Management Hurdles for Break-through Improvement

September 28, 2011 Tripp Babbitt 2 Comments

The funny thing about change is that management wants all the change, but doesn’t want to change themselves.

The biggest hurdles to improvement are management. This is not referencing how to do things better to the front-line . . . it is management by itself. The problem is in the mirror.

Recent events have allowed me to take inventory of management hurdles. So let’s take a look:

Politics. To survive large bureaucratic service organizations (all of them), you have to look good all the time. A silver-tongue (another word for BS) goes a long way when compared to knowledge. “Didn’t he say that well” does not overcome the lack of facts and evidence in the communication.

Navigating the politics has usually gotten folks in management positions. Inevitably why we have so many dopes in management. Looking good does not mean performing well. In fact, it is a red flag.

Me, get my hands dirty? Closely related to the political hurdle are management that prefer the comfort of their office or being away from the office. Meetings can kill lots of time too. Asking management to be in the work to get knowledge and/or evidence usually gets that deer in the headlight look – who me? The higher up, the more difficult as the egos are bigger.

It begs the question, did people get into management because they didn’t want to do real work? The shuffling of papers and dictates from the mountain do not really help create value, they create more waste.

The management factory. All those people that management hires to help with the politics and looking good. You hear words and phrases like “best practice,” “governance” and “plans.” Scores of people hired to help build the plans and others ensure that the front-line is following their mandates. All add no value and waste precious resources.

The front-line folks are either frustrated by or aspire to be in the management factory. Because creating value for customers just isn’t cool. Making front-line employees do stupid things is much more fun. Costly, but fun.

Hierarchy. No one and I mean no one talks to the boss until all the boxes are ticked. A front-line employee reaching out to a CEO or an executive is not allowed. There is an open door policy, but of course all the boxes must be ticked. You will grow old navigating the hierarchy. If you are lucky enough you may be granted 5 minutes with the big cheese as long as you keep to the script.

All of these things create dysfunctional organizations. As pathetic as they are, they are in all organizations in varying degrees.

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public). His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work. Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com. Learn more about the 95 Method for service organizations. Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.

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Systems Thinking and Government, Systems Thinking and Management

Buried Deep Inside the Management Factory: Value

September 28, 2011 Tripp Babbitt Leave a comment

In my last article to Quality Digest, I gave a description of the management factory. More often than not, the management factory has been put in place with lots of bureaucratic, non-value adding roles. The value work has literally been buried by all the policies, rules and political BS. Customers and front-line workers get in the way of profits.

Service organizations have lost their way. Buried the very value that creates value and reduces costs in a sea of red ink. Management has not a clue on “what matters” to customers. They are too busy to bother with such menial tasks as understanding customer purpose and measures that matter.

Instead, targets are set without knowledge and show “green” on Red/Yellow/Green reports. The problem is that what is being delivered is far from “green.” I have too often seen managers perplexed when they are hitting their numbers, but are down-sized because the company is failing.

Uncovering value in a large service organization is not hard if you know how to look. However, all these other pursuits of management take their time, attention . . . and add no value.

Cynical, but management has become a game of manipulation. If you can manipulate the numbers and people. You have a future in management. Breaking the cycle requires leadership, not sheep.

New leadership characteristics needs to be sought. Good looks and a silver tongue can not replace knowledge. Knowledge does not come from a management report or a meeting with other managers. It happens when your customer shows up, calls or emails for service. So few in management have made the connection. Knowledge is forever buried within and value is lost.

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Systems Thinking and Education

Shut Down the Department of Education Federal AND State

September 27, 2011 Tripp Babbitt 1 Comment

I still consider myself neutral because the on-going war between Democrats and Republicans is counter-productive. Although, I am happy to report that many of the Republican presidential candidates have proposed that they would shut down the US Department of Education.

Why stop at the stop at the Federal level?

I first proposed last summer that the Indiana Department of Education should shut down.

It only makes sense to start putting our investment in those that can create value (teachers) and less spend on those that shovel costly policies and programs into the schools. Less management and more teaching is a wonderful formula for hiring more teachers and reducing the burgeoning deficit.

Democrats should like this too. So long as we hire more teachers and not waste more money on non-sense that is needed in the classroom. We spend $77.4 billion dollars on the US Department of Education. Think about that $1.5 billion for every State.

But wait a minute . . .

We can save even more by shutting down every State Department of Education and have more money to spend in the classroom. We could save and improve education and send the bureaucrats packing to either teach or find a value creating job. Pay teachers more and reduce the deficit – something for everyone . . . Democrat or Republican.

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Systems Thinking and Management

A False Sense of Security

September 17, 2011 Tripp Babbitt 2 Comments

The recent arrest of UBS trader Kweku Adoboli sends the compliance police into hyper drive. The chants for more regulation for banks is deafening.

If only this was the answer.

Passing a law with more regulation seems logical . . . especially to politicians (sarcasm). It just gets very expensive and gives us a false sense of security. Regulation does not guarantee that consumers are protected and more inspection gets expensive.

Organizations the world wide are seeking an answer to those that cheat. Governance, compliance, risk, audit and inspection looking for a solution. Putting in safeguards is a common approach . . . and it doesn’t work.

The problem is that someone wanting to cheat the system can always out-savvy the best efforts to thwart it. The next fraud won’t look like the last one, yet that is what we try to prevent based on history.

The problem is more systemic. Eliminate the incentive to cheat and your organization can avoid additional regulations, inspections and audits. Costs go down in a dramatic fashion.

It seems we have built organizations to increase an individual’s personal balance sheet and income statement. This makes little sense in a world that has ethic and economic problems. What ever happened to the greater good and a purpose beyond ourselves?

Designing systems that individuals can take pride in and provide more and more jobs is a purpose that W. Edwards Deming challenged us with years ago. His advice continues to fall on deaf ears.

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Systems Thinking Concepts, Uncategorized

US Government – Ideology or Evidence?

September 10, 2011 Tripp Babbitt 2 Comments

As other governments look for examples to get out of their current mess, they should not be looking to the US or UK for guidance. The UK expenditures have tripled in health care and doubled in local authorities. The US has performed no better . . . . health care (Medicaid and Medicare), social programs, social security and just about every program run by government in the US is run so poorly that we have a tremendous deficit.

But our biggest deficit in the US is one of thinking.

You see ideology which breeds emotion and foolish decisions rules the day in the US. Republicans want less government, and a balanced budget. Democrats want more programs to be added to help people (i.e., more government), and more stimulus. The two parties are at such odds that they can’t get anything done and everybody is mad. Independents hold their nose and vote.

The problem in the US is ideology of both parties blinded by huge assumptions and biases. At each others’ throats day in and day out. Either side trying to keep power or trying to get it. No agreement on anything – gridlock, frustration and irate voters. Ideological stupidity reigns in the US.

Because of the extremes of both parties their learning has been lost to spinning – the art of failures being twisted to be a good thing. Attack and counterattacks rather than coming together to solve problems.

What about evidence?

No one actually looks for evidence that would be foolish. US Government systems are too complex, they require ideology. And so the pendulum swings between the ideologies of left and right . . . Democrat and Republican. Stalemate.

Evidence of what works and doesn’t work can be found but you have to look without bias and ideology. It does require actually putting petty party differences aside, rolling up the sleeves and getting in the work – together as Americans.

On September 11, 2001 I drove to work from Randolph, New Jersey to Morris Plains. A clear day and on those clear days you could see the Twin Towers rising from the City. Later that day, all I could see was smoke of what remained. Maybe we didn’t come together enough as Americans . . .

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Systems Thinking and Management

Seeing is Believing

September 7, 2011 Tripp Babbitt Leave a comment

Evidence . . . the one act that can counteract a thousand assumptions.

Faith seems to have been lost over the years and replaced by the pursuit of profit. Can you really trust anyone these days? Politicians, plumbers, sales people, attorneys, mobile phone companies, investment bankers, car repair are all professions and industries that we don’t trust – and I certainly don’t mean to say these are the only ones. They seem to be in it for themselves or what ever profit they can get no matter what the consequences.

However, if I can see evidence that can convince me, but only if I understand what I am seeing. Knowledge plays a huge role in my understanding. Most executives lack knowledge these days. This gives them limited perspective on how to solve today’s business problems.

Indeed this is due – in part – to having come up through a functionally separated organization. Sales, marketing, finance, operations, information technology, human resources, etc. an executive has a limited view. Also, the focus on finances clouds the ability to actually see. Executives are flying their businesses in a fog, blind to the reality of what is.

The biases from years of functional, industrialized thinking and outdated education leads us to a place where we follow what we know, even if it ain’t so. Outsourcing, a shared services strategy, cutting costs from a budget, standardizing processes are examples of things that business executives embrace . . . until they can see evidence of the damage these things almost always do. These are profit reducing activities where the evidence demands a verdict.

If there is a skill I have been honing it is to be able to view an organization and spot the problems of an organization. Finding them is simple, finding one that will get an executive to go look and experience the agony and waste that comes with poorly designed systems constructed from the wrong perspective and assumptions is much harder and personal.

Evidence . . . where seeing truly is believing.

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Systems Thinking and Management, Systems Thinking Concepts

Why “Buy American” Isn’t Enough

September 4, 2011 Tripp Babbitt Leave a comment

USAToday’s article about Roger Simmermaker and his buy American movement may indeed garner support – even Diane Sawyer has challenged Americans to “buy American.” Seems a patriotic and viable way to bring jobs back to the US. I do not see this lasting for very long.

Why?

Quite simply, Americans want to buy the best products for the money they put out.

For years of my youth I heard about Jap junk. Along came claims that Japan was “dumping” cheap products on the US to get market share. I even remember a time when a foreign car being driven in Detroit was shot at.

The truth is that Honda, Toyota and Nissan make better cars at a lower price. This is a not a scale (volume of production) problem, if it was the Big Three had all the scale after WWII. This is a problem of flow and thinking. The Japanese wanted to build a better car and American’s want more profit. Buying American indeed may just make executive’s richer and few jobs added.

To compete against anyone for jobs, we have to change our thinking about making products and services that people want to buy? Will you really give up all those Apple products because they are not made in America? Ultimately, consumers will go where the best value lies for any products and services.

This is not a worker problem. Management designs the poorly conceived systems that workers have to endure. Different thinking about the design and management of work is needed. The short-term profit and industrialized approach have run its course to predictable ruin in America. “Every man for himself” will not get the job done.

Our poor management thinking has created crisis after crisis, yet they refuse to budge. Much of the outsourcing and off-shoring is done because of flawed management thinking about costs – as are many other poor management decisions based on cost. Economies of flow, not scale. A focus on costs, always increases them.

If we want to “buy American” let’s start to build products and services in America that consumers wants to buy. This begins with a change of thinking, not just a patriotic mantra.

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Tripp Babbitt’s Blog

Monthly Archives: September 2011

Management Hurdles for Break-through Improvement

Buried Deep Inside the Management Factory: Value

Shut Down the Department of Education Federal AND State

A False Sense of Security

US Government – Ideology or Evidence?

Seeing is Believing

Why “Buy American” Isn’t Enough

The 95 Method