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New Systems Thinking
Featured Article
Tripp Babbitt
In This Issue
Tools and Fools
Government - Scapping the Audit Commission
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System Thinking in the Public Sector Freedom from Command & Control
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bryce Harrison offers Health Checks for Organizations and Call Centers.  Find out more.
 
 
 
Looking for a New Path for Your Organization?  Check out Systems Thinking Interventions, begin your new path with a 3-day workshop.
 
International service organizations have said working with the Vanguard Method has been the most important change in thinking they have experienced in their working lives.  Come join us! 
Dear Systems Thinker,

If you have not had a chance to check out the Quality Digest article  Systems Thinking Saves Service, please do.  I have had hundreds of curiosity seekers sign-up for the newsletter and take advantage of the free download "Understanding Your Organization as a System," I suspect mostly from this article.  For those that are new . . . welcome. 
 
I had a few readers write and say that I am splitting hairs about lean and systems thinking . . . hardly.  If you haven't noticed the difference between the Vanguard Method and lean than you aren't curious enough.  The differences are stark.  There are differences between service and manufacturing for starters.  Add methodologies for human system changes and important new thinking on economies of flow, outsourcing, shared services and why change management programs fail in service organizations and the difference will be emergent to anyone curious enough to seek.
 
The article was a challenge to the statement that lean six sigma is unrivaled "and no other competing methodology is apparent."  Well, IMHO there is one (and possibly others) method that is apparent and as the article attests more effective in treating the whole system.
 
In my last conversation with Dr. Deming in the summer of 1992, he discussed with me that the psychology of changing/improving organizations offered up an area of opportunity for future breakthroughs.  John Seddon comes from this background and continues to make advancements in learning how to do this more effectively.  Many differences to the Toyota tourists that wanted to see what Toyota did so Americans can do it too (copy).  John wanted to understand why change programs failed and he found copying (by virtue of tools) was counterproductive to developing a system that could be self-reliant in learning and improving.
 
Too many executives believe they are saving money by "not reinventing the wheel" and embrace forms of copying like best practices, technology, benchmarking, tools, etc.  The real problem is these folks DO get short-term gains from such activities, but the learning stops, and unfortunately so does innovation.  Almost all systems have been designed this way. The Vanguard Method offers ways to fix this and other thinking problems that get in the way of both innovation and execution.  Culture improves as system conditions that prevent performance are removed.
 
Truly, if we are copying we will always be playing catch-up to the leader, and worse . . . stifling culture and innovation.
 
The Vanguard Method offers a path to help organizations through intervention break the bad habits developed through command and control thinking.  We get you started with better thinking about the design and management of work avoiding the pitfalls and mistakes we have seen other organizations make.  After that, you have the thinking to propel the organization forward.
From Tools (and Fools) to Thinking
 
Bob Marshall wrote an interesting post about what makes A Great Developer and linked to a couple posts of mine.  I am now part of "Amplify" and I have no idea how to use it.  So I apologize to all those folks that made me a source, I intend to understand more about Amplify this week.  Oh, and the article link that got so much attention:
 
 
 
 
Another post with multiple links stemmed from a conversation on my Quality Digest article where a reader believed that standardization was the problem with inconsistent service.  Nope!  It's the inability to absorb variety.
 
 
 
I currently have a feature article at IQPC on customer service titled, Save the Scripts for the Movies.  Treating contact centers like manufacturing plants is a bad idea.
 
 
Other popular posts include:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For those of you interested in the latest posts go to:
 
 
To learn more about how systems thinking can improve your organization.  Contact me at [email protected] or call me at (317) 250 - 8885.
 
Government - The Scrapping of the Audit Commission in the UK are a Sign of Times to Come in the US! (?)
 
John Seddon has long loathed the Audit Commission for its rating system and performance targets.  A heated argument between a senior Audit offical and John highlighted the problems with the commission.
 
The new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is Eric Pickles has decided that the Audit Commission should be scrapped.  It saves $75 million (US) annually in the move, but systems thinkers know the savings go far beyond this figure.
 
 
Read and watch video about Pickles move: Eric Pickles Announces Plans to Scrap the Audit Commission 
 
Some UK public service workers speak out about the Audit Commission in the article, Go, for God's sake go! 
 
Last April, in my home state of Indiana, I told a senior government official about what John Seddon was doing in the UK government and his call to abolish the Audit Commission.  His response was that would ge a good way to get black-balled by the government.  Whoops!
 
The US is in desperate need of better methods to improve government.  The "not-invented-here" mentality is both costly and old.  Closed minds are running record deficits with poor services.  A redesign is in order.
 
 
Read more about the Vanguard Method and Government at:
 
 
Curious to learn more?  Call me at (317) 250-8885 or email me at [email protected].
That's it for this newsletter.  Best wishes with improving your system.
 
Sincerely,
 

Tripp Babbitt
Bryce Harrison, Inc.
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Phone: (317) 849-8670 Email: [email protected]