Business Solutions for Quality: Integrative Thinkers Don’t play The Game Differently, They Play on a Larger Field

I picked up the title from an article,  Inventing Elephants article by Beth Robinson.  The article was linked to the In2 Inthinking Network home page, a new way of approaching organizational problems introduced to me by Dr. William Bellows of the In Thinking Network.

I am in the middle of spending 9 hours in Dr. Bellow’s class to think about organizational problems differently.  He quotes Dr. W. Edwards Deming: “This is the age of superstition.”  Basically, we live in the “last straw era of philosophy where the problem is the  person, or department that caused it.  The awards/benefit concept exacerbates this because it has winners and losers.

The opposite of this is to look at the larger picture and the relationships between the actors that produced the product and service.  Dr. Bellows introduced us to Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge to change an organization.  He says the system provides an outside lens to the organization, and a map of theory by which to understand the organization.

To understand this system, the first step is the transformation of the individual, and the application of its principles in every kind of relationship with other people. There are 14 points to transformation.  I won’t list them all but will highlight a few:

1. Breakdown barriers between departments:  The concept of awarding (or punishing)  a department level breaks down relationships between departments.  Concentrate on the relationships and the COMPANY WIDE teamwork that works towards the same goal.
2. Remove barriers that rob people (including hourly workers) to their right to have pride of workmanship: This is something that many businesses fail in.  The staff or rank and file lose the desire and opportunity to a sense of ownership of their labor.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality: Do people tend to work better if they are part of a much bigger picture than a menial task?  I would think most would. If so, their product would not need to have extensive quality inspection.

These are just a few of the ideas on how this organization is trying to change the way organizations approach problems before they happen.  The old saying, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it,” should be changed to “if it ain’t broken, break it, or you aren’t looking hard enough.”  Continuous improvement should be the point of view.