Barry Mallis wrote (Conscious or Unconscious LO LO6024):
>I personally am unable at this time to convince forty people each
>with over 35 years at this facility that there is a new and better
>system at play. You have to, as my mom use to say, learn it
>yourself. The unconscious becomes the conscious. (snip)
(Apologies in advance to our non-US readers because I'm about to play with
a few euphamisms and old cliches - hope they are understandable).
Yep. I discovered this a long time ago when a client (Frank) said,
repeatedly, "I run the best plant in XXX's system." I would come to him
with another implemented process improvement with measured results and
long-term ROI (each designed by one of his managers with my assistance).
And in three months, we implemented, tested and measured results in
roughly 30-some different areas. Little cost and a measured impact of
US$400,000 or so (1980 dollars). And each time the manager and I met with
him to briefly describe results, we got, "Good job, keep me posted. And I
run the best plant in XXX's system."
When I left, Frank still ran "the best plant in XXX's system" and nothing
ever changed. My take on it (and this wasn't until years later) was that
any improvement suggested from outside Frank's control could not be
supported because it would make him lose face. How could some
whippersnapper consultant on a project from corporate (we were outside
consultants engaged by top management) EVER discover something to improve
that he didn't see. IMPOSSIBLE!!
So, when I left, he stayed. Nothing changed. And he still ran, "the best
plant in the system." True. (He retired, they were acquuired because of
low profitability by another big firm. No surprise, actually.)
Nobody ever washes a rental car.
And many can't see what they don't discover for themselves.
And, "The older we get, the faster we were."
Remember, The "mindless" "wagon pullers" do get isolated from the reality
of pushing the wagons and the quality of the journey as seen from the back
of the wagon and felt by customers. Your perspective is different from
theirs as you look at the Big Picture and take an overall view of the
journey forward -- they are probably more actively engaged in the activity
itself. And remember they remember The Days of Yesteryear and think that
the things they invented and implemented actually work fine.
Yet the round wheels of today are the Square Wheels of tomorrow. And
today is also yesterday tomorrow.
Barry -- I'll offer you a tool -- free -- that is proven capable of
generating their ideas and the perception that Square Wheels work Okay but
that round ones work better. Let them discover that there may be things
in need of improvement to make the journey faster and smoother. The
process of improvement is continuous continuous improvement (I got that
one when visiting the Department of Redundancy Department!).
Send me a snail mail address.
For the Fun of It!
--Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company, Taylors SC 29687-6624 74170.1061@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>