Purist vs. Strategist

Over the last several months I have found myself in the position of having to answer this question. Two conversations with consummate professionals in their fields but anthesis to today’s business environment. Let me explain. Understand in both cases we both have successfully completed professional we just seem to have a different view of the world. The purist sees the world as they see it, whereas I see the world as the world sees it

The Purist

?The Purist has been trained in a certain way and utilize that training in a set pattern or system. They were taught that for something to be called by a certain nomenclature it must follow a pre-determined process with no exceptions.

For example, one individual who was trained in the early days of the Motorola effort insisted that if you did not follow the steps he was taught, then it cannot be called a six-sigma project. In the other case the individual told me that to be called accredited it had to be through a university and include a certain number of hours even if the certification bodies say otherwise.

I have been down the road of discussions about doing things according to the book. I attended a college that lost its accreditation in part because the establishment did not like their structure. They believed in hiring professors who wanted to TEACH not see how many accolades in the form of books or research they completed. ?I have dealt with going against the grain in past employment including conflicting ideas as to what customer service meant.

These concepts were good in their day, but they do not allow for changes in the atmosphere where we work every day.

The Strategist

We lie in a world that is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity. These are conditions which do not lend themselves to strict system alignments. The Japanese through Shu Ha Ri, encourage our human capital assets to ultimately be able to make changes to the system because it makes the system better.

When we remember that we are involved in a system of experiments based on a sense of inquiry, things change as circumstances change. This means that while the purist presents the model for the continuous process improvement effort, that model is not the final word on the matter.

The strategist should be able to take the model and change it as circumstances arise. That is what we did with the DMAIC cycle. We considered the analogy of a cycle to be too limiting, so we recognized the existence of the chain as Dr. Elyahu Goldratt did and changed our focus on the continuum resulting in the TLS Continuum.

We take in account the VUCA environment which can require us to be agile in our selection of solutions. It means that we concentrate not on the problem but what caused the problem. We are not stuck in the Patterson model being the organizational fireman, but we become pro-active in seeing the problems, feeling the problems and creating a new normal to deal with the issues.

Purist vs Strategist is an important question in this world we live in. It presents some real conflicts, but it also can present a clear roadmap to process improvement. The problem occurs when instead of working as a functional cross-functional team we retreat to our silos. We attempt to resolve issues as a function and then tell everyone else it is not my job to contribute to solutions that are outside that box. We attempt to resolve issues as a function by telling everyone that it not the way we do things around here instead of being open to that sense of inquiry. The result is that we end up in a state of failure mor often than not. Then the organization responds we tried that, and it did not work.

The solutions are in plain sight. We have chosen not to look for them because they deviate from a preconceived idea of how we need to resolve them. That is not helping our organization, our human capital assets, and our customers.

Looking for the perfect model for improving your organizational processes? Order your copy of the TLS Continuum Field Guide - How the Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma will transform your operations and Program flow to be released in February of 2024

About the author:?Daniel Bloom?knows HR and Change Management. He’s a speaker on transformational HR, a strategic HR consultant and trainer. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter.

The best strategy that I ever undertook was earning my SPHR and the Six Sigma Black Belt. You can take the same path with our Road to Organizational Excellence Seminar. Starting July 15,2024, you can start the same path as we present live our Road to Operational Excellence - The Human Capital Edition for the following six weeks.

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