Firing Employees Won't Fix a Broken System

Far too often, employees are blamed or even fired for behaviors that are being encouraged by the organization's processes. Firing employees will not fix the poor processes within the system. The following is a direct quote from the book Strategic Excellence in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries.

Fix the Process

Focusing on process means that when a problem occurs, leaders of the organization seek to solve the problem by improving the system that has harbored it. Too often, organizations work to solve problems by targeting an individual or a few individuals in order to place blame for the problem. If the problem is only solved with the individual, then the problem is only temporarily solved and will eventually recur. Problems must be resolved by improving the processes to prevent them from happening again.

To illustrate this principle, consider an engineering firm that is experiencing regular complaints from contractors about the poor quality of the drawings being produced. The engineering firm realizes that many of the complaints are resulting from drawings produced by one of the staff engineers. To solve the problem, the staff engineer is dismissed. However, the complaints continue. When the organization analyzes the current processes, it is discovered that the staff engineers are given generous bonuses based on how quickly they complete projects. As a result, the staff engineers are completing drawings as fast as possible with little concern for quality. It can be noted that the cause of the problem is in the process, not the individual. The current processes do nothing to encourage quality drawings because staff engineers will get larger bonuses if they ignore quality and focus entirely on production speed. Even if all the staff engineers are replaced with new hires, the problem will persist because the processes have not been corrected.

Focusing on processes will result in true solutions to problems. It will reduce finger pointing and promote a collaborative approach to problem-solving. It will create an organization that relies less on a few high-performing “rock stars” and instead, is successful because of a high-performing system.

Conclusion

The organization's processes should be designed to drive performance and encourage ideal behaviors. If high performance and ideal behaviors are not occurring, look to change the system that is failing to achieve desired results. Rowing faster won't save a sinking ship. Fix the failures in the system first.

"A bad system will beat a good person every time." ~ W. Edwards Deming

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To learn more about this and other important topics please see the book Strategic Excellence in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries: How AEC Firms Can Develop and Execute Strategy Using Lean Six Sigma written by Gerhard Plenert and Joshua Plenert (ISBN-13: 978-1138478855).

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