34


Management Services Spring 2012


Leadership Production viewed as a system ‘The consumer is the most important part of the production line’


Design and


redesign


Suppliers of materials and equipment


A B C D


Consumers Consumer


research


Receipt and test of new materials


Production, assembly, inspection


Tests of processes, machines, methods, costs


Source: Deming, W Edwards, (1986) Out of the Crisis, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, p4, Fig 1: also cited in: Aguayo, R. (1991) Dr Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality. New York, Fireside/Simon & Schuster, p120.


Saturday afternoons in the offi ce poring over spreadsheets of data about the previous Saturday’s match. It was all they could do to keep him off the pitch (and they were not always successful). Unless you start to practise that little-known management technique called GOYA – get out of your offi ce (I paraphrase) – and some truly genuine MBWA, then you’ll never ‘get knowledge’ about what those obstacles to success are within your own organisation; systemic obstacles, the ones causing ‘94%’ of the wasted effort in your organisation, the ones you designed in and the ones it is your responsibility to do something about.


Not only does management have to spend frequent and regular time on ‘the pitch’, you have to fully embrace your customers in that process. Either (or preferably, both) you have to seek feedback from them or you have to experience your service in the same way that they do. Otherwise, you will miss the best opportunities you have to get it right for


them. Possibly one of the most important diagrams to make this point was Deming’s (1986) ‘Production viewed as a system’, shown in the chart above. In a recent (November 2011) personal example, my wife and I booked a weekend in Yorkshire to check out a small holiday apartment, with the possibility of going back for a week some time in 2012. It was opposite, and belonged to, a nice pub and the pub was run by two nice people. However, on arrival the


fl at was cold. Not only that, when we both came to use the shower, neither of us could make it work; the fl ow rate kept changing without warning, as did the temperature. Later, they told us the heating was on the ‘summer setting’. Why? It was November. They knew this beforehand. And they knew we were coming. Also, though, and more importantly for this theme, I would wager a reasonable sum that neither of those two ‘managers’ had ever taken a shower in that apartment. Why not? I contend


that they should spend at least one night (and preferably two – one summer and one winter) in their own apartment in order to experience it exactly as their customers do. Now, if you’re J Willard Marriott Junior3


, then that gets


a little diffi cult. But even he should (and probably does) be sleeping in a random selection of his own rooms as he tours the world staying in his Marriott International hotels. What he should not do is have his ‘usual room’ prepared.


Size doesn’t matter And this same principle applies no matter how large or small your business. In the Derbyshire town where I live, the local shopkeepers and business owners often complain about the way the supermarkets are ‘taking their business’. Yet the reason (apart, occasionally, from price) that customers often migrate to (eg) Sainsbury’s is because the staff in Sainsbury’s are well trained and the ‘manager’ is regularly out on the fl oor of the store (Sam Walton, again).


Remember when Terry Leahy fi rst took over Tesco? He spent days stacking shelves and observing the checkouts. He was learning, getting knowledge.


Distribution


Many of these smaller shops lose sight of why they are there – to satisfy their customers. They don’t open on time and, when they are open, they talk among themselves, ignoring their (potential) customers. This is not acceptable.


Some weeks ago we went into a small deli-type cafe4 in a nearby town and the experience was different again. Chatting to the manager we could see why – commitment. She said she was up at 4am and in the cafe by 5am, seven days a week, and you could see the effects of that. As Deming (ibid: 5) said: “Quality begins with the intent, which is fi xed by management.” You have to intend that it goes right for your customers.


Robert Swiggett, former President and CEO of the Kollmorgen Corporation, put it this way: “The leader’s role is to create a vision, not to kick somebody in the backside. “The role of the leader is the servant’s role. It’s supporting his people, running interference for them, coming out with an atmosphere of trust and understanding and love. “You want your people to feel they have complete control over their destiny at every level. Tyranny is not tolerated here. People who want to manage in the traditional sense are cast off by their peers like dandruff. We preach trust and the golden rule.” (Swiggett, R; in Peters (1985); and in Peters and Austin (1985), p206; originally quoted in Inc, (1984)).


Kicking ‘somebody in the backside’ – or ‘KITA’, as Herzberg (1968) put it – is not the way to ‘motivate employees’: “People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge and


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48