How do you change system when you don’t have power ?

The response of Seth Godin

http://www.managementexchange.com/video/seth-godin-how-do-you-change-system-when-you-dont-have-power

Quick Summary :

The viral story/approach of Seth Godin

You : Be the guy in your organization who fails the most.

Fail : Failing the most means doing small things by experimenting (repeating again and again).

Succeed : Success : you change a small things in your system that become a success.

Everybody : You will see in your organization many copiers that will be happy to copy what you did…

At the end, nobody will remember that your success …

Lean, Six Sigma and TOC comparison (2)

Lean, Six Sigma and TOC comparison (2)


Dave Nave published an interesting article “How to compare lean, six sigma and Toc”, “Quality Progress, 03/2002”. Ten years ago, this article pointed the importance to focus on the “primary and secondary effects” of the philosophies of methods. Don’t you think that the major obstacles to improvement can effectively be addressed using System Thinking (management theory, formal and informal policies, measurements systems, rewards, values,…) ?

ST will guide you to understand what to improve and for which purpose. Lean or Six Sigma guide us to improve the system and the processes the right way in function of the context and the problem to solve.

http://karlin.sdsmt.edu/OpStrat/Supplementary_Material/Six%20Sigma%20Lean%20and%20TOC.pdf

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Comparaison du Lean, du Six Sigma et de la Théorie des Contraintes (2)

Dave Nave a publié un article intéressant sur le sujet " How to compare lean, six sigma and Toc”, “Quality Progress, 03/2002”. Il y a déjà dix ans, cet article insistait sur l'importance de se concentrer sur les «effets primaires et secondaires» des philosophies des méthodes. Il énumérait certains des obstacles majeurs à l'amélioration de la performance. Ne pensez-vous pas que ces obstacles peuvent efficacement être abordés à travers une approche systémique (la théorie de management, les politiques, les procédures formelles et informelles, les systèmes de mesure, les systèmes d’évaluations et de récompenses, les valeurs, ...) ?

La systémique nous guide pour comprendre ce qu'il faut améliorer et dans quel but. Le Lean ou le Six Sigma peut nous guider pour améliorer de la bonne manière notre système et nos processus en fonction du contexte et du problème à solutionner.

http://karlin.sdsmt.edu/OpStrat/Supplementary_Material/Six%20Sigma%20Lean%20and%20TOC.pdf

Comparison of LEAN SYSTEM, TQM, SIX SIGMA, TOC, Agile Manufacturing and BPR

Towards An Integration Of The Lean Enterprise System, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and Related Enterprise Process Improvement Methods

Kirkor Bozdogan, Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In this paper, Dr. Kirkor Bozdogan compares six approaches LEAN SYSTEM, TQM, SIX SIGMA, TOC, Agile Manufacturing and BPR.Find the abstract and the link below :

http://esd.mit.edu/WPS/2010/esd-wp-2010-05.pdf

Abstract of the paper  :

“The lean enterprise system, total quality management, six sigma, theory of constraints, agile manufacturing, and business process reengineering have been introduced as universally applicable best methods to improve the performance of enterprise operations through continuous process improvement and systemic planned enterprise change.
Generally speaking, they represent practice-based, rather than theory-grounded, methods with common roots in manufacturing. Most of the literature on them is descriptive and prescriptive, aimed largely at a practitioner audience.
Despite certain differences among them, they potentially complement each other in important ways. The lean enterprise system, total quality management and six sigma, in particular, are tightly interconnected as highly complementary approaches and can be brought together to define a first-approximation “core” integrated management system, with the lean enterprise system serving as the central organizing framework. Specific elements of the other approaches can be selectively incorporated into the “core” enterprise system to enrich its effectiveness. Concrete theoretical and computational developments in the future through an interdisciplinary research agenda centered on the design and development of networked enterprises as complex adaptive socio-technical systems, as well as the creation of a readily accessible observatory of evidence-based management practices, would represent important steps forward.” Kirkor Bozdogan, Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

I hope this paper helps you.

Looking for profound knowledge purpose at work : a great, heuristic and impossible job

In Drive, D. Pink explains how and why tasks can be divided in two categories. The two categories are :

"• Algorithmic – a task which follows a set of established instructions down a single pathway to one conclusion.
• Heuristic – a task that has no algorithm, you have to experiment with possibilities and devise a novel solution. “

When you are a leader, a project manager or a consultant , there’s no algorithm to successfully transform an Organization for better. Every organization is different. The approach depends namely, of the people, of the system and of the culture paradigms of the Organization.

So, you, we,... have a heuristic job.

You are learning the importance of System Theories, Theories of Knowledge, Theory of Variation and Psychology. Theory lead us to questions. . . Without the right questions, the result of your experiments teach nothing. Those teaching help you to develop new theory to improve. The use of theory promote your learning. So you reinvent your leadership/consulting approach as and as you advance, as often as necessary. Autonomously, you develop mastery to achieve your purpose (cf. Drive, Pink)

You’ve a long-term purpose. It can change but not every day. You continuously keep an open mind to distinguish the different potential ways leading to it.

Your motivation comes from within. You are intrinsically motivated. It's a great job.

In itself, this is a hard and an exciting job but simply to engage with sincerity, honesty and integrity is not a guarantee of success. The journey to understand a System of Profound Knowledge and be able to implement or help others is long, very long. Even the journey is long, perhaps a never ended journey, I’ve not found a better purpose acting  as leader, consultant or collaborator for a company.

We will never find the best, the ideal system but we will find a better than yesterday...

The impact on company performance by changing our assumption about people.

Freedom Inc., the book of Isaac Getz and Brian M. Carney, gives us a perspective on enterprises that have decided to free their employees.

A lot of factories are today always managed through Taylor methods. JF Zorbist (FAVI see below) called those companies the “How companies” also called hierarchical, bureaucratic or command-control companies. The authors challenge us by asking the questions : Are those companies managed for the three percents ?

The purpose of Taylor was also to increase performance, but performance expressed as productivity. In his scientific Method, Taylor has specialized supervision, has standardized tools and work methods, has created a management planning function, has rewarded efficiency (doing the things right and fast) and has broken tasks into smaller and smaller tasks,…Scientific management works. But the basic assumption of Scientific Management was that employees were not highly educated, compliant to do exactly what they were told and so just able to perform the simplest tasks. So, this worked. But does it really work today and if "Yes" at what cost to our employees, at what costs to adapt to new demand variety, at what costs to change the way we do the service,…

Are we in the same context than in the industrial revolution ? I don’t think so. Are those scientific management principles adapted to serve our customers, to create joy in work and make our organization agile to adapt to new opportunities ? I do not think so

So are our companies managed for the 3 percents ? What will happen to 97 % of our collaborators ?

A lot of us has learned that Toyota Success is based on a fundamental assumption about people : people’s willingness to do a good job and to learn. Deming has demonstrated that 95% of organizational problems are caused by the company’s operational systems and merely 5% caused by its people. Changing system conditions and thinking behind, it is the best way to achieve sustainable improvements

So...? and if we started before to think about systems, lean,… to challenge our assumption about people ?

Isaac Getz and Brian M. Carney invite us to discover enterprises like FAVI, Harley Davidson, Oticon,... The leaders of those companies were sincerely convinced that all their collaborators are intrinsically equal …Is the relationship between employee freedom and company performance is due to” hazard”  ? I do not think so.

To conclude as I. Getz :  “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing” - Socrates



The link to FAVI : http://www.favi.com/managf.php

The link to the blog of Freedom Inc. : http://www.favi.com/managf.php

The link to the book :

The leadership of profound change.

The leadership of profound change


Do you think ?

“Significant change can only occurs when it’s driven from the Top
or
Little significant change can occur if it’s driven only from the top

Do you think ?

Nothing will happen whitout Top-Management buy-in
or
Top Management buy-in is a poor substitute for genuine commitment and learning capabilities at all level of the Organisation. In fact, if management authority is used unwisely, it can make such commitment or capability less likely to develop”
Do you want to know what P Senge think about leadership of profound change ?

http://www.spcpress.com/pdf/other/Senge.pdf

So, are you talking about profound change ? Change is best carried through by the many, not by the hero-leader.


A 'great' book for any leaders, change agent, lean experts,… involved in change - and that means most of us today.