"Too Much School Destroys the Mind..."

By Pascal Dennis

Like many of my colleagues I went to a professional school (Engineering), then a business school.

I dutifully did all my assignments, got good marks and climbed up the ladder.

Nobody told me about the glasses I'd been given. Nobody told me that they would distort my image of the world.

Nobody told me it would take a decade or more to learn to see clearly again. And I was lucky...

People got to professional schools and business schools with the best of intentions.

They want a better job, more responsibility and higher pay -- all worthy & admirable goals.

But my professors never told me they were teaching dysfunctional mental models.

(Getting the Right Things Done and The Remedy express my thoughts on mental models.)

Probably, they didn't even realize it themselves.

They too, were just trying to make their way in their careers, seeking the path of least resistance.

But ideas have legs. Dysfunctional mental models mutate, and debilitate their host.

The result?

Smart, well-educate, capable people who have forgotten the basics.

As my dad used to say (about me), "Too much school destroys the mind..."

Regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Lean & Wakefulness - Reprise

By Pascal Dennis

The Lean Business System, at heart, is about wakefulness.

Philosophers throughout the ages have argued that we are sleepers in a dream, that our grasp of what's actually happening is, at best, tenuous.

Many schools of philosophy and religion include exercises, prayer or meditation designed to "wake" the sleeper.

Lean tools like visual management, 5 S, standardized work, and pokayoke, are meant to jolt us out of our slumber.

"Hey, buddy wake up! There's a problem over here!"

Strategy Deployment, the application of the scientific method to our enterprise, is also about wakefulness.

Our Level 1, 2 and 3 check processes, for example, should be stand-up meetings in front of a board or wall that makes "hot spots" painfully clear.

"Holy cow, look at that! We should do something..."

My books Getting the Right Things Done, Andy & Me and its sequel, The Remedy, all entail the protagonists' gradual awakening.

Let me conclude with a mixed metaphor: In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed woman is queen.

Cheers,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Fred Taylor & the Illusion of Top-Down Control - Part 2

By Pascal Dennis

Last time I wrote about Fred Taylor and his Faustian bargain.

Taylor separated planning from production.

Productivity soared, but at a terrible cost:

1. The alienation of front line team members, and
2. the illusion of top-down control

"We can manage from a distance, by the numbers."

"What can front line team members possibly teach us?"

These are common expressions of this way of thinking, which, sadly, permeates our professional and business schools.

This mental model is so deep that nobody even thinks to question it.

Bottom-up management, by contrast, was the dominant mental model during what Ken and Bill Hopper call "The Golden Age" -- roughly 1920 to 1970.

(The Puritan Gift is their fine account of this period)

I see the pernicious effects of this way of thinking in our consulting work.

Well-meaning, capable executives who, nonetheless, believe they can manage from a distance.

And who do NOT believe in enabling front line improvement by involving all team members.

A revered sensei once asked me, "How will you motivate your team, Pascal-san?"

Another time, I asked him, "Sensei, why is involvement so important?"

"If involvement is high," he replied, "injuries, defects, cost and lead time are low. But if involvement is low..."

Best,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Another Chance for Greece?

By Pascal Dennis

After a five weeks crisis closure, the Athens Stock Exchange has opened to precipitous drops.

In spite of everything, there’s hope.

Here’s the most cogent analysis of Greece’s travails I’ve seen by the splendid Michael Jacobides

Reminds me of a memorable lunch in Ioannina, Greece. (read it here!)

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio

Fred Taylor & the Illusion of Top-Down Control - Part I

By Pascal Dennis

Been thinking a great deal about this.

Fred Taylor was the genius who, essentially, invented Industrial Engineering.

Taylor's innovations around time & motion studies, standardized work and scientific management helped to revolutionize manufacturing.

But by all accounts, he was a lousy manager.

(If you're interested, Kanigel's The Enigma of Efficiency is a fine biography)

So, he set out to revolutionize management too. His rationale appeared to be:

"If I'm a lousy manager, it must be because current management practice is all wrong!"

In Joe Juran's mind, Taylor's approach essentially separated planning from production -- a Faustian bargain if there ever was one!

Productivity soared, but at a terrible cost: the alienation of front line team members.

There was another unseen & equally terrible cost: the illusion of top-down control.

"We can manage from a distance, by the numbers."

The thing is, you can't. You have to go see; you have to get your hands dirty.

You have to understand your business in a visceral way.

Thereby, leaders have a chance at "grasping the situation" and developing strategies that make sense.

And more important, leaders thus have a chance at deploying the strategies so that everybody is involved.

A wise man once said, "Any damn fool can make a plan. It's the execution that screws you up!"

People are smarter, better trained & more capable than they've ever been.

Only a damn fool would fail to engage them.

Best regards,

Pascal

Pascal Dennis Bio