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Allow everyone access to this information. The old paradigm of management said
that there is power and competitive advantage in information. To hold information is
to hold power. To give information to your employees is to give up your power. The
new paradigm agrees that there is power in information but give it freely to your
employees so that you can magnify the power.
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down,
shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.
For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you
Luke 6:38
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Total Quality Management
Give power and your employees will give more power to you by collectively using the
information for the greater good of the firm. A caveat here -- this presumes you have
mature employees committed to the good of the firm! Bring your employees to a level
of trust and commitment and then share all with them.
This brings me to the next lesson in simplicity.
Measure What Is Important To You
Start with your mission statement and ask yourself what should be measured to get
you there. Managers have measured the wrong things for decades. For example, I met
with a manager and his three supervisors in a medium-sized printing company to
discuss their operation. The manager asked me to attend a meeting where they would
set out their production objectives for the coming fiscal year.
I asked the manager what they were in business for and was pleased to hear him say:
" . . . we are in business to serve our customers and bring glory to God in the process."
"Very good!" I said. "Now what objectives have you considered that would help you
meet this?"
"A point, first," responded this manager, "we gathered data in our bindery operation
for the past three years and I would like us to do something with it. Does anyone have
an idea what we can do with this data?"
There was silence around the table. I asked what data they had gathered. The
manager answered, "Times and production data on all the jobs we completed. I
thought we might be able to estimate better if we had this material."
I turned to the bindery supervisor and asked if she knew how long it took to do each
of the job steps in her department. She answered that she did. I then turned and asked
the production planning supervisor if his estimating was accurate for the last year. He
showed me a report where his estimates were within 5% of actual for the year and
assured me that there was a small variance in the numbers. (Remember that variance
tells you how much spread in the data around the mean you have.)
I turned to the manager and asked what data they gathered on customer satisfaction
and what data they could show me to indicate the level at which God was pleased
with their work.
As you might guess, the manager had none. I told the manager that he was measuring
the wrong things. The manager acknowledged this and asked if we could continue. I
asked what concerns customers had told them during the past year and what areas of
improvement did they recognize as a result of those concerns.
The manager answered quickly, "Last year we set out to improve efficiency and
increase productivity. I think we met our goals. This year, I would like us to achieve a
10% increase in productivity again."
I spoke to the manager, "Productivity improvements are great, but they are the result
of doing your work better. Remember, it doesn't matter how productive you are if
your clients are leaving you and going elsewhere. Remember, several excellent
carburetor manufacturers went out of business even though they improved efficiency
and productivity. Fuel injection systems made carburetors obsolete. They did not
listen to their customers. Now what do your customers say you should do next year?"
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Lesson Seven - Ten Lessons in Simplicity
Again, as you might guess by now, the manager could not answer.
I turned my attention to the supervisors and began to ask questions about their service
to internal and external customers. Which customers seemed the toughest to serve
and why? I asked what would happen if they invited representatives from their major
accounts to meet with the supervisors at this table to discuss how this printing
company might be able to serve key customers better. During this dialogue, each
supervisor listed three things that they knew bothered customers. We discussed issues
of on-time delivery, packaging, accuracy of production data and the like. Each
supervisor believed these problems could be eliminated, or the impact lessened,
during the coming year.
This firm's production objectives were unfolding before them and they still needed to
talk to the customers. Unfortunately, as I was leaving, I heard the manager say, "Well,
this has been a most interesting meeting, we will still have to have some efficiency
and productivity goals for next year."
Perhaps I planted a seed in the supervisors' minds.
This short anecdote illustrates that you must measure those things which lead you to
your mission statement, customer satisfaction and employee capability. Post the
measurements in a chart form for all to see. Let the world know what you are doing.
Let me add a comment to the prior lesson in simplicity. Your competitive advantage
comes from people, not information. Old paradigm managers treat their information
better than they treat their people. The new paradigm reverses this.
Work As If Working For God
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