There are many things that companies can do to aid service delivery, such as creating improvement teams and redesigning processes to prevent errors, increase revenue and boost employee morale.
Unfortunately, such changes must be continually monitored and updated. And as the attention of management turns to other matters, those new systems inevitably break down.
Study after study shows that most improvement programs fail to meet their objectives. And for most of those that do, few are able to build upon the improvement and take the company to ever-higher levels.
It’s easy to blame management for such long-term failures. In the old days, this was, indeed, the responsibility of managers. They figured out what to do, workers did it, and managers earned their stars by holding workers’ feet to the fire.
In today’s dynamically changing economy, however, managers don’t have the time to work the old-fashioned way. Now, they need employees who can “evolve” improvements and manage their work themselves. It becomes the job of managers to create work environments where employees are given the authority and freedom to do that.
Avoid single solutions
The challenge is making sure employees have the tools, skills and responsibility to create and adapt systems to meet the ever-changing needs of the business. Complicating the situation is the demand by workers for more interesting, meaningful and fulfilling work, and the demand by customers for service and prices that seems to erode margins beyond the breaking point.
Fortunately, new thinking has emerged and is being put into practice by managers at large tech firms like Lucent, medium-size manufacturing companies like Rowe Furniture, retail stores like Philadelphia Pharmacy, transportation companies like Southwest Airlines, health care providers like LDS Hospital, and even franchises like Great Harvest Bread Co.
The thinking provides opportunities for firms of all kinds to improve performance by allowing workers to continually develop solutions rather than hold fast to a single process.
Singular solutions are wrong for at least two reasons. First, if the challenge is complex, an understanding of it can only emerge as the solution evolves. Locking into a solution too early will keep an even better approach from being found.
Second, by focusing on just one solution, managers too easily fall under the delusion that, having met the challenge, they can move on.
‘Musts’ for management
Evolutionary thinking carries five management imperatives:
– Managers must create purpose. They must identify what it means to the firm to meet the challenge and communicate those values to workers.
– Generate feedback. This process should let everyone objectively determine the extent to which the challenge is being met.
– Let solutions come from workers. As Lynn Mercer, Lucent’s plant manager in New Jersey, describes it: “I know how to do my job better than the people above me, and my people know how to do their jobs better than I do.” This approach requires managers to understand the principle that “nobody’s as smart as everybody.”
– Leverage technology. In today’s economy, information is the lifeblood of any organization. The right technology, providing information to the people who need it, increases the pace of evolution.
– Develop a framework for ongoing improvement. This will increase opportunities for the organization as a whole to learn. As a result, the pace of evolution will quicken.
To succeed in today’s fast-paced economy, managers must do more than meet current challenges. They must help develop performance systems able to evolve along with the ever-changing business environment.
Stan Stahl is president of Solution Dynamics, a Los Angeles management education and consulting firm. He can be reached at [email protected].
Entrepreneur’s Notebook is a regular column contributed by EC2, The Annenberg Incubator Project, a center for multimedia and electronic communications at the University of Southern California. Contact James Klein at (213) 743-1759 with feedback and topic suggestions.
