At 02:24 PM 7/24/97 -0700, Jeff Dewar wrote:
>I'm looking for some ideas on "rejuvenating a program." For example, TQM,
>safety, customer service, etc. These activities seem to start off with a
>bang, then peter out some time down the road, yet, some companies'
>programs (Motorola and their quality activity) seem to thrive for years.
>
>I'd appreciate any and all ideas, from a sentence to a page.
>
>We've looked for some time at the underlying causes of the problem. We're
>now trying to give managers specific "do this, do that" advice on
>rejuvenating "programs" (I don't particularly like that word--it implies
>temporary and outside of core business activities).
>
>dewar@foxinternet.net
Dear Jeff,
I'll offer two thoughts below. I favor giving people experiences in which
they are introduced to new ways, and where they are given free choice to
sample -- to adopt and reject. Give them experiences in which they begin
to systemically feel the consequences of their choices. Keep looking for
the story under the story under the.......
1) High-Control Environment:
The organizational "environment" may be one of tacit, or "somewhat veiled"
high-control. Loss in organizational health and effectiveness -- viewed
and measured however you choose -- brings about a perceived need for the
organization to act as a whole. Actions taken to re-connect the threads
of the web -- to bring about a systemic environment -- result in a threat
to the status-quo. This in turn results in actions taken by many, not
only just those in perceived power, to fragment (re-fragment) the
organization in order to re-achieve stasis. The actions taken to connect
have many near-term benefits, while actions taken to fragment usually crop
up later after the perceived threat to conformity by systemic connection
become apparent. The actions taken to fragment are more tuned and
effective (used many times before) than the young and growing actions
attempting to connect -- resulting in further fragmentation and a return
to the way things were (or worse). After the bitterness of the cycle
fades in memory, another program surfaces -- same desire to connect, but a
different packaging. After living through a number of these cycles, the
"powers that be" again push teamwork, reengineering, TQM -- whatever will
rally enthusiasm -- even harder. A cynical "flavor of the month" attitude
prevails. It then becomes hard to find ways of opening ears, minds, and
hearts to hearing about LO's, Learning Communities, Systems Thinking, Webs
of Life, so on.
The question is: how do we -- as system thinkers -- weaken this cycle and
replace it with a functional one? It is interesting to draw this loop on
paper and put in your own experiences. Peter Block talks about many
related high-control issues in his keynote address at the fall Pegasus
conference in "95 (I think). It's available on audio and is very thought
provoking.
2) Filters:
Many years ago, I was asked to be part of a team to learn about TQM and to
re-teach it to my large organization. As I learned, I realized that there
was something much larger and more wonderful happening than I had
realized. Our organization had decided which of Demings' ideas they would
adopt and how they would interpret them. They had little tolerance for
hearing about Systems Thinking and Learning. I don't say this with blame.
I later realized that when a holistic philosophy of change is presented to
a broad group of people, they will hear what each is able to hear as well
as well as what they want to hear.
Organizations may not have enough background or depth of readiness to be
able to hear the full bandwidth of the new message. What if Quality
Circles, Participative Management, TQM, Reengineering, Cultural Diversity,
Organizational Learning, and Self-Organization are more alike than
different if we look at their potential -- the intent and depth and
breadth of each of them. What if the differences between each, and the
perceived value of each, are due to our ability and readiness to hear what
each offers? Further, what if the failures (where there have been
failures) have been due to persons picking and choosing and interpreting
the holistic philosophy in a more narrow, private way?
John
--John Dicus | jdicus@ourfuture.com CornerStone Consulting Associates | http://www.ourfuture.com Growing Learning Communities Through Whole System Processes 2761 Stiegler Road, Valley City OH 44280 800-773-8017 | 330-725-2728 (fax)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>