On their honour, it paid. The manager of a company prescribed strict rules for absence of three days to attend a funeral and family affairs for the death of a near relative. He defined with care a near relative. An employee might even be required to produce a death certificate. Saturday and Sunday and a holiday are counted in the three days. Result: every employee took all three days at every bereavement.
Then came somehow a change of heart. Let the employee make arrangements with his supervisor for absence. Result: days off for bereavement dropped to half. (Related to me by Dr. Brian L. Joiner)
- Dr. W.E. Deming. The New Economics
IN a Deming Institute podcast a few years ago, Doug Hall, the founder of Eureka! Ranch explained his theory for transformation of management using a Deming perspective as the contrasting of systems that enable versus systems that control, explaining that leadership by and large understand they have broken systems and want to fix them, but don’t know where to begin because it feels overwhelming. Doug’s suggested antidote, which he leaves as something we all need to consider, is how to make “easy on-ramps” to expedite the process of transformation.
A common theme in Dr. Deming’s theory and philosophy on management is the restoration of joy in work by restoring the autonomy and purpose for everyone in the organization over their career. This cannot be attained if we feel we need to micromanage every interaction out of a sense of mistrust.
Reflection Questions
Examine your organization’s HR policies through the lens of Dr. Deming’s theory of management and Doug Hall’s theory of “systems that enable versus systems that control”: How prescriptive are the policies? How are the policies used or abused? Why? What changes could be made by management to improve them? What consequence do you predict? How could you employ Dr. Deming’s management philosophy to create an “easy on-ramp” for leadership to begin their transformation?