Why do systems fail!

If you happen to work on a system implementation project you will understand the pains that are taken to ensure the success. Yet... Systems fail.. and surprisingly more often than you may think.

What causes this established systems to collapse and hinders new ones from taking roots?

I have been zeroing on a few reasons:

• Intergrity: The biggest reason for a system failures.
• Mismatch: Between the environment and the system. Environment is dynamic and so the system has to keep on evolving to keep abreast.
• Focus: Systems are secondary to processes. They are meant to support the processes and not vice-versa. Very often, in our zeal we forget this simple fact and start demanding the process to fall in line with the system.

New system implementation most often fail because they fail to incorporate the PEOPLE factor. People are the single most critical factor in the sucess of new systems. They have the knowledge to put the system in place, as well as the will to put it in place.

Get the PEOPLE factor right. Everything thing else are minor details of the puzzle and sooner or later fall in place.

TPS v/s Six Sigma

Lately I have developed a sort of theory of my own about the kind of enterprises. I have basically divided them into

a) Organic Organizations:
They are the "family" culture driven organizations. I put "family" businesses, brotherhoods, sororities etc. into this category. They are guided by a single or group of fatherly figures. Welfare of all in "family" is the primary consideration.

b) Democratic Organizations: They are the consensus driven organizations. An ideal example of this category is Ricardo Semler's Semco.

c) Metric Driven Organizations: I am currently working for a perfect example for such an organization :). Another one is Jack Welch's GE. In such organizations the emphasis is on finding the star performers and grooming them.

d) People Driven Organizations: I very good example is Toyota. The emphasis is in the involvement and developing a feeling of belonging.

However, the largest number of organization is a combination of these traits. However in my personal opinion, a mix of "people driven" and "metric driven" organizations is the best suited for profit driven organization who wish to play a long innings.

Metric driven "6 Sigma" approach can be used to turn a slow and old Dreadnought into a highly agile and lean Battlecruiser. At the same time "People Driven" TPS will give you a highly motivated men and women to run the enterprise efficiently.

And last but not the least... Love them! Hate them! But for Gods sake! Let’s learn to build them. I hope people are listening.

Good luck!

The Irony

It’s so ironic we are never what we picture us to be
But there are facts in our lives
We can never change
You must understand the same