I love the simplicity in the emphasis of the impact of the management culture when using Deming’s ideas and philosophy:
“Much has been written about the success of Deming’s ideas and philosophy in Japan. In the United States, however, it has not been nearly so successful, although it has been almost universally adopted. At first this discrepancy was blamed on the diversity of the American workforce. Japanese companies, it was surmised, had a homogeneous culture with an innate work ethic and discipline that American workers lacked.
But then the Japanese showed they could do the same thing in American factories with American workers. By bringing in just a few executives at the top of the organization and changing the management systems, especially eliminating pay for individual performance and empowering teams, Japanese managers got the same incredible performance in America that they got in Japan. The difference, it turns out, is not in the ethnic culture, but in the management culture. Command and control structures, pay for performance, and management by objectives, assailed by Deming, were too deeply embedded and fiercely defended to be changed in most American manufacturing plants.
Western managers were enamored with the statistical charts and tools to better measure quality, but they could not turn substantial power and decision making over to process teams, the very strength that fuels exceptional performance. Instead of educating workers to take ownership and think and act for themselves, they second-guessed the recommendations of teams, instilled more “carrots” and “sticks” to maintain a culture of compliance and competition, and sapped the energy of intrinsic motivation with compensation systems that made people feel resentful instead of supported. No wonder Deming had such strong words against these systems of management that stifled the potential of turned-on workers. He knew that his ideas could take root only in the rich soil of empowered teams, not the unyielding ground of compliance and autocratically administered rewards. Luckily for the world, the Japanese were willing to listen.” – Fred Lee If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently
