Six Sigma and Complexity

About a week ago, I received an email from a person in India. He is a Six Sigma Black belt, and works for a financial services firm. While I was intrigued with the application of Six Sigma methods to the delivery of financial services, this person wanted to ask me about the quality-complexity connection.

In part, this person's email read

that this subject has greater promise in enhancing the quality management in the coming future as more and more companies are now looking out at developing Innovation Capability.... 1. Quality talks about reduced variability & greater discipline whereas complexity talks about managing in uncertain and variable times through variations or so called fluctuations at the border of chaos and order (Managing Order and Chaos at the same time to give rise to newer forms of Creativity / Innovation) which is very challenging. If there is a fusion possible with respect to Six Sigma (or) Lean and Complexity theory, we would have put forth the right rules for the Future Corporations. Maybe integration of DMAIC six sigma / Lean with the Complexity Principles could make it more robust and could provide the right approach to managing quality in future corporations.

What interests me in this corespondence is the recognition that variation - differences in our perception of a process's outputs - is at the heart of both the TQM/Quality Improvement mindset, and the insights into complexity. In the complicated but fundamentally linear world of manufacturing or service delivery, we seek to define spcial causes of variation that make outputs deviate from our specification. In the non-linear complex world, we understand that we can not "bring a process into control." Neither can we predict the future response to our inputs or changes with any high degree of certainty. But we can and we shuold look for those individual agents in the system who have found some unique way to do things, and who are getting superior results. Instead of seeking process control, and eliminating causes of variation, we need to define the "positive deviants" who have successfully innovated. Then we can work on replicating their superior results.

One key challenge for us, is to develop what Dee Hock, the founder of VISA cards, calls a "chaordic" mindset. We need to see that living systems simultaneously act in processes that are both linear and predictable, and non-linear and complex. Keeping that "both. . .and. . ." concept in our minds is not easy for many people.

Cheers,

cmplxty

Re-naming the Baldrige award: Adapt or Die

Here's a post about proposed changes to the name of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. For years, business in America has lost interest in the Quality Improvement movement. The ideas of TQM pioneer W. Edwards Deming, centenarian Joe Juran, and others, have lost none of their intrinsic value. But the "quick fix" mentality, coupled with the fundamentally flawed linear/mechanistic paradigm of organizational dynamics, have greatly diminished the appeal of "the Q word" (Quality). So now there is consideration of changing the name of America's premier award for business and organizational excellence.

My thanks as always to my friend and colleague Dale Weeks, for passing this along. For many years I have felt like a "voice in the wilderness" as I have advocated a marketing move away from "the Q word." While I am more sure than ever of the value of Deming's teachings, I am also sure that most businesses are simply not interested in "that quality stuff" as a method of improvement. I think we'd agree that the value of Deming and Baldrige is great, but that the attraction of these methods has faded significantly in recent years. Changing the name of the Baldrige award is just one aspect of responding to changes in the marketplace. If Baldrige was a for-profit business, they would have had to reinvent the brand a long time ago. It is the classic "innovator's dilemma" situation. Do you want to be the last great buggy whip and quality improvement maker, or do you want to adapt to the new landscape of business that has emerged around you?

The situation parallels recent developments in New Jersey's own quality award system. The Governor's Award (formerly the New Jersey Quality Achievement Award), was never actually awarded by the Governor. The award process was managed by Quality New Jersey (www.qnj.org). Sadly, interest in QNJ and in the award have waned. The current QNJ Director, Tom Ligas, tried to drum up business and volunteer support last year. It did not work, and QNJ is about to close up shop. Section and regional leaders from the American Society for Quality graciously offered to help, and to assist in sustaining the award process.

But I spoke to Tom Ligas the other day, and his story suggested that it is time to let QNJ die peacefully. Tom told me about award winners, one after the other, who bailed out on their support for QNJ the minute they got their awards. According to Tom, NJ applicants saw the QNJ award as another stepping stone to Baldrige. Once they got the recognition they were seeking, Tom said they just walked away to tout their victory.

This is not the story of a true endless journey of continuous improvement. But it IS the story of a brand and idea that has failed to adapt to changing times. I thought briefly about trying to salvage the wreckage of QNJ, but I ultimately agreed with an ASQ section leader, who believes QNJ should cease, and perhaps in time a new entity can emerge.

My studies and work with complexity science suggest this is so. It is the natural order of things, despite the belief of those who would deny evolution. Systems are born, they live, and they either adapt to changes in their environment, or they become extinct. It is painful to watch an old friend go. The good work of many good people will fade away into the back pages of history. But it is a necessary part of the process of growth and renewal. Only by releasing the energy and resources of this failing endeavor, can we then re-direct those resources to a new initiative.
Take care all, and best wishes for a safe and enjoyable weekend.

cmplxty

Welcome

Welcome to the blog. I'm your blogologist, cmplxty. From a long career as a change agent rooted firmly in the world of Total Quality Management, I became aware of the new sciences of chaos and complexity about nine years ago. Since then I have been engaged in the study and application of metaphor and methodology from the complexity perspective. I've a broad range of interests, from organizational change and leadership, to politics; from dual-line sport kites to the ethereal delta blues of Skip James; from the sublime green chiles and blue corn of New Mexican cuisine, to the authentic teaching of Laibl Wolf.

A few words here about complex systems. For 400 years we humans, especially those in the West, have looked at the universe around us through the eyes of one admittedly great scientist. Sir Isaac Newton figured out a lot of stuff. But the one thing he missed, was that the world of complex living systems does not follow the tidy linear laws that Newton described. We humans observe complex non-linear systems in nature and society all the time. Think about the weather, or the stock market, for example. Think about your relationships at home or work.

So if we do not follow the tidy linear laws of Newton, what do we do? Complex adaptive non-linear systems exhibit several important characteristics:

- self-organizing. No one has to tell birds how to move in a flock.

- sensitive to initial conditions. Small differences get amplified over time to have big impact.

- emergence. Knowing all the parts does not help you predict observable patterns of behavior that emerge spontaneously through the local interactions of the parts.

There's more, but that's enough for now. For more information, check out the websites of folks like Ralph Stacey, Margaret Wheatley, Patricia Shaw, Bruggs and Peat, Glenda Eoyang, and more.

Welcome. We have lots to talk about.

cmplxty