John:
At 08:14 30/11/1995 -0500, you wrote:
>see the paper by Russell Ackoff... in Systems Research 12(1), pages 43-46...
>"...the following is a partial list of alleged panaceas collected from a
>cursory scanning of current literature:"
>"Total quality management
>Continuous improvement
>Benchmarking
>Downsizing--rightsizing
>Process re-engineering....
It is a sad state of events but consultants must be seen, and see
themselves, as manufacturers (of ideas) just as any conventional
industrial plant. They must build a "new model" periodically to tantalize
the buyer and to distinguish themselves from their competitors -- and that
new model is generally the book(s) produced by the senior rainmakers which
then sells the consultancy services of their organization.
Couple this tendency to the unwillingness of most buyers (firms) to
confront the truly systemic issues plaguing their organizations long
enough and with enough commitment to solve them, and one has a ready buyer
for the "ism" of the day. ("Oh dear, that medicine was frightfully
distasteful [and I didn't take it long enough to see any improvement
anyway] so perhaps this one will taste better.") And the problem is that
when any organization has been washed over by successive managerial
"isms," the only "isn" that sticks is cynicism.
Whenever we go into a client, we always check to see "how often this
ground has been plowed," i.e., what levels of cynicism, at what levels of
the organization are we likely to encounter -- and that alters our
approach to the client. Example: There is on automotive OEM in which we
would never use the words "empower" or "empowerment" because the groups to
which this message has been targeted perceive it to be hollow. If we were
to use those words, we would be instantly discredited.
-- Best regards, Gordon Housworth Intellectual Capital Group ghidra@mail.msen.com Tel: 810-626-1310