Can Toyota's Approach To Innovation Be Utilized In Government?

James Surowiecki a financial writer for the New Yorker has an interesting column regarding Toyota titled The Open Secret of Success. Surowiecki In 2004 published an interesting book titled The Wisdom of Crowds in which he argued that small groups exhibit more intelligence than isolated individuals and that collective intelligence shapes business, economies, societies and nations.

Surowiecki points out in his article that for 77 years GM has sold more cars annually than any other company in the world. Toyota for the first quarter of 2008, has sold 160,000 more cars than GM, which may very well signal the end of GM's run as the leading seller of cars.

Toyota has long been the auto industry’s most profitable and innovative firm. And this year it appears likely to become, finally, the industry’s sales leader, too.

Surowiecki points out that Toyota's innovations have primarily focused on the process used to produce vehicles rather than the product itself, on the factory floor rather than the showroom.

So how has Toyota stayed ahead of the pack?  According to Surowiecki:

"The answer has a lot to do with another distinctive element of Toyota’s approach: defining innovation as an incremental process, in which the goal is not to make huge, sudden leaps but, rather, to make things better on a daily basis. (The principle is often known by its Japanese name, kaizen—continuous improvement.) Instead of trying to throw long touchdown passes, as it were,

Toyota moves down the field by means of short and steady gains. And so it rejects the idea that innovation is the province of an elect few; instead, it’s taken to be an everyday task for which everyone is responsible. According to Matthew E. May, the author of a book about the company called “The Elegant Solution,”

Toyota implements a million new ideas a year, and most of them come from ordinary workers. (Japanese companies get a hundred times as many suggestions from their workers as U.S. companies do.) Most of these ideas are small—making parts on a shelf easier to reach, say—and not all of them work. But cumulatively, every day, Toyota knows a little more, and does things a little better, than it did the day before."

Suggestions from employees are the key ingredient in the success of Toyota. In many organizations including in government, front line employees have a wealth of knowledge and experience as to what works and what needs to be changed. The problem is that people in positions of authority such as elected officials, commissioners etc. don't take the time to stop talking and seek advice and input from front line employees. It is the front line employees who have to live with the many dumb rules of the bureaucracy imposed from above.

Jack Welch at GE implemented a process called Work Out, which forced department heads and managers to meet with and listen to employee suggestions to eliminate the needless bureaucracy that was growing throughout GE.

Locally, County Legislator Michelle Ianello has pointed out that in 2004, legislation was adopted at the county level requiring the establishment of a process to solicit and obtain ideas from county employees. Four years later steps have not been taken to institute a process for obtaining ideas from county employees.

Great managers and leaders involve, develop and empower their employees, which has a positive impact throughout an entire organization. Government employees for the most part are over managed by poor leaders and a bureaucracy that sucks the life out of people.

There is a lot that most organizations including our government officials can learn from Toyota's management approach. The Six Sigma approach being advocated by County Executive Chris Collins, has employee involvement as a key aspect. Hopefully Collins will be successful in bringing a new way of thinking to government.

You can read the Surowiecki article on Toyota here:Download the_open_secret_of_success.doc

What do you think about Toyota's approach and applying it to the management of government employees?

Comments

[Buffalo Blood Donor]

Toyota was also innovative in the use of quality systems in automotive, and to this day the quality with which their vehicles are made is to be admired. It is a goal that the American automobile manufacturers have struggled to convince the American consumer that they too have attained, given their past mistakes (witness Chrysler; still trying to get people to forget the K-car).

Personally, I have felt for a long time that the GM executives in their ivory towers have long been disassociated from their employees, the car buyer and the markets in general. Witness the fact that GM and Ford put virtually all their eggs in the SUV and big trucks market (because THAT'S where the money was) and in the process are fully two years behind the trend toward smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles. Witness the fact that as much as they complain about not being "able to sell" in Japan, they didn't, until very recently, even offer a vehicle with right-hand drive! Toyota, I suspect, not only listens to their employees, they also listen to the market and watch the trends very, very carefully.

In my company I have long argued that the very best managers are essentially secretaries, collecting and disseminating information so that employees are never in the dark. Knowledge is power, and giving employees as much working knowledge as possible empowers them. Both of these help boost the creative juices and produce dedicated colleagues and a great working environment.

BBD

[BHUSTALIMATH BASAYYA]

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