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09/04/2004: "Preview to startup failure mode"

In a failing startup, people, good and bad, eventually start running for the door. Some end up with an axe in the back due to political termination or its close cousin, the 'layoff', and some voluntarily seek higher ground for reasons of personal economic safety. Nobody enjoys being the stalwart turkey who's job it is to turn out the lights for the last time. This flight to safety leaves fewer and fewer people, mostly managers, to cover the fenceline. Out come the "Quality Initiatives" which are more about managerial platitudes and positioning than any improvement to the situation.

Using two colored markers on a white board, and admittedly somewhat intoxicated by the fumes, I recently added to the lore of the largely submerged quality improvement movement by streamlining the Plan/Do/Check/Act cycle. Conventionally, PDCA is diagrammed like a wheel, revolving and implicitly moving forward, raising the standard of quality as improvements are incorporated in a dynamic process...


By eliminating the resource intensive "plan" and "check" phases we increase efficiency and actually create a system that generates energy. A dynamic resonance is created, a vibrationback and forth at increasing frequency between the DO and ACT quadrants on the model. Rather than rolling forward in the standard boring ISO 9001 approach, this new approach creates kinetic energy within a stationary model, ultimately resulting in a highly charged process that transcends purpose. Human effort is no longer tied to the Sisyphus-ian rolling of the process up the hill of quality improvement. Tremendous production savings result. Ultimately these static processes fairly glow with their own pent up forces, waiting for cathartic release. Here is where the marketing team enters the picture, but I leave that to your imagination.

Yeah, baby. link