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IMPROVEMENT PSYCHOLOGY
by Dr. Ben S. Graham, Jr.
President
The Ben Graham Corporation
© 1996, The Ben Graham Corporation
Permission is granted to post, print and distribute this document in its
original PDF format.
Dealing with people while working on improvement projects can be
frustrating when good intentions are misunderstood. Psychological factors arise
as we set goals, choose team members, choose team leaders, search for creative
solutions, deal with delays, get caught up in assigning credit and blame, and as
we run into seemingly inevitable resistance to change. This session covers the
basics of healthy improvement psychology.
Basics of Healthy Improvement Psychology
Reality
The essence of mental health is reality. Healthy behavior is behavior that is
consistent with reality. Because it is consistent with reality, it works.
Behavior that is not consistent with reality does not work. When a person
concentrates on a small segment of reality it is easy to deal directly and
achieve predictable results. A person can get to know that small segment and
develop confidence with respect to it and master it. Mastery is the ability to
perform effectively and flexibly within some portion of reality.
When we engage in improving work processes we find people who have healthy
direct contact with reality with respect to specific tasks. They know what they
are doing and perform their tasks with skill. However, processes are made up of
many tasks and no one person knows them all.
The farther people get from the tasks that are in their areas of mastery the
more superficial their understandings become. This is true within the
organization, whether the distance is lateral (another department) or vertical
(upper management). And, it is true to an even greater extent when the distance
reaches out of the organization to consultants, vendors, learned academicians,
etc..
When decisions governing how employees are to behave are made at a distance
from reality the results usually reflect that distance. In bureaucracies
decisions are routinely made by people who are out of touch with the reality of
the work that their decisions impact. Therefore, employees are often required to
do things that make little sense. However, if those employees were to make the
decisions themselves, each time one of their decisions impacted an area of work
other than their own, the same thing would happen. Where processes flow through
a number of areas, no one has the detailed, realistic knowledge of all of the
tasks. But, someone does have each part of it and that is the key to realistic
process improvement.
Arguing as to whether experts and senior managers should improve processes or
employees should improve their own work is like arguing over which way to mess
up the organization. The experts and senior managers work with superficial
information. The employees work with partial information. The appropriate way to
avoid both of these failing is to bring together employees who are masters of
the different parts of the process and have them work together to improve the
whole process. To do this it is crucial that they be armed with a well-prepared,
understandable graphic abstraction of the process.
Abstracting Reality
The key to building an effective graphic abstraction of a process (a process
chart) is that we do not attempt to capture all of the knowledge in the process.
We keep it simple. We simply list the steps that complete the process. No matter
how diligently we might attempt to make an abstraction that would completely
match the reality of the process we will never succeed. It is better not to try.
The more we work at trying to assemble "all of the data" the more we
convince ourselves that our abstraction is the whole story, which it will never
be. This leads, in turn, to developing superficial solutions. It is better to
prepare a chart that is simply a list of the steps of the process and put this
list in front of a group of masters who possess the detailed knowledge. This
gives us the combination we need, an overview of the whole process and the
detailed knowledge of each part. (And, a chart of this sort can be prepared very
quickly. A process with one or two hundred steps can easily be charted in a
single day.)
As a team of masters works with a process chart several very constructive
things happen. First, because the chart shows them how the different parts of
the process fit together, they are able to work with the entire process. This
raises them up above the parochial perspective of their individual departments
and enables them, as a team, to take on a corporate perspective.
Also, because the chart lists the steps of the process at the task level, it
keeps them working realistically on the process. Their discussions are bound to
wander off on tangents. Occasionally these tangents prove to be valuable but
they must get back to reality and the chart helps them to do this quickly and
easily.
And, always the chart is there reminding them of the entire process so that
when they get excited about ideas that will work beautifully for part of the
process they don't inadvertently begin to overlook those details that will be
impacted negatively. In this way the process chart, which is an abstraction
based on the same reality that we plan to improve, becomes the vehicle that
draws a group of people together into a functioning team, working together on
one process
Indicators of Strong Mental Health
As just discussed, the essence of mental health is reality. People who deal
well with reality have major advantages in living and tend to exhibit behaviors
that reflect the ease with which they accommodate reality. Here is a list of
five such behaviors.
Productivity
People with strong mental health get a lot done. This is not compulsive. This
person is not driven. Rather, there is a natural outpouring of energy. This is
an active person who enjoys life and is good at it, does it well and does a lot
of it .
Wide Variety of Interests
People with strong mental health pursue many interests without detracting from
their productivity. They gradually discover similarities and connections between
activities that are generally considered to be widely disparate. In time this
broad understanding takes on a character of wisdom that helps in all that they
do.
Flexibility under Stress
People with strong mental health are cool under fire. They have the skill and
confidence to get past major frustrations with relative calm. As an example to
illustrate this skill, let us consider people in cars coming up to a road that
is blocked. A person who knows many roads will know other ways of getting around
the obstacle. People who do a lot and enjoy the adventure of life know more ways
of doing many things.
Treat People as Individuals
People with strong mental health do not view others stereotypically. They know
many people and deal with them appropriately, considering their unique
characteristics.
Know One's Limitations and Live Within Them
People with strong mental health live life fully, accomplishing far more than
most people. However, they do this while working close to, but within, their
limits. Most people do not know their limits because they do not try hard enough
to test them. They accept as standards whatever others appear to be doing and
feel spent when they have done enough to get by. Healthy people have genuinely
experienced their limits in many dimensions.
Applying Healthy Psychology to Improvement Efforts
Setting Up Teams
Choosing Team Members
Not Blue Ribbon Committees - Blue ribbon committees are usually made up of
people who do not know the work at first-hand. They operate at a distance from
reality and their genius does not make up for this.
Not Just Volunteers - It is important that the masters of the process be on
the teams and these people do not have a lot of spare time. Get them to want to
be on the project team because it is so important.
Not, "Who Can You Spare?" - More to the point would be, "Who
can't you spare?" "Who is the most knowledgeable?" "Whom do
the others turn to for help with the most difficult transactions?"
"Who would you most like to have represent your area to develop a
"best ever" process." "And, whose opinion, built into the
process, is most likely to be respected by the others in the work area.?"
Masters - To get the masters onto the team, executives must treat the project
as important. Then plan to use the time of the masters sparingly and have the
facts well organized so that, when the masters arrive at an improvement meeting
they can begin at once to apply their experience to improvement.
Choosing a Team Leader
Management's Choice - If management chooses the team leader, the choice must be
endorsed and supported by a manager whose authority is high enough that all of
the team members are responsible to that manager. If the team leader is chosen
by a manager to whom some of the team members do not report, those people may
find the choice difficult to accept.
Team's Choice - If the team chooses their own team leader, they should be
expected to accept responsibility for their choice.
Setting Goals
Setting Project Goals
Perfection - Perfection is a negative concept. It focuses attention on the
slightest flaw and drags out projects well beyond the time when they are
generating reasonable return on investment.
Challenging Goals - Don't be afraid to work toward goals that are well beyond
anything that anyone has done before. People are accepting and achieving such
goals every day. Non-challenging goals may be used when it is necessary to
promise the results but don't let them limit the effort. Always plan to exceed
them. Blow them away!
Cost Cutting - If our goals are to improve the organization by cutting staff
the costs of alienation are likely to far exceed the benefits achieved in work
methods. It is shortsighted to believe that an organization can improve its
operations (and in private industry, its competitive stance) by assaulting from
within, its most valuable resource. (In private industry this should make the
competition very happy unless they are equally shortsighted.)
Herd Mentality - Don't set goals to do what everyone else is doing. Set goals
to do what is best for your organization. Many organizations have excused their
staff reductions on the grounds that they had to do it because everyone was
doing it.
Compromising Goals - The more creatively we work at improvement the less we
have to compromise. But, when we compromise on our goals at the very start of a
project, we build in a negative self-fulfilling prophecy at the outset, before
we even have a chance to discover the possibilities. Accepting a clearly
inferior goal for political reasons is one of the failings of the political
process that leaves rigid legacies of injustice and restraint of freedom.
Determining Project Scope
Departmental Focus - A departmental focus toward determining project scope tends
to keep projects within "Functional Silos", missing huge opportunities
to smooth out work flow between departments. It also tends to focus on people as
though we intend to study them rather than their work, which is apt to put them
on the defensive.
Organizational Chart Focus - The organizational chart is an abstraction that
displays how people are grouped and tends to create a political mentality. Using
the organizational chart to determine project participation and ownership
carries a risk that areas that are impacted by the process, in ways that are not
obvious enough to be apparent on the organization chart, will be overlooked and
not included.
Process Flow - Determine the items that are to be processed and follow them,
letting them tell you where they go. This is an empirical approach to
determining project scope. Then choose a start point and an end point. What lies
between belongs in the scope. This approach avoids politics and assures
professionally objective decisions about participation and scope. Then prepare a
process chart as referred to above. (Note, - the process chart is an abstraction
that focuses on work flow and is therefore beneficial in directing attention to
reality. The organization chart, on the other hand, is an abstraction that
focuses on groups of people and therefore tends to direct attention to political
relationships.
Seeking Solutions
Fact Gathering
Treating People With Respect - When gathering facts, the quality of the data
obtained will be strongly affected by the way the person who is gathering the
facts treats the operating people. If the operating people perceive that they
are being treated as though their work is trivial or expendable they are apt to
be offended or defensive. The proper way to gather data is to go to the person
who is most knowledgeable with respect to the data needed and treat that person
appropriately as though he or she is the top authority in the organization.
Authority - If you get caught up in political games, trying to show respect
appropriate to people because of their positions, you will invariably find
yourself offending people in lower level positions. During data gathering we
spend a lot of time with junior people because this is where most of the
operating information resides. Respect the authority of reality and the people
who have the best handle on that reality. This will assure fresh authenticity in
your work and protect you from slipping into bureaucratic politics.
Strategy for Working with the True Masters - When you are working with people
for the first time you can't always tell the outstanding ones from those who are
conning you. Treat them all as if they are the finest persons you will ever
meet. Later when you have more to go on, you will be very glad that you treated
some of them with this respect because you now know that they deserve the
highest respect. Others, who normally would not seem to merit the respect you
chose to give them, will try to measure up to it. They will try harder for you
than they will for others who treat them with less respect. And, some will be
twits no matter how well you treat them. Give these a second and third chance.
Make certain that these people simply will not cooperate before you write them
off and get on with the work without them. With this strategy you will find
yourself constantly surrounded by people who have reason to cooperate.
Organizing the Facts
Pictures - Pictures provide insight that cannot be provided with words. When a
process chart is reviewed by a team of knowledgeable operating people
opportunities for improvement seem to leap off the chart.
Work Elements - Break the work down into elements that are the steps people
actually perform when they do their work. This enables people to treat the facts
with confidence in a craftsman-like manner.
Arranging the Elements - Show how the elements are related to one another.
Putting them in sequence is a big help.
Not the Way People are Used to Seeing the Work - Don't worry that the picture
is unfamiliar. Looking at the work a little differently, with fresh eyes,
improves creativity. The important thing is to be sure that the chart is not so
unfamiliar that the team cannot grasp it. If the elements are realistic the team
will recognize the parts and be able to understand the chart.
Simplistic Charting - Don't try to simplify by simply not showing detail on
the chart. Detail doesn't go away when we ignore it. The trick is to show the
detail clearly and then figure out ways that actually make the process simpler.
Dealing With Delays
Finishing the Project
The Moment of Truth - The more time there is left to finish a project, the more
relaxed the work is apt to be. As the moment of truth bears down, anxieties
rise. Don't yield to them. They are natural. Finish the project on schedule. The
process was not perfect when you began. It will not be perfect when you finish.
But it can be a whole lot better. Let your recommendations be as good as you can
produce in the time available.
Delays - The more a project is delayed:
1. The longer the benefits are postponed.
2. The greater the risk that crucial team members will be lost.
3. The greater the risk that crucial new priorities will force the project to be
abandoned.
4. The greater the risk that recommendations will be outdated.
5. The more we lull people (particularly senior management) into expecting
perfect results.
Finish Quickly - Nobody expects perfection in a few days. Finish so quickly
that the pay-off "knocks their socks off." Many of the most important
changes are discovered early in the study.
Procrastination - Procrastination is as common as it is because people often
believe they can do the job in a short amount of time. So, they wait until the
last minute. If they are right, and they can complete the job in a short amount
of time, they should have done it at the beginning and reaped the benefits that
much sooner. On the other hand, if they wait until the last minute and then
something prevents them from doing the work it is doubly embarrassing when it is
revealed that it wasn't even begun.
Preparing the Proposal
Before and After Reconciliation - Use the same tools to define the proposal that
you used to define the present process. Comparing like things makes listing the
differences easy.
Don't Propose Multiple Alternatives - When management must choose between
many options, they are forced to re-do the project. For each recommendation
there will usually be several alternative ways to get it done. Propose only the
best alternative for each recommendation. If a recommendation is rejected, then
run out the alternatives. Assuming you have ten recommendations and you have
five alternative ways of accomplishing each of them, your choice is to require
management to deal with fifty recommendations or ten.
Management's Zone of Indifference - Management is normally and properly
indifferent about most operating detail. The only reason that many
recommendations reach management is because they affect work areas beyond the
authority of junior people. The key to getting these ideas accepted is to
present them in a manner that gives management confidence. This calls for
craftsman-like work presented with confidence. (Unfortunately, well-packaged
presentations full of mega-claims and testimonials delivered by people touted as
experts often capture the confidence of senior management. It is difficult for
operating people to match the pizzazz. Don't try. Convince with sincerity and
reality instead.)
Control the Seating - Position the team members around the table so that they
are interspersed with the managers rather than having the managers on one side
and the team members on the other. If this is not attended to, the team members
will invariably cluster together and instead of creating an atmosphere of
working together we create an atmosphere of junior people trying to convince
seniors. This is apt to get the seniors caught up in defending why, in fact,
they are senior.
Look Sharp and Sincere - Clean the room. Do anything you can to create an
atmosphere of quality. But, most important, present with confidence what you
sincerely believe. The best managers are able to see through the dog and pony
shows. They are also able to recognize sincere, craftsman-like work.
Installation
Introvert, Extrovert - Research requires and brings out introvert behavior.
Installation requires extrovert behavior and if it isn't forthcoming the project
will drag on. The window of opportunity will pass and all the good work will
come to naught.
Visible Activities - When all of the activities involved in installation are
occurring behind the scenes people see no progress and lose interest. Momentum
needed for cooperation is lost. Plan visible activities and organize them well
to build a ground swell of support and cooperation.
One Person to Coordinate - So many things need to be done during installation
that it is futile to expect them to be done without someone keeping track of
them and taking action when needed. The key factors here are that the
installation have priority with key people and that the coordinator be
tenacious.
Credit and Blame
Stealing Credit - Nothing will kill a project faster than the appearance
that someone is making a play to grab a disproportionate amount of credit. And,
few things will sour a corporate-wide effort more than the appearance that team
members are set up to take the blame but that credit will go to executives. Make
an effort to place the credit for the specific changes with the people who
figured them out and accomplished them. Push the credit down and spread it out
and there will be plenty to go around. But, when it is carefully hoarded by a
few, there isn't usually much to share anyway!
Resistance to Change
Perception of Resistance - Much resistance to change is perceptual. It works
like this. When a person is developing a change and having some success with it,
he or she usually gets quite excited about it. As they deal with others whose
cooperation they need they rarely come across people who are as excited about it
as they are. Picture the person with the idea going 100 miles an hour in the
direction of his or her idea and finding the rest of the organization going only
10 miles an hour in that direction. It is easy to perceive this as 90 miles an
hour of other people resisting rather than 90 miles an hour of our own
exuberance. To get rid of this resistance slow down and share the excitement. It
is far better to have a group of people moving together at 30 or 40 miles an
hour than to have everyone traveling in a different direction at breakneck
speed.
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