Looking at Ralph sunk in his chair I say, "If we could reveal the intrinsic order of the events in the division, that would cer- tainly be of tremendous help."
"Yes," Lou says, "But how does one go about revealing the intrinsic order?"
"How can one identify an intrinsic order even when he stum- bles on it?" Bob adds.
After a while Lou says, "Probably in order to answer this question we should ask a more basic one: What provides the in- trinsic order among various facts? Looking at the elements that Mendeleev had to deal with, they all seemed different. Some were metals and some gases, some yellow and some black, no two were identical. Yes, there were some that exhibited similarities, but that's also the case for the arbitrary shapes that Alex drew on the board."
They continue to argue but I'm not listening any more. I'm stuck on Lou's question, "How does one go about revealing the intrinsic order?" He asked it as if it were a rhetorical question, as if the obvious answer is that it is impossible. But scientists do reveal the intrinsic order of things... and Jonah is a scientist.
"Suppose that it is possible," I break into the conversation, "suppose that a technique to reveal the intrinsic order does exist? Wouldn't such a technique be a powerful management tool?"
"Without a doubt," says Lou. "But what's the point in day- dreaming?"
"And what happened to you today?" I ask Julie, after I've told her the day's events in detail.
"I spent some time in the library. Do you know that Socrates didn't write anything? Socrates' dialogues actually were written by his pupil, Plato. The librarian here is a very pleasant woman, I like her a lot. Anyhow, she recommended some of the dialogues and I've started to read them."
I can't hold my surprise, "You read philosophy! What for, isn't it boring?"
She grins at me, "You were talking about the Socratic
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method as a method to persuade other people. I wouldn't touch philosophy with a ten foot pole, but to learn a method to per- suade my stubborn husband and kids-for that I'm willing to sweat."
"So you started to read philosophy," I'm still trying to digest it.
"You make it sound like a punishment," she laughs. "Alex, did you ever read the dialogues of Socrates?"
"No."
"They're not too bad. They're actually written like stories. They're quite interesting."
"How many have you read so far?" I ask,
"I'm still slaving on the first one, Protagoras."
"It'll be interesting to hear your opinion tomorrow." I say skeptically. "If it's still positive, maybe I'll read it, too."
"Yeah, when pigs fly," she says. Before I can answer, she stands up, "Let's hit the sack."
I yawn and join her. ^
We're getting started a little late since Stacey and Bob have to deal with some problematic orders. I wonder what's really hap- pening; are we drifting back into trouble? Is Stacey's warning about her Capacity Constraint Resources starting to materialize? She was concerned about any increase in sales and, for sure, sales are slowly but constantly on the rise. I dismiss these thoughts; it's just the natural friction that should be expected when your mate- rial manager moves her responsibilities to her replacement. I de- cided not to interfere; if it evolves into something serious they won't hesitate to tell me.
This is not going to be easy. We all are action-oriented and searching for basic procedures is almost against our nature, no matter how much Bob tells me that he's been transformed.
So when, at last, they all take seats I remind them about the issue on the table. If we want the same movement that we've succeeded in starting here to happen in the entire division, we have to clarify for ourselves what we actually have done-in a generic sense. Repeating the specific actions won't work. Not only are the plants very different from each other; how can one fight local efficiencies in sales, or cut batches in product design?
Stacey is the only one who has something to offer and her idea is simple. If Jonah forced us to start by asking, 'what is the goal of the company', Stacey suggests that we start by asking, 'what is our goal'-not as individuals, but as managers.
We don't like it. It's too theoretical. Bob yawns, looks bored. Lou responds to my unspoken request and volunteers to play the game.
With a smile he says, "This is trivial. If the goal of our com- pany is 'to make more money now as well as in the future,' then our job is to try and move our division to achieve that goal."
"Can you do it?" Stacey asks. "If the goal includes the word 'more', can we achieve the goal?"
"I see what you mean," Lou responds, still smiling. "No, of course we can't achieve a goal that is open-ended. What we'll have to do is to try and move the division toward that goal. And you are right, Stacey, it's not a one-shot effort, we have to con-
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stantly strive toward it. Let me rephrase my initial answer." And in his punctuating voice, emphasizing each word, he concludes, "A good job will be to start our division on a process of on-going improvement."
Turning to me, Stacey says, "You asked for an idea of how to tackle the subject? I think that we should proceed from here."
"How?" Donovan echoes the question that everybody is thinking.
"I don't know," is Stacey's answer. When she sees Bob's ex- pression she says defensively, "I didn't claim to have a break- through, just an idea."
"Thank you Stacey," I say, and turning to the rest I point to the white board that nobody has bothered to erase yet. "We must admit that it is a different angle from the one we had so far."
We are stuck. Donovan's question is certainly in place. So I try to gain some momentum by cleaning the board and writing in big letters "A process of on-going improvement."
It doesn't help much. We sit in silence for a while staring at the board.
"Comments?" I ask at last. And, as expected, it's Bob who voices everybody's feeling.
"I'm sick and tired of these big words. Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing." He stands up, goes to the board, and mim- icking a first grade teacher he intones "A process... of... on-going... improvement."
Sitting back down he adds, "Even if I wanted to forget it I can't. Hilton Smyth's memos are all spotted with this phrase. By the way Alex, these memos keep on coming, and more often than before. In the name of savings, at least saving paper, can't you do something to stop it?"
"In due time. But let's keep at it. If nothing comes out of these discussions, then the only useful thing that I will be able to do as the division manager will be to stop some memos. Come on Bob, spit out your frustrations."
It doesn't take much to encourage Bob to voice his true opin- ion. "Every plant in our company, has already launched at least four or five of those pain-in-the-neck improvement projects. If you ask me, they lead only to indigestion problems. You go down there, to the floor, and mention a new improvement project and you'll see the response. People have already developed allergies to the phrase."
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"So, what are you suggesting should be done?" I pour some more fuel on his flames.
"To do what we have done here," he roars back. "We, here, have not done any of these. We have not launched even one formal improvement project. But look at what we have achieved. No talks, no big words, but if you ask me, what we've achieved here is the real thing."