This is a guest article by Arnie Weimerksirch. If you want to contribute an article to Baldrige.com, check out the guidelines here.

Change is difficult. In our personal lives we struggle to break bad habits, eat a healthier diet, or get more exercise. In spite of our good intentions, we often fail.

Organizations also find it difficult to change: Studies show that almost 85% of change initiatives fail. Even when faced with a crisis, many organizations are not able to make the changes necessary to survive. As W. Edwards Deming said, “Survival is not mandatory; it is purely optional.”

In 2004, on the 50^th anniversary of the Fortune 500 list, only 71 of the original 500 remained on the list. Not all of them failed, of course, but the majority did. And they failed because they were not able to change with the times.

Why is change so difficult and what is the answer? One of the main reasons transformation initiatives fail is our love of management fads. In her book, Fad Surfing in the Boardroom, Eileen Shapiro defines fad surfing as “the practice of riding the crest of the latest management panacea and then paddling out again just in time to ride the next one; always absorbing for managers and lucrative for consultants; frequently disastrous for organizations.”

New management theories are constantly developed by “gurus” and published in prestigious journals. Recent examples include the boundaryless organization, job sculpting, reengineering, and, yes, Six Sigma. Most of these new management theories turn out to be nothing more than fads.

Six Sigma is an interesting example. The theory is sound: Removing the cause of errors reduces process variability, improves quality, and reduces costs. There are numerous examples of applications yielding impressive results. Yet Fortune magazine recently reported that only a small minority of companies have actually achieved any benefits from Six Sigma.

There’s a disconnect here: These new management theories are applied in isolation as standalone management practices. To be successful they must be applied as a component of a complete management system. A system exists when all the relevant components are present and in proper relationship to each other.

The Baldrige model is the best known and most comprehensive management system that exists today. The components are the seven categories shown, with the proper relationships, in the following diagram.

The Baldrige model is reinforced by its scoring method and by the relative weights assigned to each of the categories. It serves as an introspective, diagnostic tool that produces sustained organizational excellence.

When new management theories are applied within the context of the Baldrige system, they become validated management practice and not fads. For example, Six Sigma is effective when it is seen as part of the process component of the Baldrige model. It must be put into its proper relationship with leadership, strategy, customer requirements, and the workforce to produce results. If senior leaders don’t lead the Six Sigma initiative, it will fail. If Six Sigma is not an integral part of the company’s strategy, it will fail. Those companies that have not seen results from Six Sigma failed because they saw Six Sigma as a standalone management practice, not as one component of a system.

Organizational change is difficult. It can only happen when management is seen as a system with all components present and in the proper relationship to each other.

Arnie Weimerskirch
Executive Fellow, The SAIP Institute

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