by Lee Fried, on 03 Aug 2008 02:39 pm
The Journey
Goals Not Means
This last year has been a transition year for the organization as we have worked hard to move away from our management by objective (MBO) roots. In many ways we are still living and will continue to live with somewhat of an MBO hangover. During our Mid-Year review we spent a lot of time with the senior leadership reflecting on this transition. It was exciting to see that without exception each member of the team could see the value of the new system we are creating based on Hoshin Kanri and it was clear that we will be staying the course. During the Mid-Year review there was also a lot of reflection on what critical adjustments we will make to our system this coming year as we develop our next A3’s. One of the major themes that was recognized as a cause of this hangover is our continued reliance on senior leadership to not only define the goals for the organization, but also the means by which they will be achieved (often in the form of projects). As a result of this reflection the senior leadership team has decided that during this fall’s planning cycle they will focus on goal creation and allow the lower levels in the organization to define the means.
Simple right? Only in concept. For decades the MBO management practices have been ingrained into the way that our organization functions. Each layer of management has learned to look to layer above them to know not only what they should be doing, but also how they should be doing it. Decisions must often go all the way to the top of the organization even when they are operational and could have been best answered by the people closer to the work. This type of system creates a strange dynamic within the management ranks where managers get comfortable with the security of not having the authority to make decisions, yet, at the same time they get frustrated by the lack of responsibility they have for making improvement. The side effects are many including lack of engagement, pent up creativity and frustration with the lack of flexibility of the system.
This reflection by our senior leadership team is an important one and I cannot overstate how revolutionary this change will be to our organization if we a successful. It will take a long time for this hangover to go completely away, but I can imagine a year from now writing a blog entry that talks about just how far we have come. When teams realize they have authority and responsiblity for improvement it does not take them long to start moving forward really fast.