Blog posts on culture

Posts selected fromManagement Blog - Engineering Blog - Investing Blog and other blogs

• Arbitrary Rules Don't Work

  You can’t just expect people to act in a way that seems arbitrary.

  ...

  It is not ok to expect people to think the way you want them to. You have to understand how people will react and create solutions based on that.

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• Employee Ownership

  I have always liked the idea of employee ownership. To me this can be a great help in creating a system where employees, owners, customers, suppliers work together. Alone an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) does little. But as part of a system of management it is something I think can be beneficial.

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• Trust: Respect for People

  Management then vowed that this (layoffs in 1950) would be the first and last time such an event would come to pass at Toyota, and, in a gesture of respect to former employees, Kiichiro resigned from his position as president of the company.

  A bit different than laying off tens of thousands of workers and then taking huge bonuses [the broken link was removed]. And in case you don’t know, I think Toyota’s approach is more honorable and what should be aimed for (I wouldn’t say the president always should resign but it should be a significant admission of failure).

  Does this mean no workers ever come into conflict with Toyota management? No. But Toyota’s respect for workers is qualitatively different than that of most companies.

  Related: Bad Management Results in Layoffs

  continue reading: Trust: Respect for People
• CEO Flight Attendant

  This getting out and seeing work in action is exposed a great deal, including a lean management concept, Genchi Genbutsu – to go to see the problem in situ (not just reading a report about it).

  The success of many management practices is more a matter of how the practice is done than if it is done. Also the success depends on the rest of the management system. Practices cannot just be copied. But you can learn from what others find useful and figure out how that idea would work within your organization.

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• Learning from Customers

  Create a management system focused on continual improvement that is engaged in seeking out customer feedback and continually improving the value provided to customers.

  Most organizations do the opposite of this. They make put many barriers in the way of customers speaking to anyone that will listen. They put systems in place to discourage feedback from customers.

  ...

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• How Google Works

  Google was driven from the beginning by engineers that sought to do what was best. Since those engineers were the founders of the company and still run the company Google has been able to keep the focus not on what is accepted as conventional wisdom but what actually works best. Google understands when you experiment things might not work out. Google’s solution is to experiement quickly and fail early (turn the pdsa cycle quickly). That is something every organization can apply.

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• Supplier Development Article

  people are scared to talk about any other aims than profit. Deming didn’t have such a problem. Toyota doesn’t have such a problem.Google doesn’t have such a problem [the broken link was removed].

  Others need to learn that there are multiple aims for organizations not just profits but providing good jobs, serving customers, aiding community… Learn from the leaders – talking as though the only purpose of the organization is to make profit is counterproductive.

  continue reading: Supplier Development Article
• Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation
  1. Ideas come from anywhere (engineers, customers, managers, executives, external companies – that Google acquires)
  2. Share everything you can (very open culture)
  3. You’re Brilliant. We’re Hiring [Google Hiring]
  4. A license to pursue dreams (Google 20% time)
  5. Innovation not instant perfection (iteration – experiment quickly and often)
  6. Data is apolitical [Data Based Decision Making – this is true but as an operating principle requires people that really understand data. See: Data can’t lie.
  7. Creativity loves Constraints [process improvement and innovation]
  8. ...

  continue reading: Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation
• 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?
  …
  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
• Interviews with Innovators

  The very first thought in my mind was, “I think I signed a document that everything I design belongs to Hewlett-Packard.” Even just on my own time, I thought that they deserved it first. And I wanted Hewlett-Packard to build this. I loved my division. I was going to work there for life. It was the calculator division; it was the right division to move into this kind of a computer.

  I went to management, and I had three levels of bosses above me in a room and a couple of other engineers, and I presented the ideas and told them what we could do at what price and how it would work. They were intrigued by it, but they couldn’t justify it as a Hewlett-Packard product for some good reasons. Hewlett-Packard couldn’t do a simple project, which was really what was interesting.

  Steve Wozniak, on what became Apple.

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• How Toyota Management Develops a New Camry

  The importance taking what you learn to improve the system has been stressed for quite some time but still so often it is not done. The difference between inspecting to fix the product before you ship it and inspecting to improve your system is huge.

  continue reading: How Toyota Management Develops a New Camry
• Internet Access at Work (2006)

  Providing internet access at work can create some management issues. However, the correct solution to those problems is not to be overly restrictive on access to the internet.

  ...coach and work with your employees to make sure they behave responsibly. The information available on the internet can aid employees in doing their job in many ways. And it can also aid them in living their lives – don’t discount this benefit.

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• Why Pay Taxes or be Honest

  We keep getting these continuing examples that are so distressing: Enron, Worldom, Tyco, Accenture, HP… It is so disappointing that such behavior is mainly excused (until finally the evidence presented is so damning that most stop defending the specific case in question).
  

  Yet so much of what is unethical is barely questioned. If we don’t question things that are this bad, then those who insist on being as devious as they can without being called on it will just practice worse and worse behavior. We have to do a much better job of not tolerating such unethical behavior.

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• The State of Lean Implementation

  Interesting survey by the Lean Enterprise Institute notes the following as the major obstacles to transforming to a lean organization.

  1. Lack of implementation know-how: 48%
  2. Backsliding to the old ways of working: 48%
  3. Middle management resistance: 40%
  4. Traditional cost accounting system doesn’t recognize the value of lean: 38%

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• 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