 |
| This is The STARSHINE EFFECT |
My technology group and I are constant researchers for what's working best for kids, parents, schools and teachers. The sad part about that is what we continually dig up to prove just how poorly our schools and our politicians who rule them are performing. Our schools are at the mercy of those ruling them (laws and bureaucracy) and almost never in the best interest of the kids or teachers.
Mr. Deming was one of the most influential management leaders of our time and was, in a virtual way, my mentor. I read about much of his work because, having lived in Japan, I was interested in how he had worked with the Japaneses companies to lead them out of the devastation of World War II toward economic dominance. Of course, the U.S. was slow to adopt his innovation because those with the most power did not like his discoveries because it would disrupt their status quo. So it is now in education. Probably his most sited work was "Seven deadly sins of management."
I find it absolutely astounding that today our U.S. education system is following each of these seven proven ways of complete distruction and hardly anyone is objecting. Are we this ill-informed as a nation? Really?
W. Edwards Deming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| W. Edwards Deming | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 14, 1900 Sioux City, Iowa |
| Died | December 20, 1993 (aged 93) Washington DC |
| Fields | Statistician |
| Alma mater | University of Wyoming BSc, University of Colorado MS, Yale PhD |
| Influences | Walter A. Shewhart |
Deming made a significant contribution to Japan's later reputation for innovative high-quality products and its economic power. He is regarded as having had more impact upon Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage. Despite being considered something of a hero in Japan, he was only just beginning to win widespread recognition in the U.S. at the time of his death.[2] President Reagan awarded the National Medal of Technology to Deming in 1987. He received in 1988 the Distinguished Career in Science award from the National Academy of Sciences.
From a website I use and appreciate:
Seven Deadly Sins of Leadership | Three Sigma Systems
www.3sigma.com/seven-deadly-sins-of-leadership/
Seven deadly sins of management according to Deming
- Lack
of constancy of purpose
- Emphasis
on short term profits (Overreaction to short term variation is harmful to
long term success. With such focus on relatively unimportant short term
results focus on constancy of purpose is next to impossible.)
3. Evaluation of performance, merit rating or annual review (see:
Performance Without Appraisal: What to do Instead of Performance Appraisals by
Peter Scholtes).
http://www.pscholtes.com/articles/incentiveprogramsareineffective.cfm 9/14/10
To many this will come as a shock. Reward, incentive, motivational and merit programs are sincere, well-intentioned efforts to recognize the good that people do. How could they be the wrong thing to do? How could they be ineffective and even harmful! To read more about this from a valuable resource, with a wealth of rigorous documentation, read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. I am indebted to Alfie for much of what I write here.
http://www.pscholtes.com/articles/incentiveprogramsareineffective.cfm 9/14/10
To many this will come as a shock. Reward, incentive, motivational and merit programs are sincere, well-intentioned efforts to recognize the good that people do. How could they be the wrong thing to do? How could they be ineffective and even harmful! To read more about this from a valuable resource, with a wealth of rigorous documentation, read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. I am indebted to Alfie for much of what I write here.
What's wrong
with reward, recognition, and incentive systems?
First, they
don't work There are no credible data to show that any long-term benefit
results from such programs. There are data, however, that show that they do
harm.
They often
set up a form of internal competition in which people strive to look good and
look better than their fellow employees. Sometimes looking good becomes more
important than doing well.
- People pass problems on to
others elsewhere and later in the system. "Don't let the problem
appear to happen on my watch."
- People will circumvent the
system for personal gain, causing havoc to the system.
- People will strive to look good
even when it may hurt the customers. Sears auto-service personnel -- in
order to meet their monthly profit quotas -- provided unnecessary repairs
and replaced perfectly good parts. The customers paid dearly so that the
repair shops could look good.
The reward
programs undermine teamwork and cooperation Employees -- or groups of employees
-- competing for a prize (merit pay, contests, rewards, etc.) will regard each
other as adversaries. They will act as though they are not part of the same
organization, working for common goals, serving the customers together.
Instead, they may try to subvert each others' efforts.
Recognition
and merit programs often reward those who are lucky and pass by those who are
unlucky Far and away the biggest single factor that determines output is the
system and its capability. The systems capability is independent of the people
doing the work. But not independent of those who design
and approve the system.
If everyone
in your company did his or her best, day in and day out, you would affect only
a negligible proportion of your current quality or productivity problems. Most
of your problems are built right into the system. Those who get rewards are
those who are lucky enough to work in a system with fewer inherent problems.
(The machines work well, the materials are appropriate, the training is good,
the policies promote a good work environment, the methods of work are well
tested and perfected, etc.) Those who don't get the rewards are -- by and large
-- those unlucky enough to work in dysfunctional systems.
Merit and
reward systems create cynics and losers In one Milwaukee company, which had an
annual "Employee-of-the-Year" award ceremony, I had an opportunity to
meet with the year's winner. I was surprised to learn that she was not proud of
her award. She was embarrassed by it. She saw the whole ceremony, with all its
hoopla and pizzazz, as an occasion invented by managers, so that they could
pose as "employee-sensitive." She had two reasons for her cynicism:
- There were plenty of employees
whom she felt deserved recognition as much as or more than she did. She
was convinced that the honor was bestowed on her because her boss was the
CEO's favorite. The selection process oozed of internal politics.
- Secondly, she said, "If we
were treated with respect and decency on a daily basis, I would not be so
skeptical of the sincerity behind this event. On one day a year,
management honors its employees. On all the other days, we are treated
like objects of utility."
The greatest
management conceit is that we can "motivate" people. We can't.
Motivation is there, inside people. Our people were motivated when we hired
them and everyday, when they come to work, they arrive with the intention of
doing a good job. Managers cannot motivate. They can, however, de-motivate.
Herzberg established this over 30 years ago (Herzberg, Frederick "One More
Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?" Harvard Business Review,
September-October 1987, pp. 109-120. This is a reprint with commentary, of an
earlier classic paper.)
The greatest
managerial cynicism is that workers are withholding a certain amount of effort
that must be bribed from them by means of various incentives, rewards,
contests, or merit pay programs. Most managers are not conscious of such a
pessimistic belief, but many of their "motivational programs" are
conducted as though this cynical premise were true.
The greatest
waste of managerial time is time spent trying to manipulate people's minds and
infuse motivation into them. Managers' time would be better spent doing the
following:
- Remove the demotivators. Ask
people what gets in the way of their doing work they are proud of. Remove
those obstacles to pride in work.
- Focus on improving the
processes. You and everyone in your company need to become more aware of
what systems and processes are, and how to study them, and improve them.
- Focus on customers. Something
that provides a lot of gratification and satisfaction to employees is to
know that customers are excited about the products and services.
Bring
awareness of customers into your organization on a daily basis.
This takes
hard work and true leadership. Don't waste any more time or energy on
perpetuating myths and pretense. Get on with it!
- Mobility
of top management (too much turnover causes numerous problems)
- Running
a company on visible figures alone (many important factors are “unknown
and unknowable.” This is an obvious statement that runs counter to what
some incorrectly claim Deming taught – that you can only manage what you
measure. Deming did not believe this and in fact saw it as a deadly
disease of management)
- Excessive
medical costs
- Excessive
legal damage awards swelled by lawyers working on contingency fees
Obstacles to success
Belief that automation computers and new machinery will
solve problems
Trying to copy existing solutions without understanding why
they work
“our problems are different”
Obsolete business schools that do not teach how to manage
Teaching tools without a framework for using them
Reliance on inspection
Reliance on QC department
Blaming work force for problems when it is really the system
False starts or teaching the latest without a plan of how to
use them or their impact or what it will take to get there
Zero defects means nothing unless someone wants to buy it
Inadequate testing of prototypes
Consultants know more than us (they do not, they may have
some places for you to go, but they do not know why you are where you are)
Out of control action plan
OCAP
Action limits (+/- 3 SD) warning limits (+/- 2 SD)
Phase I and Phase II
Phase I use Shewhart, Phase II use cumulative sum and EWMA
Cusum and EWMA charts for Phase II chapter 5 section 8 and 9
for when detection of small moves in SD are required.
Should you use attribute or variables charts?? Variables
tell you when you are moving off of desired, attributes are less likely to do
so, it is usually easier to find what the problem is from variables data
SPC is a passive statistical method for process management,
DOE and using distributions to make decisions about causal agent is proactive รจ
find the cause of variation
The Seven
Deadly Sins of Management by Lonnie Pacelli
Pride. Envy.
Gluttony. Lust. Anger. Greed. Sloth. You either recognize these as the seven
deadly sins or as themes for prime-time television. Nonetheless, you were
probably taught as a child that these are bad and you shouldn't do them. For
purposes of this article, do as you were taught and think bad when you commit
these similar sins in the workplace.
As leaders,
we are continually being introduced to new techniques and theories. Hammer
& Champy's Business Process Re-engineering Model, McKinsey's 7-S Framework,
and Kenichi Ohmae's 3C's Strategic Triangle are all examples of strategic
models designed to help leaders think about their business in different and
innovative ways. What sits on top of all of the models and frameworks, though,
are a series of foundational attributes that every leader should possess if he
or she is going to have demonstrated, sustained success as a leader.
In my career
as a leader, I've been fortunate enough to experience a broad array of
leadership situations where sometimes I enjoyed fantastic success, and at other
times experienced dismal failure. In looking back at my failures, many of them
had nothing to do with a theory, framework, or technology that was utilized.
The failures had to do with cracks in my own foundational attributes which left
me vulnerable as a leader. I've boiled these down to seven key sins which this
article will focus on to help you become a more effective leader.
Sin #1 - Arrogance
Ever known a
manager that consistently claimed to know more than the rest of the team? How
about one that was unwilling to listen to opposing views? Isn't this just a
sign of confidence? What's wrong with that?
Confidence
as a manager is crucial as people will look to you, particularly when things
get tough. When it runs amok and turns to arrogance, the manager disrespects
the team. Show respect and have confidence and you'll do fine. Subtract out
respect and you're just an arrogant doofus.
Sin #2 - Indecisiveness
So you have
a meeting on Monday and the management agrees on a course of action. On
Tuesday, the manager decides to take a completely different course of action.
Thursday the manager goes back to Monday's course of action. The following Monday
you're back re-hashing through the same problem from last Monday. Blech.
Decisiveness
means the manager listens to those around him or her and then makes the best
decision for the project that the rest of the team can understand, and sticks
to it. While team members may not agree with the decision, they should be able
to see the rationale. Decisions without rationale or without listening will
ultimately frustrate the team and put a target on your back.
Sin #3 -
Disorganization
We've all
known the manager that asks for the same information multiple times, keeps the
plan in their head versus writing things down, or is so frantic that they're on
the verge of spontaneously combusting. Their disorganization creates unneeded
stress and frustration for the project team.
The manager
needs to have a clear pathway paved for the staff to get from start to
completion, and make sure the ball moves forward every day of the project.
Disorganization leads to frustration, which leads to either empathy or anarchy.
Sin #4 - Stubbornness
On one of my
early project management jobs I was a month behind schedule on a three-month
project. I refused to alter the project schedule insisting that I could
"make up schedule" by cutting corners and eliminating tasks. Despite
the entire project team telling me we were in deep yogurt, I stubbornly forged
ahead. I ended up never seeing the end of the project because my stubbornness
got me removed as the project manager. Talk about your 2x4 across the head.
The manager
may believe his or her view of reality is the right way to go, but it's
imperative that he or she balances their own perspective with that of the rest
of the project team. Decisiveness without listening to the team leads to
stubbornness.
Sin #5 -
Negativism
Years back,
one of my peer managers, in their zeal to "manage expectations" would
consistently discuss the project in a negative light. Either the focus was on
what work didn't get done, what the new issue of the week was, who wasn't doing
their job. Their negative attitude about the work, people, and purpose of the
project sapped the energy, enthusiasm, and passion out of the work. It was a
self-fulfilling prophecy; the project failed because the project manager willed
it to fail.
This one's
simple; a glass-is-half-empty project manager is going to be a horrible
motivator and will sap the energy from a team. This doesn't mean that you have
to be a shiny-happy person all the time; but that the project manager has to
truly believe in what he or she is doing and needs to positively motivate the
team to get there.
Sin #6 -
Cowardice
Imagine
this: the manager who, when pressed on a budget or schedule over-run, will
blame team members, stakeholders, or anyone else that could possibly have
contributed to their non-performance. Much easier to play the blame game and
implicate others because everything didn't go perfectly as planned. What a
weenie.
It's
perfectly OK to be self-critical and aware of your own weaknesses and mistakes.
For a leader to truly continue to grow in their leadership capabilities they
need to be the first to admit their mistakes and learn from them as opposed to
being the last one to admit their mistakes.
Sin #7 -
Untrustworthiness
Simply put,
managers that don't display necessary skills, show wisdom in their decisions,
or demonstrate integrity aren't going to be trusted. For the team to truly have
trust in their leader, they need to believe that the manager has the skills to
manage the project, the wisdom to make sound business decisions, and the
integrity to put the team's interests ahead of their own. Take any one of these
attributes away, and it's just a matter of time before the manager gets voted
off the island.
Lonnie
Pacelli has over 20 years' experience with Accenture and Microsoft and is
currently president of Leading on the Edge™ International. Lonnie's books
include "The Project Management Advisor: 18 Major Project Screw-Ups and
How to Cut Them Off at the Pass" and "The Truth About Getting Your
Point Across". Get the books, leadership products, other articles, MP3
seminars and a free email mini seminar at http://www.leadingonedge.com
|
http://www.3sigma.com/seven-deadly-sins-of-leadership/
No comments:
Post a Comment