This month Paul Borawski asked ASQ’s Influential Voices to explore sustaining excellence for the long term.
There are several keys to pulling sustained long term excellence. Unfortunately, experience shows that it is much easier to explain what is needed than to build a management system that delivers these practices over the long term. The forces pulling an organization off target often lead organization astray.
Each of these concepts have great deal more behind them than one post can explain. I provide some direct links below, and from those there are many more links to more valuable information on the topics. I also believe my book provides valuable additional material on the subject – Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability. Sustained long term excellence is the focus of the book. A system that consistently provides excellent performance is a result of building enterprise capability over the long term.
- Viewing the organization as a system – to build long term improvement systems thinking is key. Without it divergent forces tear apart cohesive long term strategies.
- Process thinking flows from viewing the organization as a system. Only by building a network of reliable processes is sustained excellence possible. To build those processes an understanding of process thinking is required (understanding variation, monitoring using in-process measures, visual management, continual improvement etc.).
- Engaged and thinking people with the authority to act at the gemba are required for the robust, continually improving management system – which is required for sustaining excellence. Everyone must be focused on continual improvement and reacting when necessary (respect for people, visual management, standardized processes, proper training, coaching, trusting environment where fear doesn’t cripple improvement…).
- Customer focus is also tied to long term success in a way that is often overlooked. Obviously building up a dedicated customer base is extremely valuable. But true customer focus, where the organization understands what problems the organization solves for customers, results in a forward looking organization that is constantly providing more and more value to customers. And this proactive focus is needed to to sustain long term excellence. Some related concepts: value stream mapping, outcome measures, visiting the user gemba…
Related: Distorting the System, Distorting the Data or Improving the System – Sustaining and Growing the Adoption of Enterprise Excellence Ideas in Your Organization – Managing to Test Result Instead of Customer Value – Good Process Improvement Practices – Change is not Improvement – Managing Our Way to Economic Success Two Untapped Resources by William G. Hunter – Software Process and Measurement Podcast With John Hunter – Customer Focus by Everyone
Managers Are Not Non-Leaders: Managers Need to Practice Things We Classify as Leadership Traits
Saying “Managers care about efficiency and leaders care about effectiveness” is like saying “Doctors care about theory and nurses care about patients.”
Managers that don’t care about effectiveness are lousy managers.
Leaders that don’t care about the gemba are lousy leaders.
Doctors that don’t care about patients are lousy doctors.
Nurses that don’t care about theory are lousy nurses.
Your role in the organization (and for the particular situation in question) and training and the situation will impact how you contribute. But the attitude that leaders are visionaries that think big thoughts, make decisions then tell everyone what to do (act as the brain for the organization) is outdated. Every list of what traits are for leaders that then contrasts them with managers that I have seen shows leadership traits managers need.
Seeking to separate leadership and management is a bad idea. If you want to have a few leadership traits that you want to focus on at various points (creating engagement, communicating a vision, building consensus, setting organizational direction) that is fine. But those things are traits managers need; they are not traits reserved for some separate leadership cadre.
And disconnected leaders that don’t understand the organization, the organizations customers etc. are not going to lead well (normally the contrast lists have the managers doing all the hands on stuff, at the gemba, with customers etc.). Nurses may not have as complete an understanding of the theories behind medical treatment decisions but they need to know a great deal of theory to do their jobs well. Everyone contributes and has different roles to play but I don’t see value in the contrast of leaders and managers mentality.
From what I have seen mainly the manager v. leader comparisons seem to be about belittling managers and elevating leaders; but leaders are this vague concept that isn’t well defined. Who are these leaders? Are they only senior executives? They can’t be managers because you are contrasting them with managers – by the contrasting model used they can’t be leaders and managers.
Continue reading →