The Way (Part 1)
Introduction
Have you ever witnessed a situation when a particular company defines a strategy, puts forward a goal, and makes employees aware of the plans; however, after a period, nothing has actually been accomplished? Nonetheless, you see endless reports and presentations are bragging about almost imaginative results and achievements! So, there goes the question: “How come? What is the main factor that leads to failure to meet the goals?”
That’s a tough question to answer; hence the few possible ways that organizations act in that kind of cases are:
- just ignore;
- use coercion based management to “fix” the situation and push goals;
- downplay;
- replace some or add more workers;
- replace or add the responsible leaders, etc.
Replacing some players may change the situation but not to enough extent. Moreover, pretending that the problem does not exist is not the best of solutions as well.
A tree changes its cells constantly, its leaves every year or so, but it is still essentially the same tree [but] if you change the interconnections in the tree — say that instead of taking in carbon dioxide and emitting oxygen, it does the reverse — it would no longer be a tree. (It would be an animal.)
— Donella H. Meadows
So, what’s the root of it? The basis is not in people or solutions but on how the managers manage and people are managed. However, it is impossible to state a certain kind of system to put forward as endless factors may potentially affect it. Generally, the management system needs to keep an organization adaptive and continually improving in the face of immense uncertainty. In other words, we need a system that enables people to understand a situation by themselves and react to them in ways that improve the organization.
Is there any company that used this method and succeeded? Yes, the one that succeeded is the biggest car manufacturer in the world being Toyota! Many companies want to be like Toyota and desire to succeed like it because of which they always try to imitate it. Unfortunately, the imitators cannot fully follow because they focus on the surface solutions like Kanban, JIT, or likewise, but the underlying routines and mechanisms go unnoticed. As the empirical and theoretical evidence suggests: the main success factor of the companies as such is on the hidden side and the following reasons will support the point:
- The things we see are built upon the invisible system of routines of thought and action. Nonetheless, we try to add solutions and techniques to the existing systems we have;
- The solutions we are deploying by benchmarks are the temporary solutions for the company that does them. As, if we learn something from them today and implement that in a certain period, but meanwhile, the company in question will be in flux mode and may already have changed its processes to yet another level. Hence, it is not about the practices but a mindset. With the right attitude, we can create the best and appropriate solutions in-house along with making our company adaptive and continuously improving;
- We cannot be sustainable in a constant-implementation-mode; instead, we need people who continuously grow by themselves, figuring out how to solve problems in the face of uncertainty.
The Circumstances
You may be questioning yourself on why cannot we make those solutions work? The possible reasons for that are the following:
- Whether one notices or not, the conditions are in constant flux mode; the environment is changing;
- Even more importantly, we cannot accurately predict the future;
- Even though we may find an easy way to do something fast, our competitors can still copycat that solution and quickly catch up.
Hence, as the change is the only constant, we should focus on adequately interacting with the conditions. Although we can develop the best solution, we cannot forever rely on it.
Infinite-minded leaders understand that “best” is not a permanent state. Instead, they strive to be “better.” “Better” suggests a journey of constant improvement and makes us feel like we are being invited to contribute our talents and energies to make progress in that journey.
— Simon Sinek
The ability of an organization and its workers to continuously improve ensures sustainability and high competitiveness of it. The reasons for that:
- As the horizon is not so vast and the uncertainty exists, step by step improvement enables us to learn along the way, adapt, and figure out the next few steps;
- Technological innovation only provides a temporary advantage over competitors;
- Competitive edge on cost and quality is actually the result of many accomplished steps over time. “If it were easy, everybody would do it.”
- Separating the improvement projects and the daily work does not make an organization adaptive. In other words, if the company does not create an environment that supports the daily or even hourly growth of its employees but only cares about it once a year, that’s not called advancement. Improvement is not a project;
- Implementing a process or a particular standard, then leaving it alone, will not make a change. There needs to be a constant change in the processes as well. Why? Do you remember we talked about the conditions that change non-stop? That’s the thing. If you leave processes alone, they will be affected by the outside factors and forces and no longer be effective. New law may be introduced; production plans may change, even the climate changes may affect certain processes. So, watch out!
In a word, you can either improve and go forward or remain unchanged and slip back — no other way. But to improve, we need the tools, knowledge, and action. We will shed light on the first two by focusing on the books by Mike Rother, Donella Meadows, Simon Sinek, Jeffrey Liker, and others, and the action is on you! Let’s start the journey!
