Well, since we are having a heretical discussion I think I will
join in... and I might ask myself are we really disagreeing with
Deming??? At one level we certainly are... and yet I saw an
emerging picture in later works of a move away from pointing the
finger at senior management... yes he put a lot of energy into
persuading them to act... I am not sure wether to read that as
blame... In system terms they are the people who are likely to be
able to exert high leverage so having them acting for
transformation will have the most impact.... a wise place to focus
your energy given that hardly anyone listened to you in the western
world until you were 80!!
>Blaming senior management is rarely constructive.
I am resisting the temptation to use absolutes and struggling to
think of instances when it would be.....
> At my command, I can
>see how hard "they" are working to change and help the organization
>improve. But, in some cases, I find that "the system" is so big that it
>gets away from its leaders. My organization has about 2400 military and
>civilian members - which is big enough standing alone. But the REALLY big
>system that we're struggling with is the United States Navy - huge. And
>sure, there is one guy at the top - but, honestly, can he be held
>responsible for how the system works?
perhap Deming might have said they are doing their best and their
best efforts might be ruining us!! I find the most helpful way of
looking at all of this is to see the world through every possible
perspective as real for them with challenges and opportunities -
our best hope comes out of listening to all of the perspectives
and not 'writing off' the senior managers as the ones who are to
blame...
>On top of the heresy of disagreeing with Deming, here is the blasphemy of
>questioning the idea of absolute accountability. If the ship runs
>aground, the Captain is relieved of his command, even if he was asleep in
>his stateroom when it happened. Why? Because he is held accountable for
>everything that happens on the ship; or, in other words, he is totally
>responsible for the system. Should he be blamed?
Never.....
and when we do how easily we sweep the thing away and how much we
lose in learning...
I heard a story about this which is hard to relate because of
confidentiality issues but a large system was blaming the
'captain' for failures and disciplining them accordingly without
investigating root cause - years (sssss and health
implications) later it discovered (by accident) that the failure was
caused by a set of simple mechanical problems..... what price easy
blame and accountability there...
>No easy answers, but thanks, Rol, for helping me think.
Nice reflections Jane thanks
-- Julie Beedon <julie@vistabee.win-uk.net>