What is the relationship between step two “Reality Check” and Step 10 “Assessment of Action” of Purposeful Action?
How do these steps relate to continuous quality improvement, or Kaizen?
For reference, please visit: YouTube Video on Purposeful Action
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Make Integrity a Habit
Some individuals search for ways to do the least to get by. Others look for ways to get the most for giving the least, manipulating to present the appearance of giving more that they actually contribute. They wrongfully believe this to be “optimization.” Who would you want to hire or promote, would you want to hire or promote such persons? Such individuals are inherently dishonest and untrustworthy. They are not dependable. It is foolish to be dishonest to your purpose. In fact, it is detrimental to your self-interest to be untruthful. Truthfulness and integrity are sound principles for success in any action—in your personal or your professional life. It is in your self-interest to be honest and to not try to out-smart or “fool” others. Here is a tip for you: never assume other people are stupid. Always assume others are very smart, and you will do the right thing. Then, you will be elevated in their esteem, and they will think of you as wise. If you assume people are stupid you will make some mistakes that are hard to recover from, and then you will be resented all the more. This often is interwoven with arrogance, which also is a negative core value.
Consider the fall of Richard Nixon. He was smart, and very clever, so he tried to outsmart others by lying, and eventually he had to step down from the presidency of the United States in disgrace. Bill Clinton, another American president, provides an example of dishonesty with his attempts to mislead the world regarding his conduct with a young female intern. Of course some people may say that as President why should a personal scandal matter? Clinton is a very intelligent man, and he is very competent, but look at what the scandal did to his inner moral life, to his legacy. As President, it is important to have the love and respect of the people you swore to serve. Do you think Clinton feels he has this?
The point here is to keep your life clean, by keeping your actions clean—that is, morally and ethically sound. It will make your life more efficient and productive—and most of all, fulfilling. It is easy to do, once you understand that honesty is in your best interest. You cannot divorce ethics from action, if it is to be fulfilling. So get into the habit of integrity.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Set and Pursue Goals with Purpose
Set and pursue your goals. Setting and pursuing your goals is a key component of the guidance I have been providing to our students for years—don’t just pay tuition and sign up for classes, expecting to learn and earn a degree while you spend your time playing, working odd-jobs and ignoring your academic commitments. This is like driving towards New Orleans, while wanting to get to the west coast. It is the same as signing up for a course and then not attending classes and not working on your assignments.
You must first define your purpose, commit to it, and then stick with it. If your purpose is to earn a degree in engineering, then that should be the primary focus of your life at the time. Otherwise, you are short-changing yourself. Many individuals have trouble understanding and applying this simple principle for success. Such people are unsuccessful, so they do not rise to the top.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Three Parts of Action
To give you a complete picture of purposeful action, and how it leads to continuous quality improvement, I will place before you today three aspects of all actions. These aspects form a comprehensive framework that encompasses all actions in—quality, management, leadership and entrepreneurship. The Framework for Purposeful Action applies to professional as well as personal actions.
Say, you are contemplating an action, such as producing a product, or planning a journey. You wish to travel from Atlanta to Los Angeles. What is the first thing to consider? Well, you must have a purpose for the journey. Then, you can set your goal to get to Los Angeles by a certain date and time. So, if you have a purpose and a goal, what you need next is a plan to get there. Without a plan to get to where you want to go, how will you progress towards your destination? How will you accomplish your goal? Without a plan, or with a plan that you do not follow, you will be easily distracted by the multitude of desires that drive you. External elements will distract you, and many will conflict with your journey, hindering your progress. In other words, you start traveling in one direction and when that doesn’t work out you go another way, and so on.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Create Value with Quality, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
You can spend a lot of money for a fancy Cadillac. It is a beautiful car, but if it does not provide value to the customer, the business will ultimately collapse. Value is measured in terms of features, functionality, reliability, longevity, ease of maintenance, and ease of repair. You must continue to improve and innovate to enhance these attributes in the products and services you offer. These are essential aspects of quality control or quality improvement. I do not like the word control. Control is a very static word. It implies unidirectional and unilateral standard-setting and direction. Continuous measurement and improvement of quality is the key to maximizing value. You must measure and improve. You cannot improve something that you cannot measure.
So, what is the bottom-line for continuous quality improvement? The answer lies in the history of the American electronics and software industries — Innovate and improve quality. Do what has not been done before—that is the meaning of innovation. Give people freedom to think and work on their ideas. Give more value to the customer. That is the philosophy of the successful entrepreneur. Purposeful entrepreneurship can be applied to any endeavor, including academics–you can be a purposeful and entrepreneurial teacher. What made the United States so technologically advanced was the entrepreneurial spirit. If you want to discover your propensity to be an entrepreneur, or to know your giver-taker balance, play the BrookMaster game at brookoflife.com.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
What is Purposeful Action?
To explain the framework for purposeful action, we must first define what we mean by “purposeful.” Basically, purposeful is something with a positive intent that contributes to other individuals, entities, or to society. With purposeful action we should add more value and not take away more as a result of that action. This is an ethical issue that cannot be divorced from action. Purpose implies good or ethical behavior. It is giving, not taking. The more value you give, the more you grow and succeed by producing something of value.
For example, let us compare Sony’s Play-Station with Microsoft’s X Box. Which one gets a larger share of the market? Is it the one with the lowest price? Or, is it the one with the best features, functionality, and reliability?
Let’s take another example of the impact of quality and value in this country. Consider the automobile industry. There’s a book by Halbersham, The Reckoning, that discusses the competition some years ago between Ford and Nissan—both companies manufacture cars and small trucks. The book is written as if Nissan and Ford were individuals. The author shows how and why one company declines as the other flourishes. And, what do you think the main reason was? What do you think the main difference is between General Motors and Toyota? The big difference is commitment to quality and value. Why do you think people buy Toyota cars? Is it because they cost more? Or, is it because they give more?
We will explore the answers to such questions in the context of the Framework for Purposeful Action in today’s discussion. We also will see how this framework can guide you to a more fulfilling personal and professional life.
The Quality Guru from an Iowa Farm
Some of you might have heard about William Edwards Deming—the quality control Guru from an Iowa farm. At first, no one in this country listened to him. General Motors would not give him the time of day. Did they feel that his teaching threatened their business practices and the lavish lifestyles of GM executives? They were busy golfing and socializing in their country clubs. Back in the 50’s and 60’s, some of the most lucrative jobs, for the brightest graduates, were to be found at General Motors. So, they had no use for Deming and his ideas about quality. Do you know what happened to Deming? He went to Japan.
The Japanese listened to him with an open mind, and they learned from him. Deming’s quality is a major force behind the high quality and performance standards we have come to expect from Japanese companies. In 1951, the Japanese Union of Scientists developed the Deming Award for Quality. They honored the man, because they understood the value of what he was teaching—and they applied it!
So what were we doing in the United States? Well, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors continued to build the cars they believed people wanted, and the kind of cars their MBA trained marketing and product management executives told them would maximize sales and profits. As a result, they continued to lose market share to the Japanese and European manufacturers, until one of them had to be bailed out by the U.S. taxpayer. Some 37 years after the Japanese had established the Deming Award for Quality, the U.S. Institute of Standards and Technology introduced the Baldridge Award for Performance Excellence. You might be tempted to say, “Better late than never,” but what happened to the automobile industry in the meantime? Well, you figure it out–Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world today.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Three Phases of Purposeful Action
To review what we’ve just talked about, the first of the three parts of purposeful action is to form your purpose and commit to it. This is Phase I. Quality starts here. Deming talks about commitment to quality as well. You must be committed right from the start. In an organization, commitment to quality must come right from the top. If you are acting for yourself, then it is up to you to be the driving force. So, first you must commit to your purpose. Using the metaphor of an archer on a hunt, this phase represents the selecting of the target.
In Phase II you perform the action to which you are committed. The action could be designing a software application or building an airplane, whatever you commit to doing. Each action, by every individual in the organization, must fit into the overall plan for the action. This is when the archer aims and releases the arrow.
As the action proceeds, in Phase III you assess and renew the action and distribute rewards equitably in order to reinforce the quality and results you expect. In this phase, the archer examines where the arrow has landed and distributes the rewards equitably while re-adjusting the aim for the next release of the arrow.
Most people talk about quality in terms of the four parts of: planning, doing, checking and renewing. That is a meaningful way of looking at quality improvement, but it becomes superfluous when you apply the three phases of purposeful action. With these three phases, continuous quality improvement, or Kaizen, becomes automatic. Once you set your purpose to provide the best quality possible, pursue it ethically and measure your progress continuously, assessing and renewing the action to improve it. That is Kaizen. Finally, you must reinforce success with just rewards. Rewards can be positive or negative, but they must be equitable and just. Sometimes managers have difficulty in giving negative rewards, especially to themselves.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
The Final Step – Reward and Reinforce
The final or Twelfth Step of Purposeful Action involves Rewards and Reinforcement. In effect, rewards must be used to reinforce performance that meets or exceeds goals, and thus fulfills the mission. The mission, of course represent fulfillment of the vision, so we come full circle with the twelfth step. As we discussed earlier, rewards can be positive or negative, but they must be equitable and just. We also saw and discussed cases that showed how some managers have difficulty in giving negative rewards, especially to themselves.
We also covered, earlier, several examples of unjust and inequitable reward systems that prevail in the corporate world.
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Understanding the Twelve Steps of Purposeful Action is like seeing the entire elephant, and not just the rope-like trunk or the flapping ear that resembles a fan. You have a comprehensive framework that encompasses all actions—in your personal and your professional life. You have seen how this framework can be used for continuous quality improvement. Use it completely and consistently, in all your actions—to achieve both success and fulfillment.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Phase III of Purposeful Action – Assessment and Renewal
Phase III of Purposeful Action involves assessing, renewing and rewarding the team. In the metaphor of the archer, in this phase, the archer examines where the arrow has landed and distributes the rewards equitably while re-adjusting the aim for the next release of the arrow.
Step 10 is Measurement and Assessment. In order to perform this step effectively, the goals of the action must be clear and measurable. Goals that are not measurable are meaningless.
For example, the goal to go to California is meaningless unless you know on what day and at what time you are going to arrive. Some of you are aware of the chronic delays and cancellation of airline flights. The quality of their performance is measurable because the airlines have published specific schedules for departure and arrival that can be used to measure their actual performance. In order to improve the quality of a product or service, one must constantly raise the bar that represents the quality standards you aspire to. This is also part of Step 10.
The Eleventh Step of Renewal involves readjusting and redirecting the action to improve the outcome. The story earlier about the Fatigue and Fail-Safe Training Program at the Boeing Company is an example of renewal of action to improve the quality and safety of all Boeing airplanes.
Another example of the significance of renewal is provided by the “outcome-based reimbursement system” introduced in the healthcare rehabilitation industry some years ago. Since rewards for the care providers are based on specific health milestones reached by the patient, there is continuous monitoring, assessment and renewal. At our software company, IVS, we designed a comprehensive scheduling and tracking system for rehab facilities. The system matches individual patients with therapists for specific care modalities and facilitates measurement of outcomes so that care plans can be renewed and outcomes improved.
The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.
Continuing with Phase II – Planning, Organizing, Staffing, and Guiding
Once you have set your goals and developed your strategy, you are ready for the Sixth Step – Planning. A plan is nothing but a road map to a goal that marks the accomplishment of your mission—the mission to which you committed in Step 3. Some managers and even some reputable management schools consider the setting of goals as a part of planning, while others might even draft a plan from which they derive goals. How can you make a plan before you have a goal? How can you make a plan to go to Los Angeles from Atlanta and arrive there on a specified date, if you have not already decided to get there on that date? It is the difference between being reactive or proactive. In a flowing river, or brook, it is the difference between a speed-boat and a floating straw or a log. One is navigating with the purpose, following a plan, while the other is at the mercy of the whitewaters.
You can consider the entire Twelve-Step Framework for Purposeful Action to be a framework for planning. You can plan any action, proactively, by going through these twelve steps. We have been using this framework for business planning in our graduate classes on finance and entrepreneurship for more than a decade. Today, hundreds of our graduates use this framework for business planning and decision-making in their occupations as engineering managers, leaders and entrepreneurs.
With a plan in hand, you are ready to build your Organization. This is the Seventh Step in the Framework for Purposeful Action. Using the example of the traveler to Los Angeles, organization involves determining the numbers of drivers, passengers, mechanics, and etcetera, required for the trip. In addition to the plan and strategy, you need specific domain knowledge to design the appropriate organization to implement the strategy effectively. To accomplish this step for a large project or organization, you also need to possess or have access to knowledge and skills in the areas of human resources and budgeting.
Once the organizational structure is set, you are ready for the Eighth Step of Staffing the organization and providing the needed Resources. The accomplished manager must know how to attract and recruit the right people for each task. Then, in addition to providing the staff with the necessary resources, you must explain to all team members clearly what their responsibilities are. The organization is a whole made up of different parts. If an organization is committed to quality it should have the appropriate training programs in place for all involved. Staffing and resources are covered in detail in the areas of human resources and budgeting.
The Ninth Step, of Guidance, which some people refer to as direction, involves mobilizing the organization and guiding all effort toward the company’s goals, in accordance with the plan. This step demands the highest level of domain knowledge and skill. This is when the real work of the organization begins and the traveler embarks on the journey with the entire team. In addition to your plan, you have on-board all needed provisions for accomplishing the mission, and consequently for realizing the vision.
With the Ninth Step underway, purposeful action is in full swing, and you are now navigating the whitewaters to your destination.
The archer has released the arrow. Attention will next be focused upon where the arrow lands.