The wildly talked and written about Quality Digest article on systems thinking has touched off the debate on standardization (again).  One person commented that because there is a lack of standardization that they can’t get consistently good service.  Hmmm, well, that might be true but let’s take a look at the problem differently.

Folks who read my posts know that the one thing you want in systems thinking is to get knowledge of the “what and why” of current performance.  Which (if you think about it) makes more sense than to plan change without knowledge as is often the case.  In systems thinking you can assume nothing about performance . . . it is important to learn what the work and customer demands are and understand what system conditions drive the performance.

A customer (or manager) may assume that poor or inconsistent performance is caused by a lack of standardization, but they understand little about the system that is provisioning them the service.  But what I know is that system conditions dictate the performance.

Standardization has become a form of best practice and it fits nicely into a command and control thinker’s paradigm.  Information technology likes standardization as it is required to get requirements to be able to code.  Anything less would seem wishy-washy to management or IT folks.

However,  I find it rare that standard forms, procedures, etc. can overcome the variety of demands that customers bring to a service organization.  An inability of standardization to absorb variety leads to failure demand (demand caused by a failure to do something or do something right for a customer) and failure demand is expensive waste.  This is part of the reason standardization is not typically the best answer.

So what are these mystrious and nebulous “system conditions?”  They are different for each organization, but many can be found where assumptions rest.  These can be assumptions around  structure, measures, work design, procedures, IT, management roles, best practices, etc.  If you spend enough time in the work, you will see the system conditions driving organizational performance.

So, if you are a service organization . . . understanding that  standardization is an enemy to variety will allow you to look at your system with clarity instead of assumptions.

Leave me a comment. . . share your opinion!  Click on comments below.

Make the new decade a profitable and rewarding one, start a new path here.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about how to get started at tripp@newsystemsthinking.com.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.

Tripp Babbitt is a columist (Quality Digest and IQPC), speaker, and consultant to private and public service industry.