A few posts from the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog 2 years ago – August 2005:
If organizations just adopt management improvement practices I firmly believe customer service, financial performance and employee satisfaction could be improved. This was a big part of the reason I started to use the internet to share management improvement ideas back in 1996 (plus I find management improvement interesting).
On the note of making a difference in people’s lives. I have had far more people tell me how my father (Bill Hunter) made a huge difference in their lives than ever tell me anything like that about myself. Now there is the sensible explanation, that he actually had a big impact on people’s lives (but you also have to figure most of those people never saw me so the chance for them to say anything didn’t exist…). I believe far more people told me (after he died) than ever told him, which says something about psychology in the USA, I think. But I don’t really know what people told him – so I could be wrong about that.
Anyway the point of this is that many people have told me their life was significantly changed by working with him on management improvement initiatives (mechanics talking about how he changed the workplace they had been in for years, people who saw that they could contribute more and changed careers, managers that realized how much damage they had done but now were on the right track…). There was obviously a great deal of emotion for many people. And it was largely about applying concepts like Deming’s management system, Toyota Management practices, statistics (yes even that)… and his ability to talk to everyone and make them comfortable (tons of people mentioned this – that this university professor would ask me questions and talk to me like a person, not talk down to me and be interested in my answers and…). As I continue through life I realize that this management improvement stuff really can matter if done right.
I have grown to enjoy maintaining the management improvement resources and other Curious Cat web sites but this is the reason I started and continued these efforts over the years. Today there is a great amount of useful management information online – but for years the pickings were quite slim.
The photo is of dad and me a few years ago.
Related: Quality in the Community: Madison, Wisconsin – Statistics for Experimenters – Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin – Managing Our Way to Economic Success: Two Untapped Resources – Invest in new management methods not a failing company
Is the Theory of Constraints (TOC) a Theory? [the broken link was removed]:
There are strong ties between Deming’s ideas and the pragmatic philosophy; one paper offers a nice overview: Deming and Pragmatism [the broken link was removed].
I like George Box’s quote “All Models Are Wrong But Some Are Useful” This can also be dangerous when people don’t understand the limits of usefulness. A danger is that people believe the model is more true than it is (they don’t understand the limitations).
The pragmatists were concerned with the theory of knowledge – how we know what we know. They were very concerned with evaluating thought and beliefs. They believed in testing to determine whether theories were correct. This thinking underpins the Shewhart/Deming/PDSA cycle.
I believe the question raised in the original post is very similar to the struggle Shewhart went through in developing the control chart and Shewhart cycle. He wanted to address the exact issue of finding things that not only appear to be useful (which includes many instances of things that appear to be useful but in fact are not – we people are prone to this in many ways) but are predictably useful.
Related: The Illusion of Understanding – Illusions – Optical and Other – Management is Prediction – Experiment and Learn
Tesco is opening Fresh and Easy stores in the USA: starting with Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Tesco is the third largest retailer in the world and well known for using lean management methods. I added Tesco to my long term stock picks last year (and Warren Buffett owns about $2 billion dollars worth, too). Their recent press release offers hope for Tesco operating with lean thinking in the USA:
Their blog also offers hope they will practice lean thinking: Keeping things simple at fresh& easy:
Perhaps the single biggest example is the way in which we’re approaching our assortment of products. We will only have about a tenth of the range of a full size supermarket, which means that the sales of each individual product will be much higher. This in turn reduces costs across the supply chain, which once more can be reinvested in lower prices.
Related: Lean Retailing – Tesco Innovation – Focus on Customers and Employees – Starbucks: Respect for Workers and Health Care
Google Video sold digital videos that were controlled by Digital Rights Management DRM (so the purchaser didn’t buy something they bought the right to view the digital media according to a set of constraints. I, and many others find these DRM deals a bad deal for customers. I think Google realized that DRM made their Google Video a bad business (though maybe they decided it was a bad business for other reasons).
Well Google’s original method of existing the business left many people upset – with good reason I think. Google has wisely reacted to that feedback by improving the exit strategy (including full refunds and the ability to play videos purchased for the next 6 months). This improvement is evident for customers but also is an improvement from the perspective of the other stakeholders too. An update on Google Video feedback
To recap: we decided to end the Google Video download to own/rent (DTO/DTR) program, and are now refocusing our Google Video engineering efforts. The week before last, we wrote to Google Video DTO/DTR program customers to let them know that videos they’d already bought would no longer be playable.
We planned to give these users a full refund or more. And because we weren’t sure if we had all the correct addresses, latest credit card information, and other billing challenges, we thought offering the refund in the form of Google Checkout credits would entail fewer steps and offer a better user experience. We should have anticipated that some users would see a Checkout credit as nothing more than an extra step of a different (and annoyingly self-serving) kind. Our bad. Here’s how we’re hoping to fix thing…
Related: Dell Listening to Customer – other companies refuse to listen – Google: Good Service not Arbitrage – Dell, Reddit and Customer Focus – Discover Card Dis-service
Tools are just tools [the broken link has been removed] by Lee Fried
Great post. Great goal; and quite a challenge. My personal belief is while you are trying to make this change (which takes years) to become an organization that acts as a system you must balance education (an investment – one of the best forms of investment often) and improvements gains today (both are needed). And just applying tools effectively can often provide nice gains today (with the right guidance and proper restraint).
Often the two go hand in hand – there is little more educational than actually participating in using quality/lean/improvement tools and concepts to solve your own problems. That is the best way for managers to learn about lean thinking. But I think when you see this dual role of current improvement efforts it changes your measure of success – not just measuring improvement for today (or improvements in the value stream that will pay dividends for years) but also valuing the new knowledge gained by the participants. I have never been able to quantify the benefit of the education but that doesn’t bother me.
Related: Systemic Improvement – Encourage Improvement Action by Everyone – Keeping Track of Improvement Opportunities – Search management improvement sites selected by Curious Cat
Learn how to do your work better, faster, and for less cost, plus find more time to plan your future and develop balance in your life – Attend The W. Edwards Deming Institute Fall Conference. Gain new insights to:
* Reduce product and service variation
* Enhance job satisfaction
* Redesign organizations as a system
* Appreciate the thinking behind the Toyota Production System
* Discover the role of psychology in continual improvement
* Understand trends in improving healthcare
Speakers include: Norm Bafunno (Senior Vice President – Manufacturing and Administration, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, Inc.), Bill Bellows – Associate Technical Fellow, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne), Joyce Orsini (Fordham University, Deming Scholars MBA Program), John Pourdehnad – Ackoff Center for Advancement of Systems Approaches), Gipsie Ranney (Statistical Consultant) and Don Wheeler (Consulting Statistician and Author).
Related: Curious Cat Management Improvement Calendar – Thoughts on 2006 Deming Institute Conference – Improvement at UTC (2005 Deming conference) – Deming’s Ideas at Markey’s Audio Visual – Improving Problem Solving by Ian Bradbury and Gipsie Ranney.
It is sad to see so many examples of bad customer service. I wish enough companies would adopt management improvement principles so that at least I could avoid dealing with the others altogether. Here are 2 more bad examples from the Washington post today. Cellphone Contracts – Hard to Get off the Hook
Another in the long list of bad service from Verizon examples. And the Post also has a story on the continuing Passport saga, which just feeds the perception that government can’t manage:
Wouldn’t you love to see what lean thinking passport operations could accomplish (which is really just part of the system that passed the law – one of the numerous failing of the State Department was not adequately explaining the consequences/requirement of the new law? I know I would.
Related: Customer Hostility from Discover Card – Standard Prepaid Cell Phone Policy – Ask Your Customer What They Would Like Improved – What Job Does Your Product Do? – Public Sector Continuous Improvement Site
I believe I learned this from Peter Scholtes, though maybe I am remembering it wrong or explaining it wrong (so give him the credit and if I mess it up it is my fault). I believe there is a problem with using the term empowered. Using the term implies that it one person empowers another person. This is not the correct view. Instead we each play a role within a system. Yes there are constraints on your actions based on the role you are playing. Does a security guard empower the CEO to enter the building?
Some systems are setup with a great deal of micro managing. Then consultants look around and say you need to empower your employees to think. Which often results in mangers saying “you all are empowered” go forth and do good work. Saying that is meaningless. What matters is changing the system. The system needs to respect people. That is not increased by people using the word empowered. In fact it is decreased, I believe, due to the implied notion that one person “empowers” the other (what can be granted can be withdrawn).
I believe organizations should be designed so that decisions are made at the appropriate level. Systems should be designed to produce good results by allowing people to contribute. People should be trusted to do their job. They should not be micro-managed. They should work from standard work instructions. They should practice kaizen… When discussing empowerment this topics come up, but the wrong term reinforces the wrong view of the situation.
It is similar to the problem with “motivation.” What managers need to do is eliminate de-motivation – not to motivate. Manager’s don’t need to “empower” employees they need to fix the system to treat employees with respect and allow them to do their jobs well.
Related: Respect for People – Team Members or Costs – Motivation – Stop De-motivating Me!
Ok, this is one of those posts you might want to ignore or you might enjoy. Before blogs there is little chance this would reach you. But I am tired of seeing the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) promoted as if it were some encouragement for better management when all it seems to do to me is encourage superficial, non data based claims. And since it my blog I can rant if I feel like it.
ACSI: Flat Customer Satisfaction Suggests Continued Weak Consumer Spending
That is the title of the news release. Are they kidding!! They think a flat American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) reading is going to lead to weak consumer spending? I doubt it. I really doubt it. What data, or theory is that based on? Jeez this whole thing just makes me crazy. Trying to use a index to promote the “importance of quality principles” (ASQ is one of the “sponsors” of this effort) and customer focus in this way – ARGH. It does the opposite – showing people how to misuse numbers. How to overreact to variation. How to compare one dot to another dot and make claims from those 2 dots. I am sure I will make mistakes in my statements but the ACSI has bugged me since it was started with the way it ignores sound quality practices and promotes the opposite of what people like Dr. Deming taught.
I suppose it it possible their was a statistically significant change in the actual consumer satisfaction in favor of the Big Three versus Asian Manufacturers, though I doubt it. But fine, lets say it isn’t just random variation. And heck for a sentence or two lets even accept this measure of “satisfaction” is even meaningful. Why would making more cars mean your quality is going to slip? This seems like trying to say something about numbers when you don’t really have anything to say. Toyota will make more cars next year, most likely (unless there is a large recession), so is your prediction that their ASCI is likely to slip? Please read Practice and Malpractice in Management Research v 6.0 by Paul R. Carlile and Clayton M. Christensen.
Making a prediction and testing it out would at least be applying some semblance of the PDSA cycle (granted I probably shouldn’t even bring that up as it is such a stretch from a what PDSA really is) – but the concept of PDSA is that it is a learning cycle. You make a prediction based on your theory and then test out your theory. The claim is making more cars means your quality is going to slip (which in the context I take them to mean is equivalent to the ASCI number slipping – otherwise the quote is basically a non-sequitur)?
Continue reading
