While in the UK, I watched command and control management at work just like here in the US and Canada.  The US is far better at this form of management than the British and the US would destroy them on a level playing field (with command and control management).

This is not unlike what Japan faced after WWII.  Japan couldn't compete either and so were forced to find a better way.  The Japanese Industrial Miracle followed with the help of W. Edwards Deming.  Necessity is the mother of invention.

So, what has happened here in the US since this Industrial Miracle?  Manufacturing has been shipped or outsourced overseas. 

I was at my wife's class union where I met a fellow (Brian Smith - real name).  He had just shut down the last plant that manufactured tennis balls in the US.  Where are they shipping the jobs and manufacturing? China.

Brian was able to describe to me in great detail how a tennis ball is manufactured.  He is a dying breed.  We commiserated over how the fall of manufacturing was decreasing the labor pool.  However, the US labor pool is not the problem . . . management thinking is.  The loss of manufacturing is directly related to the old command and control system that helped us win WWII.  That system is quickly becoming extinct and our jobs with it.

Before a speech last week at Naval Avionics I was taken through an overview of the products they make - boxes that make "bubbles" around soldiers, humvees, MRAPs and boats so they won't be blown up by IEDs.  These products  are made by the US government because of the sensitivity of the technology, they fear this would be outsourced too if left to the public sector.  Probably the right move for this technology, as too many in American management would sell their mother to get profits and reap the rewards.

The demand is high for these boxes because it saves lives, but the process can take over a year to get a "box."  Not because of the time to make one (minutes and hours), but because of the administrative hurdles.

Bottom line: Soldiers are dying without the boxes.  A year to get one is unacceptable.

Our problem isn't that government is worse than the private sector, as I have seen the same command and control thinking in the private sector.  If anything, public and private sector need each other.  But both need to operate with better thinking and with a better design to improve the work.

If jobs, manufacturing, government and our ability to save soldier's lives is to improve we need a different approach.  Systems thinking and more specifically the Vanguard Method offers a way out of the present conundrum.

What I have seen in the UK insurance and health sectors with the work Vanguard is doing is phenomenal.  The work of one worker in a redesigned system is doing the work of 2 - 5 people.  The reward is reduced costs and improved service leading to more business.  This will create an unlevel playing field for those continuing down the command and control path, like here in the US . . . only this time in service, not manufacturing.

After service is gone, what's left?