Corporate Boat Race
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.
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
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,
The American Corporate Steering Committee immediately hired a consulting firm to do a study
on the Management structure.
After some time 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.
sold all of the paddles,
cancelled all capital investments for new equipment,
awarded high performance awards to the consulting firm, and