Latching On To The Wrong Part of an Idea

A small businessman has read about W. Edwards Deming and really enjoyed the idea that he was a self-proclaimed "insultant." The idea of being disruptively critical appeals to this businessman so much that he uses a brusque, arrogant approach to his clients, basically implying that they are not very bright if they don't use his services. Now Deming was an innovator and was certainly disruptively innovative, but the idea that "being insulting" was somehow his most important achievement really misses the boat.

Guess the Procedure, Win a Prize

A job site requested some crucial items from head office but wasn't getting a timely response. Repeated phone and email inquiries got no action, and work at the site ground to a halt waiting for these items. It turned out that the coordinator at head office was waiting for her superior to tell her it was OK before releasing the items to the site. She "couldn't send that without authorization, the site manager should know that."

Digging further, there was no procedure at this company for how the site was supposed to request this kind of item from head office. A previous supervisor had yelled at the coordinator when she had sent items to site that he hadn't approved of. So, to protect herself, the coordinator had, within her own mind, made up a procedure that required her direct supervisor to tell her, in person, to go ahead with such shipments.

Creating a spontaneous procedure is a great initiative, it helps get the job done more easily the next time. But people have to know about a procedure in order to follow it. And, since fear had made the coordinator more concerned with protecting herself than with serving her (internal) customer, she never bothered to tell the site what she was waiting for.

So, lot's of learning points:

1. People will make up procedures, where the company has none. They have to in order to survive. We need to tap into this initiative and have some way to capture, document, and spread the use of these procedures.
2. Procedures need to be known to all parties invovled.
3. People should work for their customers, not for their boss. The coordinator was focused on how to stay on the boss's good side, rather than on how to help the site move the job forward. This is management's responsibility to drive fear out of the workplace.
4. Communication helps, lack of communication hurts. The coordinator didn't tell the site what the next step in "her procedure" was, she just put things on hold until she heard from her boss.

Procedures can be beautiful. But they have to be documented, understood by all involved, and focused on adding value to the customer.

Let's Develop Another Web Page

A large services organization had a long history, with various regional offices growing up over time. A global corporate standard had been developed for work practices, but had never really been adopted by all the regions. The process for changing the global processes became quite cumbersome over time, as the organization grew and attempted to hear the voice from every region. Regions started to develop their own protocols, since it was too much effort and took too long to try to budge the global standards committee. Things deteriorated, with each well-meaning branch AND the head office continuing to evolve their own standards in order to get their work done. After a number of impassioned discussions, the unfortunate decision made was too start yet another web page, yet another database, yet another depository of information, with the intent of "doing it right this time". At last count, that now meant nine different places where a standard might be stored, with up to nine different variations of a given document. The end result is that most employees keep a printed copy of whatever documents they tend to use, and everybody is on a different page.

Got Anything Cheaper?

A Canadian farm-equipment manufacturer changed bolt suppliers, choosing a much cheaper offshore source and buying large quantities to reduce their unit price by almost 70%. Within six months, several units had failed in the field, with failed bolts. Forensic testing revealed inferior steel in the bolts despite satisfactory initial quality testing. A recall and retrofit of equiment cost the company approximately thirty times the total anticipated savings. They switched back to their original supplier.

Task and Relationship

A technically excellent worker at a design company knew his stuff. Unfortunately, he seemed to delight in finding fault, in criticizing others on the team and continually provoking coworkers and managers. His repeated comments like "they should have..." or "why didn't they..." made it hard for anyone to feel safe - he could find fault with anyone. Success needs to balance task and relationship. He focused on task above all else, and damaged relationships without ever realizing the importance of building them. Eventually, management let him go. He didn't understand why.

Two Bags Full of Expensive Cost Savings

A grocery store switched to a new supplier for the clear plastic bags which customers use for fresh produce. While selecting some lovely Ambrosia apples, the bag burst, dropping eight shiny apples on the hard floor - eight apples, bruised and ruined. The produce clerk says, "We're telling everybody to use two bags now, because these bags are so much thinner and keep breaking."

So, the company is trying to save money by buying thinner produce bags, but the bags are breaking, produce is getting damaged, staff is having to do more cleanup, and customers are using two or being inconvenienced. A misguided attempt at cost saving.

Three Blind Managers

A restaurant had three owner/managers that shared duties on different nights. They all had different management styles, and didn't make any attempt to coordinate their approach to employees.

One waitress received consistently positive feedback from Manager One. Manager Two was often critical, taking her to task for some of the same things that Manager One praised her for. After a few months on the job, she asked Manager One for a raise. He said that she'd see an increase on her next cheque, but that didn't happen. When she asked Manager Two about it, he told her that none of her work justified a raise.

It's always difficult to report to more than one Manager. It's especially difficult when Manager One and Manager Two don't communicate with each other or even try to get on the same page. Managers often don't see how this stuff drives employees crazy.