Dear Systems Thinker,Just as the Lean waters have gotten muddied - correction, they were always muddy. A "paper tiger" of copying the Japanese/Toyota through tools and shallow thinking.
"Systems thinking" has now become a phrase associated with copying and those that believe they too can be just like Vanguard. So, we abandon "systems thinking" in favor of the Vanguard Method (tVM).
Why the change? Recently, I ran into some folks claiming systems thinking. When I looked at what they had done, it was process improvement. And so the muddies are watered from observers of the system (rather than participants) that can speak the language, but not understand the systemic management issues that need to be changed. This is dangerous.
For those of you knowing my lifetime pursuit for a method that is comprehensive and sustainable, why this method offers any service or government organization something that the others have not . . . delivery of systemic change using all of Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge - Appreciation for a System, Theory of Variation, Theory of Knowledge and (especially) Psychology. The Vanguard Method covers them all and continues refinement, so why do organizations want to engage those that can only copy? New thinking can't emerge from copiers - they are always a step behind.
The Vanguard Method will challenge both worker and management. It serves as a warning label, so the weak can self select themselves into other improvement programs. Just don't call it the Vanguard Method.
