There have been a couple of good pieces of work that have caught our eye lately that cast doubt on this oft proclaimed core organisational value. Yes indeed, “Our people are our greatest asset?” With a public stance like that who could fail to be attracted to their worthy products? But maybe all is not what it seems, and the shadow of doubt is starting to be cast on some of our more revered management darlings. Is it another myth of modern management? Or even just a shameless piece of spin?

Yesterday we posted a piece on the Learning Organisation, inspired by the research of Dr Kevin Morrell. Within that same piece, Kevin also draws attention to a contradiction. In his piece he makes reference to a quote by BPR brain box Michael Hammer:
“The biggest lie told by most organisations is that people are our most important asset. Total fabrication: they treat people like raw material. If we’re serious about treating people as an asset, we’re looking at a dramatic increase in investment in them”

Pretty strong stuff, but the point may be worth thinking about. What Michael Hammer is actually saying is that if the statement were true (that people are the most important asset) there would be vapor trails around the organisation that would bear that out, investment in that asset being only one of them. So he is saying that we only need to scratch beneath the surface to uncover the lie (or the truth, whichever way you want to look at it)

That leads us on to our second, and most worrying discovery, an accusation leveled at none other than “Lean Champions” Toyota. Check out yesterday’s article from Evolving Excellence.  Seems like all may not be what we are led to believe, with Toyota being forced to defend accusations of running workers into the ground, literally. That begs the obvious question that if this can be true of Toyota, what hope for the rest?

We can’t be sure what to think. Maybe people aren’t that great an asset to most companies. Maybe they are more akin to a raw material, expendable, replaceable. We have to consider that possibility. Maybe it depends on how much the organisation depends on talent as opposed to labour, as talent is generally a bit harder to replace. How likely is it that the Toyota production line is talent dependent? Compared to ourselves maybe their people are easier to replace? Maybe

One thing that Capable Blog would like to see in amongst all of this is a bit of honesty. That is, if people aren’t the great asset, let’s stop the patronisation process, pretending that people are and treating them all like mugs into the bargain. It’s wrong and it’s all starting to sound a bit tired and hollow

Maybe there’s a challenge to all you capable QMS auditors out there to take up the standard. Taking Michael Hammer’s point, whenever you see statements such as those we’ve been talking about here, demand to see the evidence

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 8:58 am and is filed under Leadership & Management, Quality Improvement.
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