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I really don’t understand how people can talk about innovation as if it were some new discovery. Yes I understand we can bring a different focus to innovation. We can reconfigure management structures to encourage and support innovation. That is good. And new ideas are being developed, but the innovation fad is silly. And accepting the notion that this innovation stuff is some new idea will make managers less effective than if they understand the past.
New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, published in 1992, page 7:
Does the customer invent new product of service? The customer generates nothing. No customer asked for electric lights… No customer asked for photography… No customer asked for an automobile… No customer asked for an integrated circuit.
Innovation has long been important to those interested in management improvement. continue reading: Quality and Innovation - Profound Podcast with John Hunter, Part Two
 In this podcast I discussed my thoughts on management improvement, Deming, respect for people, systems thinking and more.
continue reading: Profound Podcast with John Hunter, Part Two - Another Quota Failure Example
However, as I was to learn from Dr Deming, this was judging performance using arbitrary goals, which fostered short-term thinking – the only thing they cared about was: Did I make my quota this week? Misguided focus. The focus was not at all on the customer. The focus was: How much money can I make off this customer?
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It created a lot of internal conflict. What type of internal conflict? Well, the salespeople hated having new salespeople hired on the floor, because they felt like it would cut into their commission…
Also, judging performance using arbitrary goals fostered a giant amount of fudging of the figures.
Jim McIngvale, CEO Gallery Furniture and author of Always Think Big. continue reading: Another Quota Failure Example - Eliminate Slogans
 Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.”
One of Deming’s 14 obligations of management was to eliminate slogans - Stop Demotivating Employees. continue reading: Eliminate Slogans - Cease Mass Inspection for Quality
Deming believed in improving the process, and doing so using process measures (which often may involve sampling) to guide improvement efforts. He did not believe in using inspection to select out the bad products, which is what inspection largely was before Deming.
More on Deming’s thought on Inspection... continue reading: Cease Mass Inspection for Quality - Making Changes and Taking Risks
The system had to change. “We eliminated commissions, incentives, promotions, contests, P&Ls, forecasts, budgets, the entire functional organization chart,” Rodin says. It was a radical move. Contests and commissions — internal competition — were a way of life in the industry, the universal motivational tool.
continue reading: Making Changes and Taking Risks - Righter Performance Appraisal
Just because it would be nice for performance appraisal to work doesn’t mean it does work. As Deming said some numbers are unknown and unknowable and the wish that it is possible to quantify the contributions of people doesn’t mean you can. People cling to the idea that performance appraisal is the only tool we have to manage performance so we must use it. Even if most people realize it is just a game that accomplishes little, if anything positive, and causes great frustration and animosity they persist. Hopefully performance appraisal will be seen as “artifact of the past” sometime soon. continue reading: Righter Performance Appraisal - Turning The PDSA Cycle Rapidly (Iteration)
One point he made was that he often finds that organizations fail to properly “turn” the PDSA cycle (by running through it 5-15 times quickly and instead to one huge run through the PDSA cycle). One slow turn is much less effective then using it as intended to quickly test and adapt and test and adapt…
In my experience people have difficulty articulating a theory to test (which limits the learning that can be gained). He offered a strategy to help with this: write down the key outcome that is desired. Then list the main drivers that impact that outcome. Then list design changes for each outcome to be tested with the PDSA cycle. continue reading: Turning The PDSA Cycle Rapidly (Iteration) - Creating and Sustaining Great Management Systems
It is hard enough to create and sustain great management systems without adding more challenges to achieving success. When the management system results in having credit for each success fought over (to allocate credit to whoever convinces others they deserve the credit) it is much harder.
This is one of the many ways Performance appraisals schemes (where people have to claim responsibility for successes in order to get more cash) create problems. continue reading: Creating and Sustaining Great Management Systems - Common Cause Variation
Every system has variation. Common cause variation is the variation due to the current system. Dr. Deming increased his estimate of variation due to the system (common cause variation) to 97% (earlier in his life he cited figures around 80%). Special cause variation is that due to some special (not part of the system) cause.
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To take action against a special cause, that isolated special cause can be examined. Unfortunately that approach (the one we tend to use almost all the time) is the wrong approach for systemic problems (which Deming estimated at 97% of the problems).
That doesn’t mean it is not possible to improve results by treating all problems as some special event. Examining each failure in isolation is just is not as effective. Instead examine the system that produced those results is the best method. continue reading: Common Cause Variation - Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails
Lean thinkers understand this idea as respect for people. Dr. Deming talked about joy in work.Douglas McGregor talked about theory x and theory y thinking. All of these perspectives incorporate an understanding of workplace systems and human psychology. Extrinsic motivation is easy but not effective. It is really just abdicating management and using extrinsic motivation in place of management. The alternative requires managers to actually manage. This is challenging but the correct choice to make. continue reading: Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails - Performance Appraisals – Is Good Execution the Solution?
- Design Your Organization to Serve Customers Well
Around all these processes is potential information. And you can either use it or not use it. And in most places just waste it.
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There is valuable information just running down the drain. If you have everybody turned on and looking at process and saying how can we make them work better, you need to get some information, you need to get some data. That is the way you actually solve problems.
William Hunter in seminar, Quality is a Journey to Excellence continue reading: Design Your Organization to Serve Customers Well - Transformation and Redesign
...transformation effort undertaken at the White House Communications Agency. It shares the Agency’s efforts beginning with a Deming-based approach to continuous quality improvement through implementation of a total organizational redesign using systems thinking precepts. It describes the obstacles to implementing quality concepts in a high visibility, high security organization and examines the influence of Agency’s organizational culture on quality performance and improvement. The discussion examines the applicability of several broadly accepted quality concepts to the “ultimate command-and-control” organization.
A couple years after this article I I went to work for Gerald Suarez at the White House Military Office (WHMO). WHCA is one of seven operational units of WHMO, others include: Air Force One, Camp David and the White House Medical Unit. continue reading: Transformation and Redesign - Louisville Slugger Uses Deming Management Practices
“You would have thought that in 123 years of making baseball bats we would have figured it all out,” says plant general manager Frank Stewart. “But as you well know, in the business of improvement, you are never there. It’s always, what can I do better? What can I improve today?”
Continual improvement is a critical practice to adopt as a standard practices (more of Deming’s 14 obligations of management). They moved production from a plant in New York to their headquarters in Louisville... continue reading: Louisville Slugger Uses Deming Management Practices
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