Don’t Use Case Studies!

Do you really need to read another story about how project management and statistics helped some organization save money and meet their goals? Why are you even looking for case studies? Did your boss ask you to do some research to see if “this stuff” works? Well, let’s see... Yes! It works. Now quit wasting your time and start doing real work.

Benchmarking isn’t going to save you one penny, in fact it’s going to waste your money faster than flushing it down the toilet or giving your teenager a credit card and sending them to Cancun for spring break. Benchmarking is something we are all familiar with; it’s simply looking around to see how everyone else is doing and seeing how you compare to the rest. Why do that? Tell me this. How often do you see an Olympic swimmer looking around to see how well they’re doing? If you stop to look around it means you’re not winning the race. Do you want to look around or win the race? Yes, you are in a race.

Your best bet is to start right now. Start thinking about your organization and what it has to offer. Start seeking your customer’s voice and giving their opinion a place in management meetings. Why wait any longer looking for case studies when you have a degree or on-the-job training that tells you how to do a fantastic job of making things better. Not just making things better the way Toyota did it, or the way Motorola did it, or the way Boston Scientific did it, etc. Make things better the way you do it. The way the founder of your organization did it.

In the end you must be yourself. “How am I not myself?” from the existential, philosophical movie, “I Heart Huckabees,” is the line of the century. All of this project management and statistics stuff doesn’t mean diddly squat if it isn’t connected with the heart of the organization. Can you see the American Red Cross and Google adopting each other's business model and expecting to succeed? No! They are totally different. How can you expect to do the same thing by reading how other people fixed their company.

The creators of the Toyota Way (the 14 principles which are the foundation of the Toyota Production System) took ideas from Ford and the United States in general (i.e., from grocery stores, from NASCAR pit crews, and even rowing teams). Do you think they were busy reading case studies of how to create a brand new provision system that the world has never seen? Instead they created their own new revolutionary system by looking at their own problems and creating unique solutions (counter measures). How can you learn from them? Go home or go to work, and stop browsing the Internet for case studies. Look at your own big problems and start using that muscle between your ears.

About The Author

Sean M. Dozier

Sean M. Dozier is a problem solver with in interest in helping companies find realistic and affordable business solutions. Sean has earned a bachelors of science degree in Industrial Engineering and has received Six Sigma Black Belt training to include Design for Six Sigma.