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From: When "Good Enough" Isn't Good Enough,
Core Ideas of Total Quality"

BUREAUCRACIES HAVE FORGOTTEN WHY THEY WERE CREATED

TREAT PEOPLE DECENTLY

THINK LONG TERM

FORM PARTNERSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS, WORKERS, AND SUPPLIERS

UNDERSTAND SYSTEMS THINKING

Letter from Calvin to Santa Claus: "Dear Santa, why is your operation located at the North Pole? I'm guessing cheap elf labor, lower environmental standards, and tax breaks. Is this really the example you want to set for impressionable kids?" Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, A Calvin and Hobbes Collection by Bill Waterson (page 26). Funny comic strip, yet uncomfortably with a ring of truth to it.
Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." In other words, organizations will waste time and not even know they are doing so.
The Peter Principle: "Bureaucrats will be promoted to the their level of incompetence." How dismal. That means leaders get promoted as long as they do a good job, and stop getting promoted once they reach a position for which they are incompetent.
We can do worse. Max Weber was the first sociologist to closely examine modern organizations. Weber's thoughts can be paraphrased as: "Organizations in the name of equity will depersonalize people and start treating them like numbers." More significantly: "Organizations will forget why they were created and become concerned only with organizational survival."
Does that sound too critical? How do we explain hospitals whose first question is: "How will you pay for this?" Or car companies willing to build cars like the Pinto with its exploding gas tanks? Or endless lines at schools that have students wait and wait and wait in order to register for classes, sign up for financial aid, and pay bills.

We are a society in which big business, big government, and big unions all share one essential trait: they seem to have lost sight of the people they supposedly serve.

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From: How to Recognize When Special Causes Exist,
A Guide to Using Statistical Process Control.

Assume you own a business selling medical equipment.
Jane, your star salesperson, only sold $99,000 worth of goods this month even though her long term average is $102,000 per month.
Should you ask Jane, "What's different? How come your sales dropped this month?"
Probably you will say to yourself, "Well, it's not that much different. She probably just had a bad month for no particular reason."
What if sales dropped to $95,000 or $90,000?
When should you say something?

A "special cause" means that "something was different."

Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts have one essential purpose. They answer the question, "When should we start looking for special causes? When should we start asking, 'What was different?'"

85% to 90% of errors and downturns in performance have no special cause.

10% to 15% of errors and downturns do have special causes that may need repairing. SPC helps you identify when to look for a special cause.

Have you ever written the wrong decade on a check?
"I don't know why I wrote the wrong year! Do you think I should see a doctor?"

It's "normal" to once-in-a-while forget things. Don't assume something special is going on every time you goof. "Normal" variation means nothing was different even though the results varied.

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From: How to Grow Effective Teams,
And Run Meetings that Aren't a Waste of Time.

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WHO'S GOT THE POWER?

PASSIVE RESISTENCE CAN UNDO A MANAGER EVERY TIME.

DETAILS

How decisions are made ultimately determines where the power lies. Empowerment is really all about changing the power structure.

When setting up teams, it is critical to bear this in mind because frequently the root cause of team failure is confusion about decision making authority. The confusion results in a power struggle. Like most power struggles, the end result is that someone "loses" and bears ill will from that point onward.

Formal power in organizations comes from above. The Board of Directors (or Board of Trustees) delegates this power downward through the management system.

The formal power of teams must be plugged into this formal delegation process. That means that all teams need their responsibilities and authority clearly spelled out.

Informal power comes from the willingness of everyone in the system to respect delegated authority.

Supervisors who lack respect soon find themselves facing passive resistance and inability to accomplish very much. Teams will suffer from the same liabilities if others in the organization fail to respect the authority of the team.

It is essential when setting up teams that the same attention is given to role changes and power changes as when creating new management positions. This is a primary reason for using team sponsors who can bring to bear sufficient organizational power in order to make it possible for the team to function.

Teams themselves will be asked to sometimes simply give input into decisions rather making the final decisions. If the decision mode facing the team is unclear, then the resulting role confusion may easily undo management's best intentions.

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The greatest barrier to open-mindedness is success.

The key to growth is being given the opportunity to make mistakes.

Join us in our rebellion against the modern bureaucracy.