Replying to LO25430 --
>Russell
>
>>Look for yourself in the index of Michael Hammer's book, he never
>>identifies nor defines structure yet he writes about re-structuring.
>>
>>"94% of all problems in business and organizations are problems in
>>structures and systems, only 6% are problems with people." W. Edwards
>>Deming
>
>It is difficult to know how to politely point out the self contradictory
>nature of such a statement. Is it not people that create the
>organisational structures and systems?
Of course. Deming was making the point that with structure treated as the
independent variable, it was misguided to declare the dependent variable
(that is, the individual person doing her/his job at any one period in
time) as the problem. If he wasn't the originator of the phrase, he was
certainly saying in spirit that "every system is perfectly designed to
produce the results it produces". If the results are favorable, leave the
structure alone; if not, change the structure.
Bill Braun
--Bill Braun <medprac@hlthsys.com>
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