Thinking Envy
New articles on standardization are popping up everywhere.  Most suffer from what I call “Thinking Envy” – a phrase to describe the bewildered that don’t understand why standardization can do such damage. So, with apologies to some of my “Down Under” friends that seem mystified by the concept, let me continue.

The issue with standardization is that it cannot absorb the variety offered by customers in the service industry.  (Qualifier: Manufacturing is not my domain, so the Lean manufacturing folks won’t go crazy on me . . . I am talking about service)  People running around looking for ways to standardize work fail to understand customer demand in service.  Unlike manufacturing the variety in service is greater.

When variety cannot be absorbed, the customer experiences failure demand (demand caused by a failure to do something or do something right for a customer).  In my post, Disney: Another Disturbing IVR Experience I describe my inability to decipher the standardized IVR menu.  My having to call back adds to the time and frustration of dealing with Disney (failure demand).

It doesn’t end with Disney . . . scripts are written in call centers, software is developed with best practice, 5S and standard work are applied to service . . . and I can’t even replace fries with celery.  Service worsens and costs increases . . . the loss is unknown and unknowable , but technology companies claim self-service and other “savings” from the application. 

The funny thing about self-service is that the same companies then claim the need for CRM because they just don’t know their customers anymore . . . oh boy!  Must be nice to be a technology company, they can sell both ends of the spectrum and usually do. 

The use of procedures and standards are to control behavior of the front-line.  They add costs as inspection and monitoring accompany the standardization effort.  We wind up doing work to the “right” standards, but this is not the same as doing the right thing.  The result is more resources and less thinking.

Add standardization with targets and we wind up with total dysfunction.  Yet, this is the way of the world . . . but it doesn’t have to be . . . you have a choice.

So those that suffer from “thinking envy” you can be cured.  If we understand customer purpose and design against demand we are well on our way to reducing costs, improving service and managing better.  This is a good systems thinking approach done with the worker and the work and I might add a better leadership strategy as an improved culture is the result.

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

Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public).  His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work.  Download free from www.newsystemsthinking.com “Understanding Your Organization as a System” and gain knowledge of systems thinking or contact us about our intervention services at info@newsystemsthinking.com.  Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbitt or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.