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Tripp Babbitt
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Well, you have March Madness and then we have IT madness.

What I have seen in service organizations and their IT departments can only be described as legendary.  There is a certain arrogance about the attitude from IT departments.  Some of the smartest people . . . that do the dumbest things.
 
But it is not their fault, it is a function of the system that creates IT.
 
Budgets and schedules rule service organizations and nothing could be more true than with IT.  IT builds to schedules and budgets forgetting the original purpose of IT.  The end product is predictably nothing good.
 
For example, a study done with an IT department revealed that the front-line had over 200 clicks, 50 free form fields and about 25 drop down choices to place an order.  In and of itself this isn't a problem, until you discover that most of the activity is waste - cutting and pasting, and fields that don't progress the order or provide any useful purpose.
 
The mantra is . . . if front-line workers would just follow the written procedure, "everything would be fine."  However, the procedures are written (with best intent) myopically.  Workers are left to figure out whether customer demands fit the procedures . . . and they don't - it is like taking a multiple choice test where you have 4 good answers, but one best choice.  The real problem is that workers lack knowledge about how to progress the order.  This is why "just following the procedure" is ignorant and costly.  My next article at Quality Digest is titled "Just Follow the Procedure" and should be out this week.
 
The waste doesn't end here as IT becomes reactionary to the problems associated with releases of new software and bug fixes.  t is to make American Toast, "you burn, I'll scrape."  This method has become so engrained to the way software is developed and maintained that IT departments are blind to it and the waste it causes - it is considered normal.  The fixes are more testing (which is costly), not better design of development work or the work itself and thinking.
 
Clean-up in IT after a new release is called things like "teething pains" and "growth pains."  Everyone has accepted it as just part of the process . . . it doesn't have to be that way, it is a choice to accept waste and mediocrity or worse.  As Dr. Deming told us, "it is not necessary to change, survival is not mandatory."
 
Website and Blogsite Problems

The host for my sites have been under attack and a series of problems have led to multiple outages.  Hopefully, by the time this newsletter hits you things will be resolved.
 
03-17-2013 01:40:50 AM

I have often talked about the zero-sum game in my articles and blog.  The belief that good service costs more and cancels out any benefit.  "Customers", they say, "should not be trusted or they will screw us out of every penny."  If your organization thinks this way it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, ...�

03-15-2013 20:38:51 PM

I am still baffled by the article from March 6th by CNBC titled, 'Average' Workers Plague US Businesses: Execs Survey.  The knock on the American worker is that they lack critical thinking, creativity and communication. WOW!!  Imagine that the American worker is now the problem.  Never mind the American worker has been outsourced, marginalized by ...�

02-19-2013 04:10:24 AM

I am reading Joyce Orsini and Diana Deming Cahill's new book, The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality.  I have not read the entire boo, but thought it would be good material for a series of posts.  The book is an accumulation of Dr. Deming's articles, papers, etc.  As Out of 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 ...�

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. ...�


  

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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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