In the business fable that he narrates, you’d find a troubled Greg on a golf course, explaining his problem to Andrew: “What really bothers me is the undercurrent in the organisation. I just can’t put my finger on it.” There is nothing physical that prevents the plant from spewing out tonnes of product, frets Greg. “The equipment is first-class, the plant is in great condition, the market is asking for more product, the management team appears to be very capable, but still they cannot produce to maximum capacity.”

Perhaps ‘improvement programs’ could help, wonders Andrew. Greg snorts in disgust: “Boy, have they implemented programs! The walls are covered with slogans, posters, scoreboards, awards, plaques, trophies, flags, initiatives, graphs and statuettes. They’ve tried business process reengineering, constraint management, self-directed work teams, six-sigma, just-in-time – the whole gamut.”

Result? “A predictable flurry of activity and excitement when the new initiative gets under way, but it soon peters out and performance goes back to what it was before,” explains Greg about the failure of programs to create any lasting impact.

Similar problems plague many companies. The solution may lie more with people than expensive computerised monitoring and control systems, realises Greg. Whenever a stream of new initiatives gets thrust down on the staff, they feel demeaned and cheated. “Everybody instinctively knows that the business has to be more competitive, more agile and more client-oriented. All they hear from management day in and day out is that they, not management, have to do better.”

Beware. This is a tale that can sound too real and too close for comfort.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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