Weak Signal Detection

Weak signal detection: how do we see the things which we are not seeing because they don’t fit the pattern of expectation?

Detect the right signals from across the organization. This is not trivial. There is always some distance between the local actions of an employee or a business unit and the macro-level outcomes they produce. We often don’t know which behaviors are worth strengthening and which should be discouraged. 

Still, frontline employees have valuable information that typically isn’t transmitted and amplified. Leaders need to engage with those employees to discover innovations that could improve robustness. [Human Sensor Network]

That’s why Japanese manufacturing managers often go to the gemba (the “real place,” such as the factory floor) to glean fresh and rich information. By interacting directly with employees there, they can identify challenges and innovative solutions visible only at the local level.