This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: Barriers to Self-Organized Problem Solving Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

Jeffrey Phillips has identified three reasons why self-organized problem solving doesn't happen at work. Quote:

Why is it when we notice a problem, especially a hole in a process or an inefficent process, that we don't get a group together to immediately solve the problem? I guess there are three relevant reasons: 1) ownership 2) importance 3) politics.

Ownership... someone else appears to own the problem, and if you attempt to take it on you may be working outside your area of focus... Even if no one owns the problem, it is very likely that you'll receive negative feedback for working on a problem rather than encouragement, since working on the problem is probably not "your job"....

Importance... Often, everyone recognizes a problem exists yet it is small enough or happens so infrequently that it seems that the problem is not important and not worth solving. Everyone assumes someone else will solve it, or the team that "owns" the problem does not recognize how important that problem is to another function or work team....

Politics... a manager in a different group may feel angry that you've identified what you think is a problem in his area....

This is why Agile and Lean methods have the workers "owning" the process they use - so they can improve it at will. I believe Lean (as practiced by Toyota) also has the emphasis on improving any and every part of the process, no matter how "unimportant" it might be.

Patrick Lencioni's Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and his subsequent Field Guide identifies how to "cure" the political problems by Building Trust, Mastering Conflict, Achieving Commitment, Embracing Accountability, and Focusing on Results. This is easier said than done, though I've seen some of this team-building stuff really work in Jerry Weinberg's workshops.