MANY important and strategic management lessons from dynamic organizations are invisible to plain sight. If you missed it, everything that you’ve spent for three hours visiting a model company would be reduced to nothing. In the first place, it’s not easy to get acceptance from those excellent companies that you’d like to learn from.

It takes time, a lot of patience and a bit of luck to be accepted by your target firms. Many of them will reject your proposal unless you’re a government regulator, an important customer, an affiliate company or a subcontractor. You’ve no choice but to learn on your own by doing trial-and-error experiments on what works and what’s possible.

That’s assuming you have the luxury of time, talent and treasure to make them happen.

But why would you spend time, talent and treasure making mistakes when you can learn timetested lessons from organizations that are recognized locally or globally? For example, you can learn so many things from organizations that were recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Society for Quality that promote the Philippine Quality Awards.

If you’re looking for the best in the field of human resources or industrial relations, you can go to the Employers Confederation of the Philippines for their “Kapatid Award” or to People Management Association of the Philippines for their “Employer of the Year Award.” I’m not saying it’s easy.

All I’m saying it’s possible. If you don’t ask, the answer is always “no.”

Assuming that your organization is accepted by a model company, what’s next? Prepare to get the most out of it. Per my experience in visiting more than 250 offices and factories in Japan, Spain and the Philippines, the maximum time given is two hours, half of which may be spent in listening to a standard presentation deck, showcase of sample products and video showing.

After that, the next 45 minutes will be spent in the back room or shop floor where you can see the dynamic interplay between man and machine. That’s assuming you’re lucky enough that your delegation is not reduced to viewing everything from a distant, overlooking window.

To complete the two-hour visit, you will be given around 15 minutes for the question-and-answer portion. So, in this short period of time, how do you maximize your learning experience? Here are some tips:

One, be respectful of the host’s policies. If requested, send the list of delegates and their job titles for the host’s approval or information.

Another standard policy in many office and factory visits is the prohibition against picturetaking, video-recording and voicerecording. Don’t attempt to violate this by equipping yourself with a spy-grade recording system. The implications are worse than you can imagine. For posterity’s sake, you can only settle having a group pictorial inside a conference room, reception area or their building façade but not at the shop floor.

Two, assign two participants to focus on certain topics. In many cases, the host would not accept a big delegation because they’re too cumbersome and costly for them to handle. Ideally, the maximum number of participants is around 12 to 15. If you have this number, assign two delegates per team to cover the visitor’s interest, say one team on waste reduction, visual control, mistake-proofing, etc. Three, ask intelligent questions to satisfy yourself. Asking questions is a manifestation that you possess active listening skills. It also helps you reconcile what you’ve learned from other reputable sources.

If you’re visiting Toyota, it’s advisable to read some books written by eminent authors like Jeffrey Liker and John Shook.

Whatever you do, be careful and respectful to the host so that it would not appear that they themselves have not read anything from other sources.

Four, acknowledge the host by citing your key learning experience. This is the job of the delegation head to express continuing goodwill to the host and hope for a similar visit in the future. It’s also advisable to give a token of appreciation to each member of the receiving team. They may include bags of company giveaways like coffee mugs, t-shirts, or umbrellas.

Last, reciprocate to the host by inviting them to your facilities. If not, the best thing that you can do is to file a one-page report summarizing your delegation’s key learning experience and share it with the host for whatever it’s worth. In general, however, it’s an important gesture that comes from the maxim “a teacher’s success begins with the success of their students.”

In our context, a learner-visitor who is successful in implementing some of their key learnings from a model company would be happy as well as they’re able to influence others with their best practices.

Acknowledging the work of model organizations is the minimum thing you can do. Do your best in perpetuating the professional relationship.