What executives and managers in most organizations lack is a sound "theory" about how their own organization works and responds to its environment as a "system." They know how each department works -- more or less -- but they have never really stopped to think how the "system" works as a whole.
Asked directly, most executives and managers could not tell you -- with specifics -- why three of the initiatives that they have undertaken in the last two years seem to have delivered some improvement (but not all that they expected). Nor could they describe for you precisely why another five of the initiatives they labored over delivered no measurable results -- assuming that they actually did no damage to the organization. (Of course, this whole conversation assumes that you can actually get such executives or managers to admit that things they tried produced no results, in fact. Generally, they have willingly pushed out of their mind those matters over which they have expended precious time and energy to no effect -- only to give up in disgust. Then they tried the next management fad in its place.)
"I am not yet convinced regarding the connection between 'knowledge' and 'theory,'" I hear you saying. Then consider this:
How many people had seen apples falling from trees (or witnessed similar events) for how many hundreds or thousands of years before Sir Isaac Newton postulated a "theory" about a force we call gravity? Everyone had experienced gravity and everyone had information about the effects of gravity, but until Newton, no one had any knowledge about gravity.
Once the "theory" was set forth, cause-and-effect experiments could be developed to measure the effects of gravity. Based on the results of these experiments, one could then postulate if-then correlations: if we do X, then Y should be the result.
If management is anything, it is about being able to propose actions with a predictable -- not random -- effect on the "system" to which the action is being applied.
But, what of the second wrong assumption in the chain of reasoning (in the prior post)?
It should be clear now that it is not more information that will help us manage better. Rather, it is a sound theory or logical framework by which to understand how the "system" functions and interacts with its environment. The second wrong assumption is, then, "More information means we can manage better."
The correct approach would be to say: "If we can develop a sound and effective framework or theory by which to interpret the information coming from our organization (our "system"), then we will be able to manage better."
And, since developing a theoretical framework is likely not a function that will be much enhanced by technologies, then the next step is not to rush out to buy new software or hardware. Clearly, the next step should be to find a way to develop such a sound theoretical framework.
[To be continued]
Showing posts with label gravity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gravity. Show all posts
11 November 2009
04 November 2009
The danger of "We know!" - Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I discussed how many executives and managers fail to reap benefits from new methods and ideas -- especially if these new methods and ideas arrive in the form of a "consultant" -- simply because these executives and managers believe that the already know what can be known about their organizations and their industries. This prevents many organizations from growing to their full potential.
W. Edwards Deming put it bluntly: "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge comes from theory."
Unfortunately, what far to many executives and managers have is a lot of information about their businesses and their industries. What they desperately lack is "theory" by which to interpret and understand the information at their disposal.
G. K. Chesterton put it this way in Tremendous Trifles (Beaconsfield, Britain: Darwen Finlayson, 1968): "One of the four or five paradoxes which should be taught to every infant prattling on his mother's knee is the following: that the more a man looks at a thing the less he can see it, and the more a man learns a thing the less he knows it. The Fabian argument of the expert, that the man who is trained should be the man who is trusted would be absolutely unanswerable if it were really true that the man who studied a thing and practised it every day went on seeing more and more of its significance. But he does not. He goes on seeing less and less of its significance."
Think of Sir Isaac Newton and the story of his having begun his development of the theory of gravity because he had seen an apple falling from a tree. Surely there had been tens of thousands of individuals that had witnessed objects falling to the ground under the influence of gravity for several millennia prior to Sir Newton's experience. Yet, no one understood "gravity."
It has only been since Isaac Newton put a "theory" around gravity that men could take what they had experienced with gravity and put it into a framework -- a theoretical context -- that made the experience understandable to them. Furthermore, the framework (the "theory") gave men the opportunity to predict outcomes of certain actions relative to the gravitational affects. This meant that men could plan and execute with some real certainty as to the results they would obtain under "gravity."
Precisely the same is true of business.
Executives and managers have all manner of data in their hands relative to the performance of their enterprises. What they lack is a "theory" by which that data may be abstracted and understood for the purposes of effective management. A framework that will help them bring simplicity out of the complexity before them.
In all too many cases, the missing "data" for beginning the process of ongoing improvement is to be found within the organization at all. The missing component for executives and managers is quite often this simple point: there is a simple method available to help organizational leadership logically analyze what they already know internally.
In the absence of a "tool set" that helps management bring forth "knowledge" from their "information," executives and managers tend to continue "tinkering" with their businesses. They make changes here or there to see if the change helps.
Sometimes such change seems to help, other times the change actually makes things go worse than before. Still other times, the change is made and their is no perceptible affect on the organization at all.
This is no way to run a business -- or any other kind of organization!
Executives and managers are yearning -- sometimes without even recognizing what is lacking -- for a simple, effective tool to help them gain control of their enterprises once again.
[Next time: Gaining Control]
Contact me!
...
W. Edwards Deming put it bluntly: "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge comes from theory."
Unfortunately, what far to many executives and managers have is a lot of information about their businesses and their industries. What they desperately lack is "theory" by which to interpret and understand the information at their disposal.
G. K. Chesterton put it this way in Tremendous Trifles (Beaconsfield, Britain: Darwen Finlayson, 1968): "One of the four or five paradoxes which should be taught to every infant prattling on his mother's knee is the following: that the more a man looks at a thing the less he can see it, and the more a man learns a thing the less he knows it. The Fabian argument of the expert, that the man who is trained should be the man who is trusted would be absolutely unanswerable if it were really true that the man who studied a thing and practised it every day went on seeing more and more of its significance. But he does not. He goes on seeing less and less of its significance."
Think of Sir Isaac Newton and the story of his having begun his development of the theory of gravity because he had seen an apple falling from a tree. Surely there had been tens of thousands of individuals that had witnessed objects falling to the ground under the influence of gravity for several millennia prior to Sir Newton's experience. Yet, no one understood "gravity."
It has only been since Isaac Newton put a "theory" around gravity that men could take what they had experienced with gravity and put it into a framework -- a theoretical context -- that made the experience understandable to them. Furthermore, the framework (the "theory") gave men the opportunity to predict outcomes of certain actions relative to the gravitational affects. This meant that men could plan and execute with some real certainty as to the results they would obtain under "gravity."
Precisely the same is true of business.
Executives and managers have all manner of data in their hands relative to the performance of their enterprises. What they lack is a "theory" by which that data may be abstracted and understood for the purposes of effective management. A framework that will help them bring simplicity out of the complexity before them.
In all too many cases, the missing "data" for beginning the process of ongoing improvement is to be found within the organization at all. The missing component for executives and managers is quite often this simple point: there is a simple method available to help organizational leadership logically analyze what they already know internally.
In the absence of a "tool set" that helps management bring forth "knowledge" from their "information," executives and managers tend to continue "tinkering" with their businesses. They make changes here or there to see if the change helps.
Sometimes such change seems to help, other times the change actually makes things go worse than before. Still other times, the change is made and their is no perceptible affect on the organization at all.
This is no way to run a business -- or any other kind of organization!
Executives and managers are yearning -- sometimes without even recognizing what is lacking -- for a simple, effective tool to help them gain control of their enterprises once again.
[Next time: Gaining Control]
Contact me!
...
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