To do – In progress – Done.
• Mind mapping, or mind mapping to visualize all the branches and sub-parts of a project
• clear and brief texts
• visual indicators: graphs, colours, pictograms, labels, etc.
• diagrams (GANTT chart, Eisenhower chart, etc.)
• Paintings
• Decision trees
• Design thinking
• …

Be careful, however, the deployment of the tools alone is not enough: they must be actively led by the manager, who must also mobilize and encourage each employee to participate in this process.

In addition, to be effective, visual management must prohibit information overload: the content must be informative, uncluttered and easy to understand. It will also be necessary to carry out regular reviews to analyse the methods used and identify areas for improvement, in order to make visual management as effective as possible.