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Tripp Babbitt
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As promised in last month's newsletter I wrote about the functional separation of work.   The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome which is symbolic of the design of many organizations is epidemic.  Service organizations pay the price as much or more than manufacturing.  Quality Digest picked up the article for their February 15 show (comments start about the 9:30 mark) and demonstrate that the evidence is irrefutable.

Two things have to change in organizations:
  1. Thinking about the design of work
  2. Thinking about the management of work
These two things are pieces of a whole and cannot be mutually exclusive.  One effects the other - getting knowledge about our current design leads us to the thinking that went into the design.  Changing design without understanding the thinking will just leads to another poor design.  I have seen this approach fail too often.

However, worse are those organizations that embrace process improvement.  They optimize the function or form cross functional teams with very different aims.  

A friend of mine told that a large banking software company has split sales and software development.  Sales had become dominant over the software factory - it is sad, pathetic and ridiculous rolled into one thing.  They are part of the same system fighting each other for a power grab.  They have one thing in common . . . a customer, but they have different functional objectives to hit and the two disciplines might as well be from different planets.  No shared aim - customers will not tolerate this for long.

IT companies selling software have goals to sell software and not enhance or enable their customers.  Billions are wasted on software every year as the "glue that binds the functions."  Except IT companies ignore redesigning the work and the thinking in management.  They don't know how.

Outsourcing provides the same flawed thinking.  Outsource the pieces for less cost.  Failure demand blows this out of the water.  Don't outsource until you get a decent design with the appropriate management thinking.  Thinking about costs is NOT the right thinking.

The functional separation of work is only one avenue of flawed thinking, but important one.  Getting evidence is always the first important step to understanding the damage.



01-25-2013 09:32:30 AM
I caught an interview with an gentleman by the name of Brad Grossman (Grossman and Partners) that works with executives to keep them current (in general).  I visited his website and found that one of his predictions for the future is the
02-08-2013 20:09:29 PM

The Overjustification Effect . . . the act of doing something for mere pleasure is compromised by rewards.  When first reading Alfie Kohn's Punished by Rewards, I came across the concept.  We see it in everyday American life.  The evidence is that in organizations, there are a lot of people that either expect something extra ...�

02-06-2013 04:35:04 AM

I've been reading and writing a lot over the past month, just not much on my blog.  Most reading about organizational purpose.  In this case, not just customer purpose, but a higher calling to benefit mankind.  Certainly, we want to respond to customers and create an environment that they want to engage and embrace. However, ...�

01-29-2013 23:22:39 PM

I had dinner the other night at a new local restaurant with my wife.  She asked me about how a restaurant might improve their service.  Seems a reasonable question and I am constantly evaluating the service I get or don't get. I thought I would order a sandwich like I do at my favorite "other ...�

need for more analytical positions in the future. If only analysis was the ...�

 

12-09-2012 06:00:44 AM

I ran across the "Sourcing Sage" and his creative cartoons about outsourcing.  I found the cartoons to be entertaining but not-so-much the sage advice.  His wisdom is that in order to outsource/share services an organization needs to do the following: Process Documentation Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Training Curriculum Knowledge Base Product Documentation Organizational Optimization Workstation ...�

11-25-2012 00:54:25 AM

The last American election "exposed" outsourcing as an evil, and in part, a reason one presidential candidate defeated another.  The belief is that outsourcing - foreign or domestic - helps to optimize a business function.  I heard this argument for the hundredth times on the Washington Times Communities website in an article titled, Outsourcing vs. ...�

11-17-2012 23:48:38 PM

Another American icon bites the dust.  Sure, we still have our auto manufacturers even if they are a shadow of their former selves.  We are a divided country . . . haves and have nots, 1% and 99%, management and labor, Republicans and Democrats.  The list can go on.  Winners and losers, except in the ...�

11-11-2012 04:01:21 AM

A small victory this past week as the elections kicked out one Common Core promoter in Tony Bennett in favor of an educator.  This was an upset or was it.  Indiana educators were so incensed by Bennett's "target-driven and keep the teachers out of improving education" approach that they started a grass roots effort to ...�

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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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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