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Tripp Babbitt
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Dear Reader:


Ah, the political season. 

Television filled with political ads.  Personal attacks, empty promises, plans, road maps and the usual pandering for votes.  Little is changed and the divide in our two-party system has become a chasm. 

Cynical?  Yes, probably.  I consider myself an independent these days as both parties pretty much have it wrong.  It makes it hard to vote.

Once reaching elected office elected officials go in with a "mandate" to change things.  However, soon the system engulfs the elected and partisanship reigns.  Things seem to be getting less civil in our two-party system.

The "mandates" are based on political ideology.  Elected officials fighting over big picture public policy.  Public workers marginalized as not elected officials are ignored. I am convinced that the much maligned public workers - or the distasteful label "bureaucrat" - may be the voice of reason.  Government workers understand the problems of political ideology.

Also, draconian laws designed to improve one problem create more problems.  Law has taken the place of higher principles to live and work by.  Good sense has been lost to new laws handcuffing workers to care or help.

Knowledge from legislation comes after the political ideology in the form of costs that create waste and blow up budgets.  The taxpayers and the recipients of services both pay the price.

Government management is going to need to step in and start showing evidence about the waste.  They will need this evidence to sway a skeptical public. Evidence becomes knowledge and once government understands the "what and why" of the system at work, a plan to experiment with method can be born from knowledge as opposed to assumption/ideology.

There will always be a place for government, running it with better thinking is our challenge.
  

 

  


From the Archives

 

Three years ago, I completed a "Myth Buster" trilogy for  CustomermanagementIQ.  The work was a three part series and was the first "over the phone" presentation I had ever done.  The trilogy is broken down as follows:

Part I:  Fundamental Thinking Problem

Part II:  Problems with Costs and Productivity

Part III:  Three Myths about the Design and Management of Work

You will be required to sign up at the website to hear the trilogy.



 

10-18-2012 14:36:42 PM

David Walker of the Comeback America Initiative that he founded is often on CNBC explaining what it will take to get America on track.  It is the same story . . . build a plan, budget the plan and institute performance measures.  To paraphrase Mr. Walker, the former US Comptroller, "this is what big, successful ...�

10-06-2012 23:37:57 PM

You would see it more often in manufacturing, but divided responsibility plaques service organizations too.  Typically, in manufacturing it would be seen in quality control efforts where management would declare high-quality products.  The management paradox is that more inspection predictably led to higher error rates.  When two or more individuals inspect the same product to ...�

09-29-2012 07:09:39 AM

"Can you blame your competitor for your woes?" he would intone to groups of corporate managers. "No. Can you blame the Japanese? No. You did it yourself."  - W. Edwards Deming The bruising of egos for those in management was a staple when Dr. Deming would speak to such groups.  A certain disdain for those ...�

09-04-2012 17:32:41 PM

The first Labor day in the US was celebrated September 5, 1882.  A "Workingmen's Holiday" as it was called. Living in Indianapolis, you run into Labor Unions that have slowly but progressively disappeared.  Sure, you still have the Teacher's Unions and many others but workers in Unions represent about 11.8% of all wage ans salary ...�

08-30-2012 12:07:05 PM

This isn't a post for Rs or Ds as I hear them often referred, it is an appeal to common sense.  I have listened and will continue to listen to the debates and speeches that will determine a winner or loser in November's election.  Ahh, the American political process . . . Winner doesn't mean ...�

08-29-2012 15:38:17 PM

My AT&T package (phone, internet, wireless and TV) has been under-performing for the past few months.  They replaced the modem which apparently they do quite often as the UPS store in my area indicated they got 6 - 10 a day through their store.  Solved part of my problem - phone works - but didn't ...�

08-15-2012 06:14:27 AM

I know what you are thinking . . . "my organization makes workers accountable with measures, performance reviews and inspection."  Well, we aren't talking the same lingo. Rarely do you find measures in service organizations that matter to customers.  Usually the measures are all about reducing costs and meeting budget.  Let me tell you a ...�

08-12-2012 04:11:55 AM

I recently read an article by Doc Searls in the Wall Street Journal called, "The Customer as a God."  Customers have long catered to service organizations by being treated in a  herd mentality - meaning the customer has to adjust to to the service organization.  However, the future holds a very different environment. Doc Searls ...�

08-11-2012 05:47:45 AM

It's like a kick in the head . . . every time I walk into a service organization and have a look at their operations- by performing "check" - I am left with the same sense of disbelief as the previous service organization.  Front-line staff left with no hope of delivering service from entrapping technology.  ...�

08-06-2012 06:07:54 AM

I recently gave a speech at the CAST conference in San Jose.  I met many interesting professionals that are on the cutting edge of software testing.  These folks are rebels in their industry and stretch the bounds of "normal software testing.  Have a conversation with them and you will know what I mean.  It wasn't ...�

08-05-2012 05:14:06 AM

You can find almost anything on the internet these days.  I found a piece by A Current Affair on Australian TV that talks about how hard it is to voice a complaint in today's IVR infected and functionally separated  organizations.  The piece highlights how fast sales lines are picked up and how slowly complaint lines ...�

07-31-2012 06:08:05 AM

Functionally separated organizations have one thing in common . . . they don't have a clue. Each function absorbs the demands placed upon them from some IT application and off they go to work.  The unfortunate workers that have to interact with customers that encounter such work design bear the burden of brutal backlash when ...�

07-29-2012 05:28:26 AM

If it wasn't bad enough that SPC charts disappeared from the Hawthorne Plant after WWII as management adopted a mass-production mindset, 67 years after Japan kicked our collective behinds we still think the same about management.  Worse, we have even fallen deeper into insignificance in the US.  Short-term thinking driven by the financial markets and ...�

07-28-2012 06:13:42 AM

The word Yankee or the shortened form "Yank" is an offensive word when used by foreigners, especially those residing in the UK.  Yankee dates back in time, the song Yankee Doodle developed by the British as an insult in 1775.  In true American form, we adopted the term in a complimentary sense.  We won the ...�


  

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To learn more about how the Vanguard Method can improve your organization.  Contact me at [email protected] or call me at (317) 250 - 8885.
That's it for this newsletter.  Best wishes with improving your system and your thinking.
 
Sincerely,
 

Tripp Babbitt
Bryce Harrison, Inc.
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