dispatches from the new world of work

Tangled

When I was a very young manager at United Parcel Service, there were two books I kept close at hand. The first was a slim, brown policy manual. It was full of plain-speaking guidance on the values of UPS. The second was a thick three-ring binder called the standard practices manual. The industrial engineering function produced this straightforward guide that laid out step by step approaches to operations and general management practices and challenges. The procedures outlined in the manual were guided by a simple idea; the shortest path between any two points is a straight line. When coupled with the compelling mandate that failure was never an option, the manual held the solution to almost every problem. It served me well.

I am no longer very young, and I have come to appreciate that the world of enterprise is no longer linear. Straight lines have been replaced by an intricate web of networks where an action anywhere in the system affects other critical areas of the enterprise. The current economic crisis has many leaders and managers focusing on immediate needs. There is a feeling that we must solve looming financial problems, now! This often means looking for the shortest path to efficiencies. Achieving lean operations seems to be guiding much of the managerial activities among my clients. There will be an immediate improvement in metrics by this approach; numbers will look better. Please, be careful. Consider the impact on other areas of the business. Consider the impact on the business three to five years from now. That straight line might be the shortest distance, but it might take you quickly to a place you do not want to go.

Two areas to watch come to mind. Talent and brand. When I work at the operative level of organizations I find good people stretched to the point of near burnout trying to produce results with shrinking resources. This, in too many cases, has led these folks to hunker down and try to just get through the day. The passion for excellence is being replaced by a sometimes desperate need to merely survive. Hardly the environment that breeds the risk-taking needed for innovation. Leaders, if you really believe that talent is your most important asset, let them play on a field where they have a chance of winning.

Cost-cutting is also affecting brand equity. Well-intentioned people are working hard to cut the cost of products and services in response to a perception that we have to lower prices to compete. Any isolated cost improvement probably does little harm to the brand. If no one is watching the cumulative impact of all the small cuts, however, product and service quality could suffer in a way that does irreparable harm to the brand. The future effect on brand and the possible resulting loss of sales and revenue must be considered.

What's the answer to this conundrum? How to contain costs without overburdening talent and damaging the brand? I wish I knew. What I do know is that the solution is not linear. We won't find it in a standard practices manual. The world has changed. Leaders need to up their game and consider solutions that are as all-encompassing as the complexity of the current challenge. Sure, execute swiftly and efficiently, but only after a patient and thoughtful analysis of the plans. The good feeling of today's improvement of metrics could lead to a future distaste of failure three to five years out.

Mike Neiss posted this on 10/17/08.

Comments

Hi Mike - I’m also no longer young and I too can remember those types of manuals earlier in my career. I quickly discovered human beings don’t act in accordance with the rationality of manuals written in the warmth and comfort of offices – far away from the front line.

These days as a self employed free lance my manuals are usually about one sentence long – saying something like ‘Just work damned hard Trevor and satisfy your client/customer at all costs.’

I don’t like the word ‘network’ much ‘cos it implies nice neat patterns drawn in symmetry made up as perfectly as the beautiful web spun by the very intelligent spider. I prefer the expression ‘a patchwork quilt of relationships’ with different sized patches of different types of material knitted together looking different from whichever angle one looks at the total patchwork quilt.

This ‘patchwork quilt of connections’ is the concept developed by my own academic guru Professor George Giarchi of the University of Plymouth here in England.

BTW - George is now 78 years young and intends to remain Professor in Social Care until he is 80 in 2010 ….. Now Mike there is a man YOUNGER in mind than both you and me!

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 17, 2008 6:06 PM

Actually Trevor, these manuals were things of beauty. Probably because at UPS, everyone must start at the frontline doing manual labor before they can join the ranks of management. This practice is no longer universally applied there, but still the norm. The folks that wrote them were from the front lines. Obviously, human beings don't act in accordance with the laws of physics, but I do believe there are some clear cause and effect relationships in human behavior. Agree on the network thing..that's why I titled this tangled. Its a very complex and constantly changing set of connections. Trevor, if I retire at 80, that means I have died..:)

Posted by Mike Neiss at October 17, 2008 6:50 PM

If one is looking to contain costs and maintain the brand, the solution is hiding in plain sight...engage the front line folks. Use their networks, relationships, local knowledge, and customer and market expertise. The costs of turnover are incalculable in financial terms, customer satisfaction levels, and performance and productivity. The learning curve for new folks can be steep and extended, a necessary evil that can impact service and product reliability. Sometimes the obvious is the most difficult to figure out for some executives...

Posted by Dave Wheeler at October 18, 2008 12:28 PM

At my company, we too are embracing Lean Management principles.
However, we have it backward. We are cutting resources and them refining processes to overcome the cuts, where we should be continually improving processes and enjoying reductions from the improvement in those processes.

Posted by Kyle at October 19, 2008 3:44 PM

Great post, Mike. I appreciate your comments about the excellence of the manuals from the UPS industrial engineers. I remember studying them as examples of the finest of their kind. They were kind of manuals that people kept around for their content. They had dirt spots on the pages that were most used.

I have to respectfully disagree with "it won't be linear." I think that the art today is determining which things should be direct (communication after you eliminate silos), which are naturally networked, and which require an arc of indirection.

Posted by Wally Bock at October 19, 2008 3:50 PM

Thanks Wally. Certainly I agree that communications often should be direct and linear. What I was referring to is major interventions such as lean strategies, internal branding, any number of good things to do. If they are done without considering the impact on other parts of the system, I find they can have consequences that outweigh their benefits. An example I think of is the number of companies that have fallen in love with the Toyota Production System. (which I fully support). Often the implementation ends up building a new function responsible for it and a new level of bureaucracy. Of course that really isn't TPS; at Toyota those that doe the work are responsible for utilizing the practices, not a separate group (usually management and engineering). Thanks for your thoughts.

Posted by Mike Neiss at October 19, 2008 4:58 PM

Kyle...thank you, you are absolutely correct!

"linear?", "direct?", "naturally networked?", "an arc of indirection?"....Oye vey!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at October 19, 2008 6:30 PM

pfizer viagra 100mg canada Mike. Thanks for your insight on this subject. This is timely as news of impending economic doom causes individuals and corporations to make hasty short-term decisions. Hopefully our U.S. corporate leaders will consider the long-term impacts of their cost-cutting strategies on their talent and brand as they react to our current economic crunch.

Posted by K. Smith at October 22, 2008 8:19 AM

Mike, sorry to join the party late. (But then again my comments are sometimes the kiss of death to a thread.) I recently came across a manual I loved for its simplicity: Semco's "Survival Manual" - a simple guide to what to expect if you go to work there - with comic illustrations. (http://semco.locaweb.com.br/en/content.asp?content=3&contentID=567) Semco - to those who haven't heard - is a Brazilian manufacturing powerhouse that is also a living experiment in workforce democracy. (Wally, I enjoyed your memo on your website on Semco.) And now that I've mentioned simplicity, Trevor can weigh in again. :-)

Posted by John O'Leary at October 27, 2008 2:23 PM

Hi John - I am a mere beginner and total novice compared to Ricardo Semler when it comes to Simplicity. He is an absolute genius. C.W. Ceran said ‘Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple' and that is how I would describe Mr Semler. I would be happy to be 10% as good at Simplicity as Mr Semler.

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 27, 2008 2:29 PM