Alliance Meetings

February 2013 Meeting

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:56:08 +0000

Today’s Chairperson: John Carlisle

‘Sumantra Ghoshal Meets Dr Deming and Stafford Beer’

Professor Sumantra Ghoshal wrote his famous ‘Bad Management Theories are destroying Good Management Practices’ (2005) in the light of Enron, Tyco and WorldCom (with Siemens, Northern Rock, Lehman Bros et al hovering in the background). His question was: How did we come to this? He placed much of the blame not at the door of regulators, shareholders or managers, but at that of people such as himself: professors of management.

The challenge in management sciences lies in what he calls a "double hermeneutic". While bad theories in physics don't change the path of electrons (They can't read, and, if they could, they wouldn't change simply because elite scientists said they should.), bad theories in the social sciences (of which management is one) are read by practitioners and turned into practice.

Sadly, Professor Ghoshal died just before his article was published, so we do not know what he thought the good management theories would be. Hence the title of this symposium.
Two great organisational thinkers who preceded Professor Ghoshal were Dr W.E. Deming and Professor Stafford Beer. We believe that they did have the “good” theories, and that these have been tested and found to be successful in a number of companies.

The areas of challenge will be:
• Drastically to re-evaluate what we teach managers in universities
• To debate why, in the face of undeniable evidence to the contrary, firms still construct their people systems around McGregor’s X Theory, and why academics still teach to this paradigm.
• How to change this system of teaching the wrong things.

Structure of the meeting:

Morning

The academics meet their customers – students, industry, government and education representatives – to understand their needs and explain their course content.
An open debate on the extent to which that which is currently taught addresses those needs.

Afternoon

Academic response and discussion: What should a 21st Century management curriculum contain, and how it should it be taught?

Tea

What are the causes of inertia and how do the proponents of Deming and Stafford Beer, with the academics, start to bring about real change in what managers and leaders need to learn?
John Carlisle invites those who would like to carry the ‘how to’ discussion over into dinner, to join him overnight at the hotel.

Below is a paper written by Ghoshal that was mentioned above:

November 2012 Meeting

Mon, 5 Nov 2012 14:52:38 +0000

Today’s Chairperson: John Morgan

Morning Session: Waitrose Case Study

Speakers: Christina Bush & Kevin Garret

While political chatter about the 'Big Society' seems to have gone quiet in recent months, major changes are afoot in the public and private sector. It was only in January that Nick Clegg announced his vision for a 'John Lewis Society' in which workers had the right to shares in the company for which they work. Since then, local authorities around the country have produced new 'ALMOs' (Arms Length Management Organisations) to undertake some of their existing services as not-for-profit private sector organisations. And yet, some of the original ALMOs for housing have been wound up. (Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2012/jun/07/local-authorities-almos-public-services)

During the session on 5 November we will be taking a fresh look at employee-ownership (including the John Lewis Partnership/Waitrose), through the lens of Deming's ideas. We are expecting two John Lewis Partners with long experience of the Partnership, who will be able help us sort fact from fiction, myth from reality as we ask: Does an organisation's structure, governance and ownership make a difference and provide any inoculation against the Deadly Diseases of traditional business practice?
 
Afternoon Session: Waitrose Surgery

Speaker: Christina Bush & Kevin Garret

Continuation from the morning session

September 2012 Meeting

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:23:08 +0100

Today’s Chairperson: John Morgan

Morning Session: Achieving more for less

Speakers: John Morgan, Daniel Gaster

Achieving more for less (Amfl) is a refined approach to change & management embracing all the principles of Deming, together with many from Ackoff, Buzan and even Einstein. Management should be founded on great information, about its methods, variation, variety, outcomes, customers and core philosophies, and how these all interact.

Amfl starts from wherever it has permission. It is extremely customer centric and conscious of the business. It is always emergent, moving to where there is most need or the greatest opportunity, developing a fast-moving, positive-energy, multi-aspect change, which stimulates better management & leadership approaches as part of the process, engaging supporting services, service providers & ICT systems into new ambitious futures.

Unlike most Lean or Systems Thinking approaches Amfl improves not only the efficiency of a system, but also addresses the effectiveness, utilising the Appraise stage to add even more value, developing new jobs, increasing the capacity to embrace more variety and, so far, saving hosts, on average, seventy times the costs of the interventions. 
Afternoon Session 1: 2013 the year of Deming

Speaker: John Carlisle

Deming completed ‘The New Economics’ and thus launched SoPK twenty years ago. We are going to give it a big push next year and want to discuss with the DA members the BIG concept.

Afternoon Session 2: A real long term application of SPC and what was important in its success

Speaker: Terry Weight

Terry will describe this practical application, leaving most of his slot for discussion followed by some time to talk about what he sees as the key issues.

Link to full agenda

June 2012 Meeting

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:03:06 +0100

Today’s Chairperson: Terry Weight

Morning Session: The learning and the benefits from actually applying elements of SoPK – illustrating the wisdom of The New Economics

Speakers: John Morgan, Ben Simpson, Alan Hodgson & Julian Simcox

John Morgan
Using root cause analysis to deploy people’s ingenuity in meeting targets to actually improve the system in a maintenance environment.

Click on the image to get the presentation:
 
Ben Simpson
Empowering people and improving the system by deploying SoPK principles in contractual environments founded on arbitrary targets in supplying engineering services. 

Alan Hodgson
Applying Dr. Deming’s teaching on understanding variation in performance to identify and learn from high performers. 
Presentation link below:

Julian Simcox
What happens when you understand variation: A large Governmental Agency uses BaseLine© to measure the processes in order to uncover what had led to reduced accidents.

Below are links to the slides used in the presentation (left) and a description of the model used to frame the talk (right):

Afternoon Session: Who need’s to change?

Speakers: Val McKie, Ray Chalton & Mika Levery

Val McKie
An inside out approach to change - part of developing a deeper understanding of why we think & behave as we do.

Presentation link below: 

Ray Charlton
A homage to curiosity: how change starts with me, and how “why?” in relation to beliefs & behaviours is a question of last resort. 

Mike Levery
Changing attitudes to break out of the aggressive/defensive cycle caused by contractual relationships: Consequently getting more for less, and a more cooperative environment.

Review of the day

The day went very well. The following learning about SoPK and its application was noted from attendees.

• How little (understanding) of SoPK and appreciation of a system is around
• Definitely don’t need to be an expert
• SoPK is often used subconsciously
• Lots of different ways to start
• Ureka can come quickly
• Purpose : First ask what am I doing
• Check (personally) for understanding
• The importance of the style of any intervention
• Good communications and good questions are very important
o Ask good questions – listen carefully – improves chances of success
• Commitment is important
o Some insights on how to get top person to do so
o Seek to understand individuals and the team
• Well placed intention is very important – holistic vs own starting views
• Explore ‘why’ with real interest

A Summary of SoPK  (A Check List in ‘new’ language to help conversations)

1. Continual improvement comes from continual learning
2. Everyday learning requires method, with structure and prioritisation
3. Sustained improvement requires long term aims
4. Good data collected & displayed over time significantly help and underpin continual learning
5. Understanding and reducing variation is the key to improvement
6. Surprise and disappointment in performance require differentiation
7. Improvement must be in terms of how work is really done; focus on the organisation’s processes
8. Work processes not organisational structure are key
9. The people who do the work are best placed to improve their work
10. Improvement must be done within a broad view of the system and its aims
11. Improvement is not driven by arbitrary targets
12. The system needs a purpose that is meaningful to all involved
13. All people must be engaged in the improvement effort
14. Pride in work for all is vital
15. Management should be through coaching
16. All must be trained to play their full role
17. Co-operation rather than competition should be the key philosophy driving relationships within organisations
18. Co-operation rather than competition should be the key philosophy driving relationships with suppliers and customers
19. Effectiveness and efficiency are linked, not alternatives
20. These changes require transformation of the whole system
21. Never be satisfied; be ambitious and realistic

Link to full agenda

April 2012 Meeting: Transforming with Integrity and You Can’t Manage What..

Mon, 2 Apr 2012 08:20:30 +0100

Morning Session: Transforming with integrity
Speakers: John Carlisle & Terry Weight

Deepen our understanding of SoPK and help us all think about how we work as change agents with ‘integrity’, as members of the Alliance. This will be a participative workshop.

Note that preparation for the morning session will help your participation and increase the value of the workshop. Please re-read Deming’s summary of A System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) in Chapter 4 of ‘The New Economics’. Please read ‘A Summary of SoPK’ at the foot of this agenda, and then think about whether and how your knowledge of SoPK affects your change and leadership work.

Some slides from the Kettering Meeting, click on the image below to download!

Afternoon Session: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. What does SoPK say?
Speakers: Malcolm Gall

Malcolm would like you to remember the time that you start your journey to Coventry so that he can collect some data on travel times, which he will use during his presentation.