Enough!

During recent visits to Twitter and LinkedIn, I’ve become increasingly shocked by the devolution of the posts to vacuous nonsense. I felt a Network moment of, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Is your organization getting to the point where executive reaction to what’s perceived as another unremarkable result for a massive investment in improvement is pretty much, “Any clown could have gotten that result?”

Most initial—and many times dramatic—success with lean and Six Sigma results from working on the classic “low-hanging fruit.” In process terms, much of this waste has been exposed through value stream mapping and consists only of special causes that have been hidden and tolerated. W. Edwards Deming didn’t consider such beneficial results improvement, and would say that only after they have been addressed does true improvement begin. Also, this rate of alleged improvement will not continue.

From Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon

Since the early 1980s, quality has been evolving from its former entrenched quality assurance mindset to more of a quality improvement mindset. Think of it as humans’ beneficial mutation from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon.

I certainly remember the Neanderthal days of:
• “What part of ‘the goal is 100 percent’ don’t you understand?”
• “We said, ‘No child left behind.’ What could be simpler? That school principal must be held accountable!”
• “I don’t like those lousy numbers—do something about it!”
• More quality! Better quality! QUALITY! Take pride to do it right the first time!” (Or else…)

But despite this progress, lean conferences bemoan consistent, 70- to 95-percent failure rates and many marginal, 18 months to two-year alleged successes that fade—no doubt due to an executive mindset that lags in its evolution while accelerating its attention-deficit tendencies.

But the quality improvement mindset is also lagging. Isn’t it time to evolve to the 21st century?

Many improvement practitioners have gotten stuck in Cro-Magnon mode. It’s time to go beyond tolerating the “pretty good” mediocrity of “bolt-on quality.” My eyes glaze over at the unnecessary, ubiquitous use of the words awesome, incredible, fantastic, and amazing to describe results and work cultures that are, in terms of moving organizations’ “big dots,” unremarkable... and perfectly designed to stay that way. Can we have a moratorium on those words, please?

(Of course there are many truly awesome, incredible, fantastic, and amazing people, but as Dale Dauten, the Corporate Curmudgeon, says, “What’s another way of saying ‘workaholic?’ Employee of the Year.”)

Don’t the times require a revolutionary mindset of “getting better faster, and staying better,” as originally promised by most improvement approaches—at least in theory? Let’s call it “built-in improvement,” hardwired into organizational DNA, vs. quality that’s bolted on to the status quo.

“If there are 12 clowns in a ring, you can jump in the middle and start reciting Shakespeare, but to the audience, you’ll just be the 13th clown.” —Adam Walinsky

Natural selection is ticking, and there’s no time to lose. The next bolt-on quality panacea and its subindustry of formal training (agile lean Six Sigma?) are mutating out of the improvement ooze even as I write. And its proponents are getting ready to steamroll our less flashy, more efficient and effective improvement efforts by labeling us as 13th clowns and part of the act. (For a great visual, click on the Dale Dauten link above. Dauten's thoughts on this are well worth reading, too.)

Fight back. Start with some simple applications—perhaps by addressing a red/yellow/green indicator that causes a dreaded monthly meeting or quarterly review? Quietly move a big dot!

Daily reminders

Print out and post the following quotes by two authors and read them at the beginning of each work day. The first is from Jim Verzino:
“Nobody plans for poor quality management solutions. But over time, harmless little decisions can derail a quality management system.

“Each time we choose to sacrifice the good of the system for one person, or allow an ineffective, outdated legacy practice to continue, we take small steps toward lower and lower standards.

“When we have a culture that puts quality and environmental attainment at a lower priority than feelings and keeping the status quo, slowly we make the hundreds of decisions that eat away at total performance....

“Every week tens, if not hundreds, of little decisions like these are made in a large company. Any one decision will not make or break the system. However, hundreds of decisions being made with a priority on entrenched personnel or ideas rather than the higher goals of continuous improvement will bring the system to its knees over time....

“In the end, nobody plans to have poor quality or environmental performance. It sneaks up on us... [as] the sum of so many bad decisions.”

The second is from Mariela Dabbah:
“Enough of attending meetings that lead to building a bridge to nowhere, enough of asking what I’m supposed to ask rather than what needs to be asked, enough of praising people who are undeserving of praise, enough of valuing form over substance, enough of accepting good when what is needed is outstanding, enough of enabling people to act as victims when they need to take personal responsibility.

“Inevitably, this kind of shift doesn’t happen unless a substantial number of leaders put their collective foot down and say, ‘Enough!’ in unison.”

Can you get “mad as hell” and say, “Enough,” and jump out of the quality clown car in which you have been unconsciously riding?

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