Be Where Your Feet Are

If you walk through almost any workplace, you’ll likely see it.

A supervisor is talking with an employee while glancing at their phone. A manager attends a meeting but is already preparing for the next one. A leader conducts a Gemba Walk while thinking about the presentation due this afternoon.

Their body is present…but their mind? It’s somewhere else.

John Dewey once wrote, “There’s no greater enemy to effective thinking than a divided interest.” And the wild thing is there were no cell phones or social media dings pulling people’s attention away back in his day. I could only imagine what he’d think if we were alive today.

And, trust me, this article isn’t meant to cast stones. I have my own issues. I am actually writing this article from a hotel room in Austria with my wife and two of my daughters (they’re sleeping!). And while we’re having a great time, the amount of time we spend staring at our so-called “smart” phones is staggering.

The irony of it all is that Lean has always taught us the opposite. Specifically, Lean teaches us to go and see, to observe, to listen, to respect people. Put simply, Lean teaches us to be fully present.

Excellence Requires Presence

Performance psychologist Dr. Gio Valiante recently made a simple but profound observation:

“The best of the best are present for everything all the time.”

Think about the best leader you’ve ever worked with. When they spoke with you, you felt heard. When they visited your work area, they noticed details others overlooked.

When a problem surfaced, they didn’t rush to conclusions. Instead, they became curious.

That’s not because they’re smarter. It’s because they were present.

You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Notice

Lean leaders often talk about developing the ability to “see.”

Seeing waste. Seeing variation. Seeing opportunities.

But here’s a key point most of us miss: seeing isn’t just about eyesight…it’s about attention.

If your mind is already solving the next problem before you’ve fully understood the current one, you’ll miss what the process is trying to teach you.

The greatest improvements often come from the smallest observations:

• The operator hesitates for two seconds before reaching for a tool.
• The paperwork gets rotated before it’s handed to the next person.
• The customer pauses before answering a question.

Those details are invisible to distracted leaders.

Flow Begins with Presence

People often ask how to get into a state of flow…that feeling when you’re so completely immersed in your work that time seems to disappear.

Dr. Valiante argues that flow doesn’t come first. Presence does.

When we’re fully engaged with what’s directly in front of us, flow becomes possible. When our attention is fragmented between yesterday’s mistakes, tomorrow’s deadlines, and today’s task, flow remains out of reach.

Yesterday I watched a man carve incredible pieces of art with a lathe and his hands. Dozens of people stood on the street to watch him, but it was as if we weren’t there. He was totally absorbed in his work. He’s clearly fallen in love with the details and has learned to be completely present.

Love the Mundane

One phrase from Dr. Valiante especially stood out to me:

“Fall in love with the details and love the mundanity of your work.”

That sounds a lot like Lean thinking to me.

Continuous improvement isn’t built on dramatic breakthroughs. It’s built on thousands of small observations made by people who care enough to notice.

The leader who embraces routine coaching conversations. The engineer who enjoys understanding why a defect occurred. The operator who treats every setup as an opportunity to improve.

Put another way, excellence isn’t created by escaping the ordinary. It’s created by paying extraordinary attention to ordinary work.

Practicing Presence

Being present isn’t a personality trait. It’s a habit.

Like any habit, it can be strengthened.

Before your next meeting, take one slow breath and decide that nothing else matters for the next thirty minutes.

Before your next Gemba Walk, leave your phone in your pocket unless you truly need it.

When someone is speaking, resist the urge to formulate your response before they’ve finished.

When observing a process, notice one detail you’ve never seen before.

Presence isn’t complicated. It’s simply the repeated decision to give your full attention to what’s right in front of you.

In other words, be where your feet are.

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