Over the past 35 years, quality has evolved from the necessary evil of quality assurance to what can easily become a self-sustaining organizational improvement sub-industry.  Many leaders continue to try to inspire people with scheduled, cliche-ridden speeches (or videos) full of passionate lip service about committing to excellence, becoming world class, and dazzling customers;  but the reality of yet another public announcement of the leader's own (vague) commitment seems to yield -- predictably -- vague results that stem from the naive hope for "improvement in general" -- as well as, perhaps, increased cultural cynicism? 

Most improvement approaches remain bolt-on to current organizational cultures, which, as many of you have discovered, guarantees an exhausting daily battle against the enormous demon of the status quo -- you know, the "real work."  Since this type of improvement process seems to be perfectly designed to get this result, using our very own improvement language, isn't it time to consider another process?

True excellence demands a transformation to a built-in improvement approach that must begin by eradicating the status quo of tolerated executive and managerial behaviors that do not visibly support it.  

1.    Aggregate knowledge (big dots):   Macro-level data and financial and operational performance information and analysis.  

The purpose of these data is to be able to absorb the big picture, set direction and formulate strategy.  They are usually the realm of top leaders.  

Hamel makes the point that even a sufficient aggregate of such knowledge in the hands (or head) of leaders will have limitations if they lack a key lean ingredient -- humility -- which is also necessary for any leader truly and deeply committed to transformation to true excellence. 

There is a distinct danger that relying solely on this type of knowledge can create the grand illusion that leaders know best.  As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said in the 1950s:  To an engineer in his office with pencil and paper, farming looks pretty easy.

[And if improvement "leaders" aren't careful, they can easily fall into this trap as well (Mea culpa!)]

2.    Knowledge of the particular circumstances of time and place (little dots).

This type of knowledge is derived from real-life, consistent immersion in the actual daily work.

People who possess this knowledge do the actual work at the actual place and are grounded with an astute conscious awareness of the daily realities of their environment.  

Note:  not all people sufficiently grasp the reality of their situation – their lean (or improvement) thinking may be immature or perhaps they’re not interested in acknowledging reality.  It’s up to the leaders to help this along.

In any event, with proper coaching and a good lean management system to facilitate problem identification and the targeting and flow of ideas, the people with this second type of knowledge are the proper and most effective force to conduct kaizen (continual daily incremental improvements).  More about this in my next newsletter.

•    The best lean teaching emphatically insists that leaders should religiously go see, ask why, and show respect, which should also be true for any serious improvement approach.  To be ultimately effective, it must be a formal component within the context of mandatory, well-developed leader standardized work.

Similarly, the front-line “particular knowledge folks” should obtain a least a modicum of aggregate knowledge to expand their line of sight.  The incorporation of frequent regular visual process performance metric reviews -- measures related to people, quality, delivery, cost, and rate of continuous improvement -- should become part of their natural work team huddles.

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