JUST PLANE CULTURE
By Patrick Kinane
teams of fi ve members each. The individual teams were always together and the members never intermingled. Team camaraderie had grown from this relationship and a friendly rivalry between the teams began while running the obstacle course. This competition was not encouraged or discouraged by the drill instructors. One obstacle they faced was to push a Humvee up a hill. No matter how hard each team tried, they could not push the Humvee up the hill. The Humvee was just too heavy and the hill too steep. The drill instructor yelled at them that they were failing. One of those on the team said that it would take more than fi ve people to push the vehicle up the hill. The drill instructor again yelled at the individual, “You just solved your problem soldier, this is ONE marine corps.” It dawned on them that if both teams got together, 10 people could push the Humvee up the hill and then would team up to push the other Humvee. How many times have you worked for a company that
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preached teamwork but practiced something completely diff erent? There have been numerous books written in this apparent anti-team technique and it has been taught in business schools as management by objectives (MBO). I am not espousing to get rid of this concept as it is defi nitely useful, but its application has to be considered carefully. In one of his 14 points of management, W. Edwards Deming states, “Eliminate work standard (quotas). Substitute leadership. Eliminate management by objectives.” This is one of the most diffi cult of Deming’s concepts for managers to accept.
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ome years ago I was watching a TV piece about marine corps ranger training, and one part still sticks with me. The marine training was comprised of two
How do you produce anything in an organization without some target fi gure? If you determine that the consumer demand, you want to ensure that you produce to that number if you have the capacity. Deming was not so much opposed to the initial ideas behind MBO but was opposed to the way MBO was being implemented. Pushing down that concept to the workforce was destroying innovation and motivation. You produce to that number and succeed or you don’t reach the number and you fail. If you want to produce X number of widgets you will need to manufacture X number of widget components. You can’t easily just say produce what you can and leave it at that. This is true but the MBO concept evolved or deteriorated into something else.
SOME EXAMPLES You see this mostly in sales such as car dealers awarding the salesperson who sells the most cars in one month. That sounds reasonable, but at what cost? My wife and I walked into one of those dealerships years ago and it was like ants coming out of a hole in the ground, sensing a sugar cube nearby. Sales people swarmed out of every offi ce and crevice in the building. We immediately felt we were under attack and took the fi rst door out of the showroom and quickly ran to our car and drove off . There have been times when I wasn’t so adept at foot and was engulfed in the sales clamor. I felt trapped and uneasy. Is this how a customer is supposed to feel? This may force one capitulation sale, providing the customer with the only means of escape, but at the expense of future business. As a customer you would not want to go through that experience again so you avoid the situation and the business.
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