#13: Particular Virtues

Introduction to Concept:

Educator Rudolph Flesch once commented, “Creative thinking may simply mean the realization that there is no particular virtue in doing things the way they have always been done.” There is, by contrast, a distinct virtue in doing things the way they have not always been done. Good examples can be found in the book by Robert Kriegel, If It Ain’t Broke, Break It: Unconventional Wisdom for a Business World.

In fact, the philosophy behind the popular Total Quality Management (TQM) movement is a philosophy that stresses continuous improvement. Continuous improvement means continuous change. If you do not possess the particular virtue of being able to break away from traditional thinking, you may be putting your job, your team, your department, and possibly even your organization in jeopardy. Quality advocates assure us that if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always have what you’ve already got. And what you’ve already got might not be enough to remain competitive in this mercurial business climate.

Examples:

The business world abounds with leaders for whom “good enough” simply was not. To cite but a few:

Jack Stack, CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing, author of The Great Game of Business, advocates letting every employee know exactly what he or she costs the company and exactly what they are adding to the company’s bottom line.

In Job Shift, author Bill Bridges talks about a “dejobbed future” and asserts that while there will always be work, there will not always be jobs as they have been defined in the past. He uses as an example the country’s largest producer of kayaks. This is a firm with only one employee, the owner, who “outsources” or turns over to other firms the various subprocesses that constitute the manufacture of these sleek canoes.

Author David Armstrong, by way of his book’s title, Managing by Storying Around, has coined a new term for managers and leaders everywhere. This “new” tool represents a simple, memorable, fun, and timeless means of informing people about business matters.

Procedure:

1. Form teams of five or six participants and ask each team to list on chart paper ten specific things (policies, procedures, philosophies, processes, paperwork, practices, meetings, etc.) that they (or their team, their department, their company) have been doing the same way for a long time.

2. Encourage brainstorming on any or all of the following [show Transparency #13-1]:

The opposite of those certain ways

An addition to those ten ways of doing things

A subtraction from those ten ways of doing things

An alteration of those ten ways of doing things

The elimination of at least one of those ten ways of doing things
(What would replace traditional meetings, for example?)

A combination of some of those ten ways of doing things

3. Call on one person in each team to share some of the workable ideas that evolve from their working session.

Extending the Activity:

1. In corporate America, employees undergo 360° evaluations—assessments of their performance are made not only by their supervisors, but also by their co-workers, their customers, their subordinates (if they have any), and often by the employees themselves. A decade ago, such an appraisal reversal would have been unheard of. To encourage break-away-from-tradition thinking and to make participants realize that they have grown comfortable with procedures that truly were unheard of years ago, compile a list of ways things have changed radically.

Begin with such things as new smoking laws, which do not permit smoking on flights or in most offices. Add to the list the fact that in many workplaces, women were not permitted to wear slacks as recently as the 1970s. Self-directed work teams, benchmarking initiatives, and most of today’s organizational policies and procedures are relatively new, to say nothing of the technology we find so indispensable.

To make the exercise more interactive, use prompts such as, “When was the first time you used a fax machine?” “What year do you remember first having a woman as a supervisor?”

2. Have available copies of books (such as those cited in this activity) that promote the idea of breakaway thinking, an integral element in critical thought. Periodically pass a book to a participant, ask him or her to skim the book to find one workable idea or one valuable quote, and continue with the lesson. Five minutes later, return to the person and ask him or her to share the idea he or she has found.

Workplace Connections:

1. Thomas Alva Edison forced himself to come up with ten new ideas each month and one invention every six months. Ask participants to form informal think tanks when they return to work. The collective goal would be to generate at least ten new ideas each month, the best of which will be shared with supervisors once every six months.

2. Suggest that employees keep a simple journal in which they log the improvements, however minor, that they have made to the work and work processes in which they are engaged. Then, a week or so before their annual performance review, they will extract the most significant of those improvements, type them up, and have them ready to share with their supervisor during the appraisal meeting.

Questions for Further Consideration:

1. What do you think is meant by Tom Peters’ claim, “If you have gone a whole week without being disobedient, you are doing your organization and yourself a disservice”?

2. How are those who defy tradition treated in your organization?

3. Historically, how have tradition-defiers been treated?

4. Would you agree with the statement that leaders are change agents? Tell why or why not.

5. What can you do to increase your co-workers’ willingness to find a better way of doing the work they do?

6. Think about your own work area. What are some improvements that are needed? Which improvement would have the best payoff?

7. What are the first steps you would need to undertake in order to create the improved reality?

8. What, if anything, may be preventing you from taking these steps?

9. How would you, your co-workers, the department, and the organization itself each benefit from this improvement?

10. How would you interpret this observation by author Roger Dawson: “If Edison had been a CEO of a conglomerate, he probably would have insisted upon the invention of the world’s best oil lantern instead of inventing the light bulb.”?

Alternatives to Tradition

• The opposite of those certain ways

• An addition to those ten ways

• A subtraction from those ten ways

• An alteration of those ten ways

• The elimination of at least one of those ten ways of doing things (What could replace traditional meetings, for example?)

• A combination of some of those ten ways of doing things