About twelve years ago, I served as part of the “core team” that identified equipment reliability as a significant source of opportunity for my employer—a large manufacturer in the construction materials industry. Our team’s broad objective was to create a proactive maintenance organization to replace the prevalent culture of reacting to breakdowns. We anticipated that the maintenance culture would take five years to change, and that it would be a difficult journey. But we were working under the assumption that culture was something that could be fundamentally changed, with enough effort. In retrospect, it is easy to see that we were wrong—and why.
Let’s first give credit where credit is due, for much was accomplished in the pursuit of reliability. There is no question that our training, capabilities, staffing, and tools were much improved. Numerous case studies showed the benefits achieved during that effort, and the improvements returned money to the bottom line. And yet, the changes occurred mostly around the periphery of the maintenance organization. At the core, we were still reacting to the crisis du jour, often pushing aside proactive work in favor of things seen as more urgent.
Why is that?
As it turns out, the cultural forces that drive our behavior are more deeply ingrained than most of us realize. Culture is pervasive and largely subconscious. In fact, at the deepest level, culture is so thoroughly ingrained that it’s nearly impossible to change. So, many efforts aimed at changing culture are wasted in the end—because we revert back to the normal way of doing things just as soon as the pressure goes away. That’s why the failure rate of quality initiatives is in the neighborhood of 80%. Cultural inertia is only overpowered by exceptionally strong leadership, and even then the effects are temporary.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that by recognizing the unchangeable nature of culture, we can begin to change the way we approach improvement so that it works with, rather than against, the prevailing culture. The million dollar question is, How do we do that? Let me describe three of the most important steps in the journey.
Fail first. For starters, recognize that our primary way of learning has always been failure. What? That’s right—we learn when we fail, and we hardly ever get it right the first time. And in order to fail, we have to jump in and try. So forget about detailed planning, in-depth data analysis, and all the rest. Let’s try it! When it doesn’t work, then we back up and try something else. And by trying, failing, and trying again, we learn and improvise until the problem is finally solved. This is the distinctly American way of doing things.
Embrace failure. Next, once we understand that failure is the pathway to learning, then we have to create an environment where failure can take place “safely.” In other words, we have to resist the tendency to look for a place to lay the blame, and instead share and “celebrate” those times when we fall flat—because that’s when learning takes place. When there’s fear in the workplace, it stifles innovation, creativity, and improvement. People will try to hide their failures, and will be unwilling to take bigger risks.
Celebrate success. When the new idea finally works, it’s time to recognize the team for their effort. Encourage them to recount the story of their struggle to solve the problem, and how they finally overcame the obstacles. Let everyone have an opportunity to feel like a part of the team, and they will be better prepared to try their own new ideas.
The American way of doing things is neither efficient nor elegant. Frankly, it’s a mess. But it’s the way we learn and grow and improve. It’s the way that we energize everyone in the workforce to help us reach for the stars. And it’s the approach that has made America the greatest nation in the world. Every person in the organization can be seen as a potential gold mine of ideas.
With this article I have only begun to scratch the surface. The question that remains is how well we can learn to apply our efforts in concert with the culture, or whether we’ll try to go against the culture in a futile attempt to change it. Taking advantage of the cultural forces that drive the way we work will require courage, creativity, and a willingness to learn from our mistakes. But then again, we wouldn’t have it any other way!
J.R. Dickens
Further Reading:
The Stuff Americans are Made of
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