Genchi Genbutsu.

What the ______ is Genchi Genbutsu?? Don't worry, I thought the same thing. Read on :).

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I never realized until recently how much we are influenced by what others have to say. I'm not saying it's necessarily a horrible thing to be influenced, actually. Hopefully, you surround yourself by intelligent, honest and good hearted people.. so if you were to be influenced, it's coming from the right place. On the contrary, the worst is when we allow ourselves to be influenced in the wrong way.

Regardless of who is influencing you, how you are being influenced, or if it's a "good" or "bad" influence.... I encourage you to genchi genbutsu. Always.
(Pronounced: gen-chee gen-boot-sue)

What the hell is genchi genbutsu? Good question! That's exactly what I thought when I heard the term. Genchi genbutsu is a Japanese term that translates to "actual place, actual thing." In other words, it means "go look, go see." In my words, it means "go find out for yourself."

Don't let yourself be influenced by what others say, even if their intentions are good. Don't allow your mind to form judgement, opinions, or most importantly, make decisions based off of what others tell or share with you. Don't fall into this trap. To me, genchi genbutsu is the way to go, always, when it comes to solving problems, finding out information or forming opinions.

If Mary thinks Joe has a problem with her, she should go straight to Joe to find out (instead of asking 3 different people if they think Joe has a problem with her). If the problem exists on the sales floor, it'll be most effectively understood and solved on the sales floor (instead of in a conference room at some corporate office hundreds of miles away). If your friends are saying that Sarah is annoying, go find out for yourself if you think Sarah is annoying.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't welcome other people's views, opinions, arguments, etc. I am definitely not saying this. If you know me, you'd know that I love to share and hear other people's ideas, philosophies, viewpoints, etc. (Oooh and how I love to debate.) What I'm saying is to be conscious, aware and proactive. Always genchi genbutsu and encourage others to do the same when you share an opinion about something.


Lastly, and my favorite part of all...:

On top of everything else, genchi genbutsu proves that gossiping is useless, pointless, dumb, a waste of time, and totally unproductive. (In fact, to me, the only thing that comes out of gossiping is bad karma... but that's a whole other subject.) If you understand what I'm talking about with genchi genbutsu and why it's so important, you'll see that gossiping is completely counter productive.. You're basically asking for others to form opinions for you. Do yourself a big favor and stay away from gossip. And if YOU ever find yourself gossiping, you have my permission to slap yourself, gently and purposefully, in the face. Crap, did I just say that?

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How do I know genchi genbutsu-ing works? Because after hearing about it from one of the most inspiring professors I've ever had, I genchi genbutsu-ed the genchi genbutsu process to see for myself if it works. And yes, it works. :)


Now, you know what you got to go do.. Go genchi genbutsu.