Myers, Kent (myers@carsoninc.com) WROTE
>Stafford Beer argues that the Pareto curve is misunderstood. (My Beer
>books are gone, so I can't give the citation.) The idea is that a
>particular shape persists, no matter what. Yet many managers, when they
>are told that a proportion of activities contribute very little, decide
>that they need to find those activities and eliminate them. After a few
>rounds of chopping the tail off, only to see the same curve with the same
>tail reappear, the result is a much smaller operation. Since the
>operation isn't necessarily more productive or profitable, downsizing
>eventually loses its appeal. This focusing mechanism, however dressed up
>in science, is a poor substitute for strategy.
The above Managerial Illusion is common place. It illustrates a
fundamental ignorance of System forces, seen by Managers as Mechanical
Components and Parts, which can be fixed and "done with". Hence through a
process of elimination, one can find the ultimate "truth", "nothing but
the truth". But this type of Logic Thinking Operation is really a dead
trap when applied to a Total System whose behaviour is never Mechanical,
but more Biological.
Regards
Andrew Wong
Organisation Observer / Thinker
Office eMail : andreww@petronas.com.my
HomePage : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5621
--"ANDREW WONG" <michwy@pl.jaring.my>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>