Improving Process in Troubled Times (Part Two)

This four-part series considers some tactics for making your improvement initiative bulletproof in budget-slashing times.

The first installment introduced the idea that perceived value contributes most to immunizing improvement initiatives. When the economy sours, organizations tend to heighten their awareness of the cost of everything, and their acknowledgment of the value of anything becomes myopic. This installment examines how organizations value improvements and suggests how you might align your initiative with your organization's dominant values as a strategy for surviving troubled times.
 

Aspiration Value

Some organizations focus their improvement efforts on moving toward, but never actually achieving, some ideal state - hence the word aspiration. They value their aspirations over achieving anything specific. While these organizations can be frustrating for the results-oriented, they can very successfully create momentum toward improvement.

One quality-improvement team was mustered just so that its executive could brag to his colleagues in other firms that he had a quality-improvement team. Whether it achieved quality was quite beside the primary value he placed on its existence. Its budget could be cut only at a considerable cost to his prestige within his peer group. Another quality group was chartered under the banner of high corporate values, featured prominently in the company's motto and in national advertising that claimed it was "serious" about quality. The company was most serious about the public perception that it was serious about quality. Its improvement group was relatively ironclad as a result.

Listen to your organization. If it has strongly publicized its commitment to quality or to process improvement, prominently associate your initiative with this public stance. Aspiration values are like an organization's North Star. No navigator ever reaches the North Star, but it is useful for plotting and confirming course. Aspirations often seem like so much window dressing to the cost accountant. But don't discount their value out of hand - they offer real leverage. Visibly associating with this aspiration might contribute most to your initiative's budget hardiness.
 

Constraint Value

Some organizations value containment over anything else. Where cost containment is touted as a high value, constraint initiatives flourish. Companies focusing most highly upon constraint values will expend millions to gain nothing more than a clearer window into or the promise of "getting a handle on" operations.

In an organization that values constraints, an extraordinarily expensive and disruptive enterprise-resource-planning system implementation effort will survive the most extreme budget cuts in the belief that the organization's very survival depends on it. We often see a counter-cyclical expenditure on new project management systems within such organizations, even though the acquisition and implementation of such systems usually hobble operations in the short run, and frequently forever.

If your organization values such constraining and containing boundaries, how might you dress your initiative so that it appears to be constraining and containing? Focus attention on such aspects as improved control, increased consistency, and - the BS buzzword of operations management - efficiency. In constraint-valuing organizations, the promise of control, consistency, and efficiency is plenty to preserve even the most expensive and disruptive initiative.

The next installment of this series will look at two very different ways in which organizations value improvements and how to align your efforts with them.
 

David A. Schmaltz is the founder and a principled consultant with True North pgs (project guidance strategies), Inc., a strategic consultancy that helps people work well together. His book, The Blind Men and the Elephant: Mastering Project Work, will be published by Berrett-Koehler in March. His Web site is www.projectcommunity.com, and his email address is david@projectcommunity.com.
 

 

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The following links will take you to the other pieces in this series:
Part One Introduces the concept of aligning with perceived value as a key contributor to improvement success.
Part Two Aligning with Aspiration and Constraint-valuing Organizations.
Part Three Aligning with Regulator and Target-valuing Organizations.
Part Four Aligning with Legacy-valuing organizations and summary of advice.

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