TQM and Similar Management Fads

As I have thought about my postings, I have noticed a couple of sub-themes. One of them is not surprising given the state of the economy. In fact I consciously choose the titles for the two entries on General Motors, I’ve been afraid of changing (Parts I and II) from the lyrics of the song “Landslide.” The next line is, “because I’ve built my life around you.” Obviously if we build our lives around something besides Jesus we are likely to be severely disappointed and I think that all of us, to varying degrees, have placed our trust in something besides Jesus. A second theme that has popped up from time to time is the idea, do something, anything, no matter how small, to improve your situation, financial or otherwise, but just do it. Do it today!

Total Quality Management (TQM) is packaged and sold under a lot of different names. The latest flavor has been popularized by Toyota. They call their version Lean Six Sigma. All of these methodologies trace their roots back to the work of W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who revolutionized manufacturing in post war Japan through the use of systematic process control and improvement. His work has been largely misapplied or ignored by American industry. I think that the most common reason for this failure stems from the very nature of a hierarchical structured bureaucracy. Power in such an organization comes with ownership or control of a process. TQM turns control of the process over to employees effected by the process. In essence, the animals are placed in charge of the zoo. Following strict rules, utilizing measurement and analysis, the employees can change or even, God forbid, eliminate a process entirely. No self respecting corporate satrap could allow such a think to happen.

Back in the late 1980s the first results from the use of TQM in American industry were examined in a remarkably wise article published in the Harvard Business Review. The results were discouraging. The author appalled by the misapplications of Deming’s methodology, observed that initiating TQM was really extraordinarily simple. If you will, please allow me to put this into my own words. If I have the misfortune of falling into a cactus, how do I remove the prickers? Answer: One at a time, starting with the one that hurts the worst. The author recommended that a TQM program start without training the employees or attempting to promote the method with slogans or programs. Pick a problem, any problem, but pick something that is so universally hated that no one will care if your proposed improvement fails. If you fail, your employees will say, “At least he tried.” If you succeed you now have the backing of your employees to go after more difficult or politically sensitive problems.

So, just for today, think up something and just do it. It might not be a very big idea or a very good idea, but just try it and see what happens. Maybe you could collect a little extra each month to help pay down that credit card bill by throwing all your change into a jar at the end of each day and then using that money at the end of each month to get out of debt. Or maybe, like someone I know, you might have wanted to write but one thing or another (generally called real life) prevented the fulfillment of that dream.

This may not be much, but it is a start.

Matthew 13 (NIV)

31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."