Not sum of the parts

As Drs. Russel Ackoff and W. Edwards Deming talked about organizational systems, Ackoff said, “The performance of the whole is never the sum of the performance of the parts taken separately, but it's the product of their interactions.”

Some managers have been so ingrained with the notion of individual performance that they are nearly incapable of perceiving what Ackoff was saying. Our feedback and appraisal processes are built upon the assumption that individual performances, added up, equals organizational performance.

The fact that there are such things as interactions and that those interactions matter is not factored into the goal setting that is fundamental to our dominant management practices. When asked if there were hope for one of his largest clients—a client that thrived upon management by objective—Dr. Deming said, “Sometimes you just have to wait for people to die.” That client eventually declared bankruptcy.

Some ideas are so ingrained in the thinking of management that they might not disappear until those who hold them pass away and a new generation who is able to see differently arises to take their place.