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Adventures in Quality: Part 6
After reading about the abstract management theory I've been writing about in these last few posts, you may be wondering what practical things you can do at work to implement these ideas. Although these ideas apply to any activity, I'm best equipped to state what works in a service organisation, so this is what I will focus on:

- Start by defining the role of your team/dept./company in customer terms, not company terms. From a customers point of view, what is it that you are at work to do or achieve? If you have problems doing this, you'll find the next step helps.

- Carefully look at the nature of demand that customers place on your system - why do they contact you? About what? And how often? Gather hard data about this - measure it. You will find that there are two types of demand placed by customers on you: failure demand, which happens when you have failed to do something for a customer ("I don't understand this form/these instructions" "Where is my order?" etc) and value demand, which is for the work that you are there to do - the stuff customers need you for. All failure demand is defined as waste. Stop treating all demand that comes in as just work that has to be done, and make clear distinctions between value work and waste.

- Measure the capability of how well you respond to value demand. This will require learning how to construct capability (or 'control') charts to examine average end-to-end times for how long it takes to deliver what customers require and how variable and predictable this is.

- When you have data about the type and frequency of demand you face, silently examine one piece of high frequency value work as it 'flows' through the company. Don't tell anyone who does the work what you are doing, or ask them their opinion - just observe the path it takes, and what happens when. Observe where rework takes place, where inspection takes place, where handovers take place and vital information is obscured/lost, where delays happen and anything that stands in the way of value work being done - all this, and anything else that isn't value work, counts as waste in the flow of work.

- Redesign your systems and processes to do only the value work, removing failure demand and waste in flow.

- Rinse and repeat. This cycle carries on forever, continuously improving the system people work in.

Sounds simple in theory, but this is very hard to do in practice. When doing this you will need to manage in a very different way, as you have to involve everyone who does the work in decision making - the people who do the work control the work using measures derived from the work, and the role of a manager changes to improving the system. Focusing on 'people management' is of no use, as 95% of variation (and hence waste) in any system lies with the system itself. You have to learn to manage as though you have no formal authority, which is a difficult discipline to learn and practice. It is vital that you consult your team and come to a genuine team consensus about what needs to be done, and to realise that you as a manager do not have the best answer to any given problem, as those who do the work have a better perspective than yourself - you do not have all the answers just because you are a manager, no matter how tempting it sometimes is to believe that. Get rid of arbitrary measures and targets, and instead focus on measures derived from the work and how to improve them via good leadership. Never tell anyone the answer to problems to questions of how to solve problems - regularly challenge staff to come up with solutions to problems or improvements to eliminate waste, and to then implement them (for help with this, try listening to the episodes of The Lean Blog Podcast that feature Norman Bodek, as they feature excellent practical advice - in fact, just listen to as many episodes of this Podcast as you can find time for, it's excellent).

All of this is difficult to do, but the value gained in huge. The problem comes when you have an understanding of the systems approach and try and discuss it with those who still view the world in analytical, command-and-control terms - both approaches share a common language, so most non-systems thinkers will believe they 'get it' when in fact they don't - unless this approach is understood by 'doing', it's almost impossible to understand how different it is from standard, hierarchical, inefficient, demoralizing and vastly sub-optimised Western management. Changing peoples views of how to 'see' things in a different way is extraordinarily difficult - this, however, is a whole separate subject of it's own... The best advice I can offer here is only to get colleagues curious by demonstrating practically how hugely effective systems thinking is compared to 'standard' practice, and don't just discuss it - conversations about it invariably go nowhere due to misunderstanding. When people see the outcomes - vastly improved service, happier customers and increased staff morale - they tend come to you and ask how you are getting such good results.

As a closing note - I have learned that Systems Thinking as applied to management is only one application of this philosophy of approaching problems, and so I am currently studying Systems Thinking in wider terms of general problem-solving - I would recommend the following links to anyone else who would like to learn more about the subject, as I have discovered Russell Ackoff to be an excellent teacher in this subject:

A Day with Dr. Russel L. Ackoff (streaming video - requires RealPlayer)

A talk by Russell Ackoff (mp3)

I hope that anyone who might have read these last few posts finds them useful, or at least interesting, and that they may encourage others to follow their own interests and curiosity in this area.