Monthly Archives: December 2011

Systems Thinking and Management, Systems Thinking and Technology

No Big Surprise – Another Over-Budget IT Project

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Public sector, private sector . . . it really doesn’t make much difference.  The continuing saga of IT projects that run beyond their budget and don’t deliver continues to grow.  Maybe we should be asking what IT initiated project actually ever works.  I have seen claims of improvement, but it is like a football replay – upon further review I have yet to see an IT victory.

Go to an IT vendor website and you would have to believe the opposite were true.  Sorry Charlie . . . but that’s a can of sucker you are reading about on these sites.  Procurers need to be asking for evidence and this is something not promoted in marketing-speak.  A little research will tell you otherwise and don’t trust other fools that have had their share of gullible pie.

You need to go to the work and see the effect on the design and flow of the work.  Management to management communications are full of assumptions and not fact.  And please don’t trust the IT salesperson, they are paid to embellish . . . can you say lipstick on a pig?

The latest is the cost over-run is with the FBI.  This one was originally be slated for 2009 to be ready.  The inspector general found “deficiencies” in the program.  Oh, and the FBI may go over the $451 million budget.  Noooo, really?

IT vendors love to use the favorite words like antiquated, modernization, automation and even sophistication to sell their wares, so be weary.  Any IT pushed on organizations is a dead end.  Your system is unique in customers, design, management etc. and need solutions unique to enabling the work of YOUR organization.  Customization to get what you need that works is better than a cheap solution standardized by what others believe is best.  Common sense?  Yes, it should be, but it is rarely present

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

The Oops Factor

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State Seal of Indiana.

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Reading Governor Mitch Daniel’s book, Keeping the Republic, he mentions the Indiana Welfare Eligibility modernization.  This modernization was a ten-year deal worth $1.3 billion to IBM and its partners.  It is an important story for all of government because everyone has the same mindset.

This mindset is characterized by anecdotal evidence to support an ideology.  In this case, privatization.  The old welfare system was labeled as the nation’s worst according to the US Department of Health and Human Services back in 2005 – these are the same bureaucrats that Governor Daniels laments about earlier in the book.  The system was rife with error, delays, fraud and unhappy people with the status quo.

Further, the welfare offices were described in the book as “a chaotic mess.  Antique, green-screen computers from the 1970s sat amid the floor-to-ceiling stacks of boxes stuffed with paper.  I asked our researchers to take pictures.  Otherwise, I knew no one would believe later how bad the system was.”

This is the death sentence for governments assuming old manual systems with old technology is always bad.  Government management has embraced modernization because it doesn’t feel “modern.”  However, the old systems are never evaluated for flow or knowledge, just that things looked old.  This is the mentality that wastes taxpayers billions of dollars.  IBM and others wait like wolves ready to pounce on the gullible and naive.

Governor Daniel’s calls the attempt an “oops.”   The re-engineering to modernize and privatize the welfare system wasn’t begun with knowledge but ideology and assumption.  When ideology and assumption are in the decision-making costs increase and service worsens.  Politics has a hard time separating reality from fantasy.  Evidence without preconceived notions is always best.

Modernization and privatization – which I am not against – really need to begin with knowledge of the systems we are trying to improve.  Governor Daniels does not challenge the back office design when describing the improvement effort, yet, here is a huge opportunity for improvement.  Most believe in the front-back office design that handicaps the design of work.  Different thinking and better method are required to improve work.

Governor Daniels has brought fiscal discipline to Indiana, but fiscal discipline by itself is doing the wrong thing, righter.  Indiana and other government entities can find dramatic improvement (another 30-70%)  from changing the thinking about the design and management of work.

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 Management

Management – A Little Neglect

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A little neglect may breed great mischief…for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.  – Benjamin Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin had wrote many an interesting article or letter during his day.  His bemoaning of neglect provides insight to the nagging nature of management.

Management has long wrestled with making things better, only to making things worse.  And so, we have neglected management in moving our thinking forward.  The industrialized, backward thinking of management has created a large chasm to cross in the pursuit of improvement.

We have neglected management as part of the problem for so long that improvement efforts have become focused on the front-line.  This has become an acceptable place for improvement to begin . . . and end.  The inches between the ears of management avoided as not to make waves.

It is true that work represents the place to make improvements, but if management is completely separated from the work there can be no real improvement or learning.  Management designed the work that workers do, workers can make some improvements but dramatic improvement requires management participation to understand.  You can not lead  or fix the design from from behind.

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 Management, Systems Thinking Concepts, Uncategorized

The Right Attitude to Improvement

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Working with a new company that has the right attitude going into the effort, one can only be optimistic.  The management is begging to be challenged, it is encouraged.  However, I am caught in a world between realism and hope.  There will be a roller coaster ride of emotion for my new client – management and workers alike.

Many prospective customers struggle with what the 95 Method (tVM) is about and try to fit it into their existing paradigm.  This makes the conversation awkward as the expectation of many is that I do process improvement . . . and I don’t.  Managers with this thinking want to do things better, tVM is about doing better things.  This is one of several reasons why improvement is so dramatic for those executives that understand that this means them too – when it comes to change.

Executives become participants by design.  Other improvement efforts embrace “sponsorship” and “support” which to me is completely lame and leaves too much improvement on the table – not empirical, but something like 30 – 40%.  Sustainability improves dramatically when executives understand – they are less likely to undo the good things.

The reality is that too few executives want to be challenged.  Ego and position in hierarchy play a role in this thinking.  Executives making the big money should have the answers in their mind and being challenged is – therefore, viewed as confrontational.  Nothing wrong with confrontation, but only when it is invited in.

Most people that know about the 95 Method know they will be challenged when we are invited in, the reputation of our successful work with clients often precedes us.

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 Management, Systems Thinking Concepts

Where Learning Happens

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A question posed quite often by folks interested in learning the 95 Method is, “can you put on a class to teach me the 95 Method?”

The short answer is “no.”

Do we do training?  Yes, all the time, but it isn’t of the sort that you sit in a classroom and become inspired by anecdotes and case studies.  You have to be in the work, understanding and coming to grips with seeing things differently.  Only a steady diet of learning how to ask good questions and unpacking what you learn after manageable bites are taken can you slowly unlearn bad habits and embrace new better ones.

The toughest people to engage are always those that believe all they need is a little change . . . and that is most I encounter.  Or worse, they try to start with the things they know like plans.  Always, my response is predictable you begin with “get knowledge” and not plan or even scoping.  Planning and scoping – as traditionally done – fall well short of getting knowledge.

You see, understanding a system is much broader than traditional approaches.  Improving a system as I have stated before requires workers and management to change.  Workers and managers can redesign the system together while management thinking must change to sustain the improvement.

Frustration mounts when speaking to those folks seeing the fantastic improvement from the 95 Method, but try to engage keeping the same mindset that caused the waste and sub-optimization in the first place.   The best way is to begin to work together without preparation.  Going to the work and learning allows you to see for yourself the opportunity for improvement.

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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