Enterprise Methods: Stop Tampering with the System of People
W. E. Deming was clear in his 14-Points that he was adamantly opposed to the use of performance appraisal systems and the use of deferential rewards and punishments given on the basis of goals and targets . But the use of these techniques remains ubiquitous in our business practices despite evidence of the fallacy of these methods that has recently come to public attention in the form of the globally disastrous outcomes produced by bonus systems in the the financial industry. Even Obama has stepped into this trap with his advocacy of pay for performance teacher appraisals.
Why does this approach persist in the face of the evidence that it produces disastrous outcomes and what is the alternative?
Motivation
I think the evidence against the use of performance appraisal and differential motivators is simply invisible to those who are hopelessly mired in the assumptions promulgated by a theory of organizational and individual psychology. Try as people may, they cannot shake the common sense “logic” that the self-interested will of every individual participating in an organizational enterprise must be bent to the will of the organization by the administration of rewards and punishments, and that it is the principal job of management to do this bending, person by person, appraisal by appraisal.
The assumption behind this view is that we can understand what motivates individuals and act on the basis of that understanding to reliably produce predictable behavioral outcomes among individuals. If you think about this, it is exactly the same logic that an operator uses in controlling a piece of machinery.
In other words, “If” I understand the machine, read the dials, and push the right buttons, it will do pretty much what I want it to do.
The problem is that when we read the dials and push the buttons of human individuals, the behavioral results we get from those individuals are not reliably predictable. This is true because the very idea of motivation is problematic. We can only infer motivation that is in the mind of individuals.
To make this point even more powerfully, each of us as individuals cannot really explain our own motivations. Consider your motivation for any action you take! If you examine it carefully, you will find that your ideas about WHY you do what you do is a complex web of reasons. The reasons for your action are never pure and singular, nor are they constant. If you can’t figure out your “real” motivation, how could a psychologist, much less a manager, hope to do so?
The result of this problem is that managers and others who seek to bend the behavior of individuals to the organization’s and their purposes, commit the error of tampering. They read the dials and push the buttons and drive the system of people, on the whole, into greater and greater instability. As Deming said, “It’s off to the Milky Way!”
So what is the alternative to the black art of motivational psychology? Deming answered this question for us. It is METHODS!
The job of management is to put everyone to work to shape and continuously improve the methods by which an enterprise produces value in service and product. By putting everyone to work on methods, which are clearly observable, the efficacy of those methods can be assessed and improved forever.
In other words, The motivation of individuals is unfathomable and completely irrelevant! There is no means nor any of need for seeing inside the minds of others! The processes (methods) we employ to create value can be relied upon to DO WHAT THEY DO! There is only the need to set forth methods (PLAN), use the methods and remove obstacles to their use (DO), and study (STUDY) and improve (ACT) those methods, continuously.
So the alternative to the psychological black arts is to stop tampering with people! Start working on your system of enterprise that is made up of work processes (methods). Give everyone the job of systematically improving methods constantly so that all can experience joy and pride in workmanship.
Deming made this point in ways to numerous to list. One comes to my mind immediately.
“If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what your doing.“
