How Site Visits Speed Innovative Changes
Team visits to companies that have successfully developed innovative processes can help organizations accelerate and ease their own innovation processes.
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images
Misaligned leadership and differing priorities can hinder companies from adopting innovative processes. Team visits to observe such approaches in action at other companies can help leaders build alignment, define priorities, and ease and accelerate the adoption of new practices at their own organizations. Success stories of companies that have taken this “go and see together” approach span industries, from auto manufacturing to health care.
To compete and survive, companies need to adopt innovative ways of working, but new options seem to be emerging more frequently than ever before. Fortunately, not all innovative practices need to be invented anew. Many — such as lean management, digitization, and agile approaches — have already been conceptualized and employed by other companies or institutions.
A leadership team is expected to drive the transition to new innovation practices and overcome obstacles — one of which may be “not invented here” syndrome.1 Another common hurdle is misalignment in leadership team members’ conviction in the value of a specific innovation, often due to their varying levels of knowledge about it. While the CEO may be quite familiar with a particular approach and perhaps may even have seen it in practice, other members may have only heard buzzwords and have a surface-level understanding. Having different levels of information can result in misalignment and potentially even in resistance to change.
Key Concepts of ‘Go and See Together’
As managing director of the German subsidiary of SC Johnson (SCJ), I became convinced that Go and See Together (GST) was an ideal method to build quick and enduring alignment within the leadership team and significantly raise the probability of a successful innovation adoption. In one exemplary case, we needed to find and implement a superior sales forecasting and operating system for our subsidiary because our mix of overstocks and out-of-stocks had become intolerable. Our earnings and cash flow had taken a hit as a consequence, and our relationships with trade customers had become strained.
The social proof of witnessing an innovation working successfully in another organization validates its feasibility and benefits.
To address this, I took my six-person leadership team to visit another European SCJ affiliate that was already using an innovative sales forecasting and operating system. I had learned about the effectiveness of this system and was confident that it could be our solution as well. Every member of my team quickly agreed once they saw it in use. We were able to implement it quickly and successfully across our organization with great business results. The key was that the whole management team went to the source and saw the innovative system in action. This is the essence of GST.
References
1. R.-C. Wentz, “Beating ‘Not Invented Here’ Syndrome,” MIT Sloan Management Review 66, no. 1 (fall 2024): 12-13.
2. J.P. Kotter, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” Harvard Business Review 73, no. 2 (March-April 1995): 59-67.
3. D. Kolb, “Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development,” 2nd ed. (Pearson, 2014); and S. McLeod, “Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle,” Simply Psychology, March 19, 2025, www.simplypsychology.org.
4. J.K. Liker and M. Hoseus, “Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way” (McGraw-Hill, 2008); or J. Liker, “Lessons From Toyota: How to Do a Gemba Walk and Why You Need To,” Medium, June 7, 2018, https://medium.com.
5. R.B. Cialdini, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” rev. ed. (Harper Business, 2006).
6. A. Bandura, “Social Learning Theory” (Prentice Hall, 1977); and S. McLeod, “Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory,” Simply Psychology, March 18, 2025, www.simplypsychology.org.
7. J.P. Womack and D.T. Jones, “Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation,” rev. ed. (Free Press, 2003).
8. Ibid.
9. J.P. Womack, D.T. Jones, and D. Roos, “The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production” (Rawson Associates, 1990).
10. A works council (“Betriebsrat” in German) is an internal body of elected employees that represents all employees within a company to improve working conditions and address workplace issues. A trade union, on the other hand, is an external organization that represents workers’ interests more broadly, often on an industry or national level. The members of a works council may or may not be affiliated with a (trade) union.
11. D.O. Weber, “Toyota-Style Management Drives Virginia Mason,” Physician Executive 32, no. 1 (January-February 2006): 12-17; and R.M.J. Bohmer and E.M. Ferlins, “Virginia Mason Medical Center,” Harvard Business School case no. 9-606-044 (Harvard Business School Publishing, October 2008).
12. Ibid.
13. “Interview With Dr. Gary Kaplan, Virginia Mason Medical Center,” Shingijutsu USA, accessed Aug. 12, 2025, www.shingijutsuusa.com.
14. Bohmer and Ferlins, “Virginia Mason Medical Center.”
15. Weber, “Toyota-Style Management,” 12-17.
16. R. Hillebrand, T. Müller, and T. Schumacher, “Wir sind mehr als eine Lernwiese für den Konzern,” OrganisationsEntwicklung 1 (2018): 4-30; and N. Kreimeier, “‘Wir irren uns empor,’” Capital, March 19, 2015, www.capital.de.
17. Hillebrand, Müller, and Schumacher, “Wir sind mehr als eine Lernwiese,” 4-30.
18. E. Truelove, L.A. Hill, and E. Tedards, “Kathy Fish at Procter & Gamble: Navigating Industry Disruption by Disrupting From Within,” Harvard Business School case no. 9-421-012 (Harvard Business School Publishing, July 2020).
19. “P&G’s Marketers Learn From Silicon Valley,” WARC, Oct. 7, 2019, www.warc.com.
20. H. Yu, “Beyond the Beautiful: How Design Thinking Shaped P&G’s Strategy,” PDF file (International Institute for Management Development, 2016), https://imd.widen.net.
21. S. D’Amico, “What I Learned Leading P&G’s Innovation Lab,” Hello Creativity (blog), Oct. 12, 2020, www.hellocreativity.com.
22. A.G. Lafley and R. Charan, “The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth With Innovation” (Crown Business, 2008).
23. D’Amico, “What I Learned.”
24. Lafley and Charan, “The Game-Changer.”