Low hanging fruit LO8325

Michael Erickson (sysengr@atc.boeing.com)
Fri, 5 Jul 1996 09:31:52 -0700 (PDT)

Was: Root Cause LO8208

Re: low hanging fruit
Hello

My only comments about the easy to make changes are: They often are very
superficial changes that don't go very deep or result in any long term
improvement. I also have been involved with the type of change activity
(taking 10-20% of my time) and the results have been that I've been busy
as something someone could measure, but looking back two or three years, I
find most of my efforts are lost in the dust. Real changes seem to
require the deeper look. Picking the low hanging fruit seems to be a
reactive activity that only works with the symptoms of problems and
doesn't ever really get at causes.

Like the saying: "the solution to any given problem, only changes the
problem".

later..
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com

On 28 Jun 1996, Keith Cowan wrote:
> There are categories of change that can be made very quickly and
> effectively. This is often called "the low hanging fruit" and can
> sometimes be recognized by words in the cafeteria like "it's about
> time they did that". This is also referred to as ENTITLEMENT because
> it usually does not involve major capital expense.
>
> Our experience is that the sum of all the new initiatives should not
> exceed 15% of the time of the people (not counting the change agents
> and trainers). Above that, the level of static gets pretty high and
> damage control activities start to consume more than its worth.
>
> I know that many instances demand more change than this. The cost,
> at least in human capital, becomes prohibitive and often the changes
> do not get firmly "installed" in new behaviours.
>
> The worst situation is to think the changes are all done and then go
> back and find erosion after 6 to 12 months!

> Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>

-- 

Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>

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