“If you want to retain those who are present, be loyal to those who are absent.” -- Dr. Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

“Learning cannot be disassociated from action.” -- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

“The most important measures are both unknown and unknowable.” -- W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis

Systems Change: The Key to Getting Better Results

The popular definition for insanity is “doing the same thing, but expecting different results.” I have seen the failures that come from mere system tweaking, and I have seen the power of fundamental systems change. The best way to get people to change their behavior is to change the systems that affect them. Great systems don’t have to be complicated, but they do have to produce measurable, positive results.

The following diagram shows how the four high performance focus areas fit together to obtain these results:

	Time is the great equalizer -- we all have the same twenty four hours each day to work with. My industrial engineering background and experience has provided me with key skills for optimizing how individuals, teams, and organizations use their work time each day.
	Time is money. I have learned over time how improvement approaches such as activity-based costing, open book management, and balanced scorecards can show you where your system waste really is and can in turn help you positively impact performance. Cost awareness and reduction should be part of any quality training, planning, or work system.
	People make systems work each day. Their ideas help make systems more effective. I have worked with a variety of associate involvement systems, ranging from suggestion systems to self-directed work teams. I have also developed job redesign techniques that help each associate get more satisfaction and output from their daily job.
	We are creatures of habit. In turn, we have identifiable behavior patterns that we use each day to do our jobs. We tend to use common tools as well. Over the years, I have defined key, simple systems that can be used to shift a culture, save a lot of money, become a market leader, or simply better utilize your limited human and financial resources.

Think about it. You would not ask a major league baseball team to average ten runs a game, or even seven runs a game - you know that the system is not designed to support that much run production per game. Sports teams produce a very predictable number of total runs, goals, touchdowns, or baskets (points per game) if you look at league averages over time. Your work systems are very similar in the sense that (1) they give you what they were designed to produce (intentionally OR unintentionally!) and (2) they cannot give you significantly more (or less) output unless you somehow change the system.

You know - lower the mound, move back the goal posts, let freshman play, add a 24 second clock! The effects of these fundamental system changes, and others like them, can be seen if one looks at trend lines of system output for any of these sports. The power however comes from exploring the causes of variation around the averages that different teams and individuals have had, or currently have. Your work systems are the same - it may just be that there is too much fog between you and the field or some of the lights on your scoreboard are burnt out. You are not getting the feedback you need to call the right plays! Systems improvements are needed for effective communication more than anything else.

Would You Like to Learn More?

Click on one of the following links to learn even more about Great Systems! and the types of systems improvements I can help you make:

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	Types of systems improvements I can help you make
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“The only thing I know is that I do not know it all.” -- Socrates