An American automobile company and a Japanese
auto
company decided to have a competitive boat race on the Detroit
River. Both
teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak
performance. On the
big day, they were as ready as they could
be.
The Japanese team won by a mile.
Afterwards, the American team
became discouraged by the loss and their
morale sagged. Corporate
management decided that the reason for the
crushing defeat had to be
found. A Continuous Measurable Improvement Team
of „Executives“ was
set up to investigate the problem and to
recommend appropriate
corrective action.
Their conclusion: The problem was that the
Japanese team had 8 people
rowing and 1 person steering, whereas the
American team had 1 person
rowing and 8 people steering. The American
Corporate Steering Committee
immediately hired a consulting firm to
do a study on the management
structure.
After some t
ime and billions of dollars, the consulting firm concluded
that
„too many people were steering and not enough rowing.“ To
prevent
losing to the Japanese again next year, the management structure was
changed to „4 Steering Managers, 3 Area Steering Managers, and 1 Staff
Steering Manager“ and a new performance system for the person rowing
the boat to give more incentive to work harder and become a six
sigma
performer. „We must give him empowerment and enrichment.“ That
ought to
do it.
The next year the Japanese team won by two
miles.
The American Corporation laid off the rower for poor
performance, sold
all of the paddles, cancelled all capital investments
for new
equipment, halted development of a new canoe, awarded high
performance awards to
the consulting firm, and distributed the money
saved as bonuses to the
senior executives.
