Episode Highlights
- Examples of Sub-Optimisation (09:09)
Sharing examples of local successes that create wider organisational problems, including customer service, sales and cost-reduction initiatives.
- The Conventional View of an Organisation vs a System (19:23)
Comparing the traditional organisational structure with Deming’s model of an organisation as an interconnected system with a shared purpose.
- How Tribal Thinking Drives Sub-Optimisation (24:52)
Explaining how teams become tribal, prioritising their local department’s aims over the organisation’s purpose of serving the customer.
- Looking Beyond Your Own Department (28:49)
Considering why teams often have deep knowledge of their own work but limited understanding of what happens upstream and downstream, making it difficult to see the wider impact of local decisions.
- How KPIs Can Accidentally Break a System (31:24)
Discussing how management systems, through local KPIs and bonus schemes, often reward local success and reinforce tribal behaviour and sub-optimisation.
- Introducing Five Habits of Systemic Improvers (37:22)
Introducing five practical habits that can help individuals and teams think more systemically and make better improvement decisions.
- Habit 1: Always Start with the Customer (38:00)
Highlighting the importance of focusing on the customer’s needs and pain points rather than departmental issues.
- Habit 2: Visualise the System (39:23)
Demonstrating why describing and visualising the entire system helps reveal interdependencies and the factors that drive performance.
- Habit 3: Ask “Who Might Be Impacted?” (40:34)
Encouraging improvers to consider who could be negatively affected by a change and build safeguards against unintended consequences.
- Habit 4: Have at Least One System-Level Measure (42:26)
Emphasising the importance of having KPIs connected to the overall system and customer, not just local departmental performance.
- Habit 5: Involve Your Suppliers and Customers (42:57)
Showing how collaboration across the wider system can lead to more effective and sustainable solutions.
