Jul 5 2018
Managers Should Rethink Rational Decision-Making | Michael Ballé | McGrawHill BusinessBlog
“Managing is making decisions, right? Managing well is making rational decisions – or so we’re told. We’re so steeped in a culture of “rationality” that we’re no more aware of it than a goldfish is aware of the water in the bowl. Yet rationality is a made-up thing, a construct, invented in Germany in the XIXth (as opposed to “reason” or being reasonable, which has been around for a much longer time and is much harder to define). Rationality implies that our actions are in line with the outcomes we seek – the reasons for these actions – premised on the idea that our beliefs are in line with our reasons to believe….”
Source: McGraw-Hill Education Business Blog
Michel Baudin‘s comments: The title of the article appears to promote irrational decision making, which should be a hard sell. Michael Ballé seems to know what a goldfish is aware of, and I wonder how. According to Etymology OnLine, “rationality” actually is a 17th-century French word and, to this day, means the quality of being based on reason, not of being “aligned with a goal.” The German connection, perhaps, is Max Weber who described goal alignment as one of two subcategories of rationality in social behaviors (“Zweckrationalität”) in Economy and Society, a book published in 1922, after his death — that is, in the 20th century, not the 19th.
If you are a Lean expert, no one expects you to discuss German philosophy. If, however, you choose to go there, it helps if you start with a paragraph that withstands a 5-min fact check on Google. For an analysis of management decision making, I prefer to start with what Kaoru Ishikawa said in his book on TQC.
Jul 23 2018
What is the science in Lean? | Jeffrey Liker | The Leadership Network
“Scientific thinking can be defined as the intentional coordination of theory and evidence, whereby we encounter new information, interpret it and, if warranted, revise our understanding accordingly. In fact, we learn the most when we explicitly state what we expect and compare it to what actually happens. […] This is where practicing PDCA comes in, and Toyota’s view on being scientific.[…] Just explaining the concept of PDCA is not enough to change behavior and mindset, and there are not many master teachers like Ohno to go around — who have an intuitive feel for what to ask next to push the right buttons to help the student learn through practice. This is the reason for the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata — to have a structured approach to learning and teaching scientific thinking so it can be deliberately practiced by anyone..”
Source: The Leadership Network
Michel Baudin‘s comments: Is there science to Lean, TPS, or, more generally, manufacturing? There is definitely technology and there is management. Technology is about getting inanimate objects to do what we want them to; management, about working with people. Science is not about getting anything done but about understanding how nature works.
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By Michel Baudin • Blog clippings • 2 • Tags: Lean, PDCA, Scientific Method