Every once in a while I will get into what is known as a “twitter chat” on twitter. This is a group of people I have never met, discussing some aspect of life in the business world.
Having grown up in the ivory tower / cultural silo of a major orchestra, I confess I often feel like a fish out of water in these discussions. The last one, with a group of innovation consultants and coaches, was about “kaizen,” which, if you don’t know, is (I think) an element of lean manufacturing, and if that confuses you too, well, welcome to my world of endless new words and cultural concepts.
Anyway, even though I am very much the newbie in these discussions, I will be less disingenuous and tell you that I am not a stranger to Toyota “lean” management methods, as I run into them all the time in my work as a “holistic management coach.” (Among other things I talk about applying the management methods of great conductors, a truly rare experience.) Kaizen has to do with “constant improvement” (and please don’t shoot me for being imprecise here, I’m sure someone will straighten me out in the comments).*
ANYWAY, being something of a dilettante behavioral scientist, as well as cultural anhtoropologist, playwright, and former bass player, I wanted to add my own perspective, which is,
Anytime you talk about a “process,” you are, in essence, talking about a “machine.” And when you talk about creativity and innovation, well, now you are talking about, for want of a better word, a “miracle.” They are, in my experience, two separate ideas. Process can certainly support miracle making, but it is not the thing itself. Miracles come from living spiritual beings, not from machines, even abstract ones. There are numerous Star Trek Episodes that back me up on this.
This leads me to one of my major points that I try to share, which is, artistic “culture” and its somewhat odd priorities, and the priorities of “industrial culture” (and yes, it IS a culture with many embedded dogmatic presumptions) are two very separate ideas, and they shouldn’t be.
Most classical musicians have no idea of what lean manufacturing is, nor have they ever heard of Peter Drucker; and most of the people I meet in the corporate industrial systems world have never played in a major orchestra. I would really love to introduce more “artistic-ness” to the corporate world. (And God knows the art world needs a little more business savvy.)
So let me make my point here: There is no prize for playing Beethoven’s 5th any faster than anyone else. There is no “system” for creating something artistic. Granted, we do farming on an industrial scale, but none of it would work if the miracle of a seed sprouting did not happen. And no one really knows how that works. And a lot of people don’t like the food it produces no matter how cheap it is.
So, while you can make a manufacturing “process” more efficient with six sigma and lean (wow, look at me throwing these big words around), ultimately, your customer is a person, not a machine, and the biggest value they are looking for is not something that costs “less time” or “less money.” At some point, we must recognize that some of your customer’s inconsistency and emotionalism must be addressed, and that typically takes more time, and requires “agility” (another big word I learned) and … dare I say it . . imprecision . . . to accommodate that customer demand. The biggest complaint we consumers have is that we are not being treated with respect and kindness. There is no way to program a system or a machine to do that.
I confess I am reaching far into uncharted territory here. I often feel lost; but when I talk to non-musicians about how they run their organizations, I get a massive knot in my stomach, because their methods and approaches simply would not work in a major orchestra, where personal vulnerability is constantly exposed, and everyone involved is already working at the very limits of their emotional capacity. Maybe I am just being silly or old-fashioned, but I don’t think so. I realize Lean methods often consider developing and honoring the individual worker, but I am talking about something way beyond that, and it’s hard to articulate the experience for people outside my own culture.
There is a massive gap between industrial culture and what I can best call “artistic” culture which is all about perceiving (and “selling”) to the vexingly inconsistent human spirit. While systems and processes have done a lot for us, at some point, we will have to go back to incorporating more of an artistic “feel” to the proceedings if we are to keep up with market demand. Customers want more than just a cheap quick “thing.” They want to be recognized and honored. “Things” and machines cannot do that. This requires an artistic sensibility; if we lack it for ourselves, we cannot give it to others, and we will be outclassed by those that do have it. In building theories for corporate management, ok, just my opinion, but I see way too much arm’s length search for control.
Once upon a time, I had to play for dozens of young conductors who finally had their shot at the bigtime, but they got lost; they thought if they just waved the baton in just the right precise angle, that beautiful music would come out. We just ignored them. And every time a postal clerk asks me if I want to rent a PO Box, even though I have said “no” to that question the last 20 times they have asked it, I see these well-intended systems-based approaches backfiring into customer/worker resentment, and wonderment at the blindness of those who created them.
The emphasis on factory efficiency is obsolete. We must see what people want beyond the manufacturable/systematizable. That is the next emerging “market.”
©) Justin Locke
*I should mention that when someone introduced me to Toyota Lean methods, it was severe deja vu, as they were describing almost word for word my approach to learning how to play the string bass. -jl
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