A manufacturing company can look healthy from the boardroom and fragile from the factory floor.

Years ago, after a successful $21 million MRP implementation, I suggested the company establish Data Quality Management and Data Stewards to protect the integrity of the information the business depended upon.

Management agreed.

The stewards were trained.

The processes were established.

The data improved.

A few years later, a new General Manager arrived:

• Like many executives before him, he carried a KPI to reduce costs by 10%.
• The Data Stewards were a soft target.
• They were made redundant.

Six years later, the plant was in a total data mess:

• People no longer trusted the data; it was back to the future.
• People no longer trusted each other.
• The only viable solution was a major system upgrade and data reload.
• Cost: approximately $20 million.

The General Manager had long since moved on.

• The cost savings were visible.
• The KPI was visible.
• The redundancies were visible.
• The upgrade costs were visible.
• The people being laid off were visible.
• The spreadsheets were visible.

Less visible were the consequences.

• The lost knowledge that people took with them when they left.
• The disrupted relationships and inter-silo blame-shifting conflict.
• The cost of waste from making too many of the wrong products.
• The lost sales from not making enough of the needed product.
• The weakened capability.

These all contributed to delayed costs that would surface later.

That is line of sight. Not just what we can see, but what we choose to notice.

There are four levels:

Visibility — I can see the event.

Mindset: I will see what I need to satisfy my agenda

Line of Sight: My KPIS, potential ways to meet them without affecting my other KPIs

In the case of the GM, he could see the cost savings and the KPI.  He only saw what he wanted to see, not what he needed to see.

Awareness — I understand what it may mean.

Mindset: My job is to protect my patch, in my time.

Line of Sight: The data I am responsible for.

What he did not see, or want to see, was the value the data stewards were adding by preserving data integrity.  What he did not look for was the rationale for implementing the MRP system.  The real costs to the business of having poor-quality data.

If he had been aware then maybe his decision would have been different, and he may have resisted that short term sugar hit in the knowledge it would turn into diabetes.

Stewardship   — I accept responsibility for what follows.

Mindset: My job is to ensure that my data is ‘Fit for purpose’.

Line of Sight: The data in my patch, those who depend on that data, and those who supply data to me.

Data Stewardship, in its simplest form, is making sure that the data in its remit is ‘fit for purpose’. It’s putting in place measures to ensure that what is captured is ‘correct’, and it’s cleaning up any data roadkill it comes across in its patch, on its watch.

Ecological Awareness — I see the wider system of consequences.

Mindset: My job is to work collaboratively with others in the data space to understand the consequences of our actions and ensure we all succeed.

Line of Sight: All data that my data is related to and how it helps contribute to the Purpose and Vision of the organisation.

This is next-level data stewardship. They understand the full consequences of poor data integrity downstream of their capabilities. They also understand and communicate their data integrity requirements for the upstream data they receive.

Data stewards need this kind of 24/7 radar to pick up the slightest nuance. So do leaders. That is being conscious of your line of Sight.

The most dangerous organisational blindness is not a lack of information.

It is a mindset that determines what we choose to see — and what we choose to ignore.

The chain is important: Mindset → Attention → Decision → Consequence → Outcome

Dashboards, Distraction and Line of Sight

Modern vehicles contain sophisticated dashboards.  Originally, dashboards existed to support driving. They displayed essential information such as speed, fuel level, engine temperature, and warning indicators. Their purpose was to help drivers maintain awareness of the vehicle while keeping their attention on the road.

Over time, dashboards evolved into infotainment systems. Navigation, music, messaging, contact lists, settings, notifications, and countless other features now compete for the driver’s attention. Research consistently shows that these distractions increase reaction times, degrade lane control, increase steering corrections, and elevate crash risk.

The lesson extends well beyond driving. Many organisations have created their own infotainment systems. Dashboards, scorecards, KPI reports, maturity assessments, performance summaries, and executive reporting all provide useful information. However, they can also create a dangerous illusion that observing indicators is the same as understanding reality.

It is not.

• A dashboard displays indicators. Reality displays consequences.
• The dashboard may report that customer satisfaction is improving. Gemba may reveal frustrated customers, repeated workarounds, and declining trust.
• The dashboard may report that productivity is increasing. Gemba may reveal exhausted staff, rising rework, and growing technical debt.
• The dashboard may report that everything is green. Reality may be quietly turning red.

This is not an argument against measurement.

• Indicators matter.
• Speedometers matter.
• Warning lights matter.

A driver staring at the infotainment screen when attention shifts from the road to the dashboard.

Similarly:

• An executive staring at dashboards can lose line of sight to Gemba.
• A modeller staring at diagrams can lose line of sight to operations.
• A strategist staring at plans can lose line of sight to customers.

Same pattern. Different scale.

The same pattern occurs when attention shifts from reality to representation.

Gemba exists to restore line of sight.

• It reconnects people with consequences.
• It allows assumptions to be tested against reality.
• It reveals what dashboards cannot.

The dashboard tells us what we think is happening. Gemba shows us what is actually happening.

Explore further

This article connects to the broader framework:

• Ethical Domain — how constraints shape decisions
• Sensemaking Domain — how organisations interpret reality
• Relational Domain — how trust and coordination emerge
• Learning Domain — how knowledge is created and tested
• Action Domain — how intent becomes capability

To understand more on Purpose detailed Subject Areas, visit the Deep Dive section.