Replying to LO26381 --
I like this concept for a number of reasons, but primarily because it
comports with my experience in organizations, both large and small, over
the past 25 years. It is very very difficult to overcome the inertia of
the "accepted wisdom" in most organizations, despite the examples set by
people like Alfie Kohn (who has written cogently on the issue of
incentives, and related conerns) and of course Deming. And, I might add,
despite the demonstrable failure of the usual approaches. Why do people
not believe the evidence of their own experience? My obervation is that
the things that are typically measured and rewarded are counterproductive
to the success of the organization in the long term.
I want to nominate budgets, or the budgetary process, as another
potentially dangerous tool. Who could argue that this process is not
critical for good management? Yet it frequently is driven by political
considerations, wishful thinking, clearly erroneous assumptions,
unreasonable targets, etc.; all of which have cascading dysfuntional
effects on people and processes. This is another tool in the shop that
can really hurt you if you don't take care to use it properly.
Rich Pauli
RPauli@aol.com
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