http:\/\/www.valuesystemdesign.com<\/a><\/p>\nHow might some people be offended by performance charting?<\/p>\n
The idea behind BaseLine\u00a9 is that most every organisation is these days awash with time-series data, usually held in spreadsheet form, yet very little of it is used to diagnose systemic change. Even people who are held accountable for performance are often unaware of the gold that lies beneath their feet \u2013 or if they are aware, are for some reason reluctant to make use of it. Because BaseLine\u00a9 is so accessible \u2013 there really is no longer any reason to avoid using SPC, but wait ..<\/p>\n
.. observing those who are taking the plunge it\u2019s becoming clearer to me where this reluctance might be coming from. Whilst some of it is due undoubtedly to low organisational expectation, I\u2019m detecting that some of it is also due to low self-perception of capability, and some might even be because BaseLine\u00a9 somehow confronts the personal value-set of particular managers. Let me refer to these value sets and capabilities as \u201cmemes\u201d(1) and allow myself the luxury of speculatively labelling each one \u2013 so that I can treat each as a hypothesis that might later be tested \u2013 to see if the accumulating evidence either supports or refutes it. So here goes ..<\/p>\n
1. The \u201cAccountability-avoidance\u201d meme \u2013 Those comfortable and skilled enough to hold a senior position may still however be inhabited by this meme, which can actually apply at any level in an organisational hierarchy. To most people it is an essential underpinning of their self-esteem to be able to feel that they\u2019ve personally made a contribution whilst at work. It\u2019s safer therefore (at least unconsciously) to be able to avoid roles for which any direct or personal performance measurement is attached \u2013 and there are plenty of such roles.
\n2. The \u201canti-Management\u201d meme \u2013 According to this meme there\u2019s something dehumanising about asking anyone to manage a process that delivers an outcome to someone who might appreciate it. Those who embody this value-set may also think that Management sounds altogether too boring when compared to Leadership since not much good happens unless people can feel good about it, and people have to be led to achieve anything meaningful and lasting. If there\u2019s any management to be done it should be done by the followers.
\n3. The \u201canti-Control freak\u201d meme \u2013 People holding this meme tend to dislike the whole idea of control, unless it\u2019s the empowering of others to be in control \u2013 and even this may be considered too dangerous since the power to control anything can so easily be abused.
\n4. The \u201canti-Determinism\u201d meme \u2013 Inside this meme Albert Einstein is considered as having completely supplanted the Newtonian \u201cpredict and control paradigm\u201d as opposed to having merely built upon it. Life is viewed as inherently uncertain, and there\u2019s a preference for believing that little can be reliably predicted, so it\u2019s best to adopt an \u201cact first\/ ask questions later\u201d approach. Deepak Chopra fans for example will know that \u201cthe past is history, and the future a mystery\u201d and that therefore almost any form of planning is repellent \u2013 instead, emergence is the thing most highly valued.
\n5. The \u201cNumerophobia\u201d meme \u2013 so widespread is the tendency to avoid numbers, it may be easier to think of this as a syndrome rather than a meme \u2013 indeed, in the extreme it is a medical condition called \u201cdyscalculia.\u201d Whilst few people readily admit to being illiterate, there are many who are relatively happy to announce that they \u201cdon\u2019t do numbers\u201d \u2013 and some have even learned that it pays to be proud of it. In one recent UK study 11% were designated illiterate, but 40% innumerate.
\n6. The \u201ciNtuitives rule\u201d meme \u2013 People who are inhabited by this meme are those who may well feel comfortable weaving (even spinning) their story without the benefit of data that\u2019s been fully \u201csensed\u201d. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator \u2013 scores around 25% of people as N (iNtuitive), the remaining 75% being Sensors \u2013 who prefer to look for and absorb data via their 5 senses, data that to them feels tangibly \u201creal.\u201d On average around 12% people score as having N\/T (intuitive thinking) preferences \u2013 yet exec teams & boards often score at more than 50%. Is this because they have had to become comfortable feeling disconnected from the customer interface, or because they were always that way inclined and therefore gravitated towards the apex of the hierarchy?
\n7. The \u201canti-Science\u201d meme \u2013 According to this meme even the fact that I\u2019m labelling these value-sets\/ memes at all, will be seen as being antithetical \u2013 regardless of whether it might in some way prove to be a useful scientific device for advancing knowledge. People in organisations may behave in a way that\u2019s anti-science in that tasks and projects are typically carried out in a Plan-Do-Review sequence \u2013 unaware that Plan-Do-Study-Act represents the scientific method in action, and is an entirely different paradigm.
\n8. the \u201cprotect my group or profession\u201d meme \u2013 According to this meme, people are confident that they know what they know \u2013 and have spent several years of their life being trained to acquire that knowledge. They less aware of the extent to which this has formed their mental maps and how these in turn direct their opinions. When in doubt, reference is made to the writings and utterances of their personal or professional gurus \u2013 and quoted verbatim, frequently out of context. When a new tool arrives, the default position is: if I don\u2019t recognise it, it should be rejected \u2013 until one of the gurus authenticates it.<\/p>\n
Wow, when I started the list I didn\u2019t think there would be as many as eight.<\/p>\n
Individuals and organizations that are already, or can become, comfortable with applying the scientific method in their organisations \u2013 and personally \u2013 as a system, will see the profundity in a tool like BaseLine\u00a9. Others will miss it altogether, and one or more of the memes listed above could be preventing them seeing it. I\u2019ll continue to collect more data, both sensed and intuited, and report on my findings in a future blog.<\/p>\n
One source of test data will of course be the comments I solicit from readers of this blog, so having read these labels and descriptions, do you notice any reactive feelings? If so, can you accurately describe what you feel most confronted by? I\u2019d be delighted to hear from you.<\/p>\n
(1) Richard Dawkins coined (or adapted) the word “meme” in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a value set, or a postulated unit of cultural ideas, symbols or practices \u2013 which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. It\u2019s sometimes used synonymously with the phrase \u201cworld view.\u201d Clare Graves then made the Value meme (vMeme) a core concept in his Spiral Dynamics model \u2013 see Beck D.E & Cowan C.C. : \u201cSpiral Dynamics \u2013 Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change\u201d – 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some fabulous new SPC software, called BaseLine\u00a9 is now available \u2013 it\u2019s designed for organizations and individuals who see the advantages in having people use a standard performance charting tool that\u2019s statistically robust yet straight forward to use even for the uninitiated. As well as being highly accessible, at under \u00a350 it is easily the … <\/p>\n
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