Use information that helps us to direct research and evaluate the changes that have led fourth generation managers to understand that performance is determined, to a large extent, by the system in which employees work: its policies, process, procedures, training, equipment, instructions, materials.
These factors have a profound impact on how effectively employees can carry out their tasks.
The ability, ability and motivation of the individual are important, but the role they play is less than was once attributed to them.
Thus, when problems arise, it is better to focus first on other elements of the system: hence the well-known phrase: blame the process, not the person. We have to ask ourselves the following question: How did the process allow this to happen?
However, the assumption that almost all problems come from the system or the process, and not from the worker, is not new.
Dr. Joseph M. Juran found that only an average of 20% of problems in production were controllable by the employee. For him the expression “controllable by the employee” means that the workers:
• They had the means to know what to do,
• They had the means to know what they were doing,
• They had the means to close the cycle between what they did and what they had to do.
Doctor Juran found that the most important part of the problems was, in this sense, beyond the control of the worker. Therefore, if our employees always performed their jobs in the best possible way, no more than a fifth of our problems would disappear.
In other words, the highest percentage of difficulties lies in processes, methods, systems, policies, equipment, materials, facts that only managers can change.
According to Dr. Deming's experience, the relationship may be even greater: perhaps 96% of problems can only be solved by managers, which leaves less than 4% in the hands of employees.
Does it mean that managers should be held accountable for 80-96% of problems? No: accepting it would be tantamount to falling into the same trap again. We must try at all costs to overcome the natural instinct to blame the person closest to us.
Both executives and mid-level managers should examine themselves to find out what forces them to act in a certain way: practices that influence decisions, their methods ... and then work together to change between 80 and 96% of the problems.
In this sense, it is important to note that many organizational problems stem from the same root causes.
Therefore, the more deeply we carry out our search, we will be able to solve or prevent more problems and we will also improve more quickly.
In practice, it is convenient to think about the existence of three levels:
• Level 1: correct the final product. Correct without delay the problems that appear in the final product or that occur during the provision of a service.
• Level 2: correct the process. Modify the process that allowed the problem to arise; devise means to prevent recurrence.
• Level 3: correct the system. Change the system that allowed the faulty process (the one that gave rise to the faulty product or service) to operate with these faults.
How to Use Leverage Points
When we seek deeper levels of correction, we are actually leveraging our efforts, trying to solve many problems by attacking a deeply rooted cause.
The same happens in other respects. Any system, no matter how large or small, consists of steps, elements or components that, when perfected, significantly improve the overall operation of the system. These leverage points are lower but their effect is very large.