By: Tripp Babbitt
06/02/2010
I challenge myself each day to hear something different. Sometimes this is about education, liberals, conservatives, tree-huggers, or many other opinions and topics that counter my perspective. For me, this develops new perspectives on problems and issues that service organizations face, even if the topic is distasteful and challenges my core values.
Scientific management theory has long driven our education, management thinking, and design of work. The plight of Call Center Cindy in a government agency still haunts me. Too many service organizations have killed innovation and destroyed hope for change (that is, improvement) because of the systems we have built.
Students are trained to do well on tests, and workers are trained to comply with scripts, audits, monitoring, entrapping technology, and procedures. Then the question is asked, “Why can’t we get workers to change?” Because the system has built droids that learn to comply and not think.