Thursday Edition

dispatches from the new world of work

The IMAOA

I'm thinking of founding "ima-o-a," or IMAOA.

As you know, I'm ordinarily an enemy of incrementalism, and an ally of the Bold Leap. In almost every presentation I quote my old pal, Roger Enrico, former PepsiCo chief: "Beware of the tyranny of making small changes to small things. Rather, make big changes to big things."

Well, I'm not ready to recant and rebuff Roger, but I have been thinking lately about relative national productivity, the sources thereof. It occurs, and I blogged this briefly before, that we spend far too much time focusing on the Fortune 500 (or some other nation's equivalent), and far too little time on the "other 90 percent" of the working population. Bottom line: If you want to improve national productivity, a measure of output per working person, you might be smarter to focus on janitors and waiters and plumbers and electricians than biochemists and software coders—i.e., there are a lot, lot more of the former than the latter. For example, if you could nudge (right word: nudge) productivity up for the folks who, by the thousand, scrape gum off the platforms in Japanese subway stations, you could do more for productivity than by adding another robot in the Toyota factory.

Hence my proposed "institute." I'm calling it the Institute for Modest Advances in Ordinary Activities, or IMAOA. I think I'm onto something here. Any economists among our visitors who'd care to comment?

(In a way I'm stealing this from my old friend, the late Ren McPherson, legendary/Fortune Business Hall of Fame CEO of Dana Corporation, featured 100 years ago in In Search of Excellence. Ren used to say that, "The high-flyers will take care of themselves, and I'll eventually weed out the losers. My real job is to engage the 'middle 60 percent.' If I can induce a modest productivity boost from them, I can move mountains." I think he was right—and his track record surely supports that conclusion.)

Tom Peters posted this on 02/15/06.

Comments

This would make a great approach for our struggling schools. As a middle school science teacher for one year I took a look at what was possible and optimal and aimed squarely center mass. My less than perfect solution did not do the best I could have for the top students or for the lower scoring crew, but my criteria were teaching a set of state appointed standards and raising test scores 2%. I did not teach to the test. I taught what the majoritity of my students could grasp and my test scores (productivity?)went up 9%.

Posted by guy dumas at February 15, 2006 12:03 PM

Guy, my friend McPherson, quoted in the Post, said, "You don't have to motivate the top 10%. They motivate themselves--just keep out of their way." Not quite true in the classroom, but not untrue either.

Posted by tom peters at February 15, 2006 12:45 PM

Tom, when structuring your Institute for Modest Advances in Ordinary Activities, ensure that you include processes to reward modest advances. An American businessman was in Japan touring a factory. When he saw a room of workers jumping up and down in celebration, he asked "What are they celebrating?" The Japanese manager stated that they improved the process slightly. "Why are they celebrating so wildly then?" asked the American? "We believe that the path to ultimate success is as important as the success itself" was the answer.

Celebrate the small steps and you'll accomplish big things!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at February 15, 2006 2:58 PM

The first "modest advance" would be to change the workers' attitude to modest advances. My nephew is part of a work-crew which produces one work-unit per day. Other work-crews produce 10 units per day. When my nephew suggested increasing production from one to two units, the other members of his work-crew objected strongly - they like their leisurely work style and don't want to give it up. They feel in no danger of losing their jobs - the company can't find other people to do their essential work.

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