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Papering over the cracks

Written by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: If "cracked eggs don't hatch", simply papering over the cracks isn't going to change things. All too often organisations go for the quick fix - dealing with the immediate rather than the underlying causes of problems. In this article Doug Long argues for a leadership approach to getting desired results.

Papering over the cracks

In "Cracked Eggs Don't Hatch" I told of my experience in hatching ducklings. I pointed out that I made the mistake of assuming if I covered over the cracks in the eggshell everything would be fine. As my mother made clear, I was wrong! A few years ago when John Corrigan, Andrew Mowat and I started working with schools, we thought that helping teachers understand and change their behaviour would bring about greater levels of student engagement and hence improved results for students, teachers, and the schools. Theoretically we were right - the key to increasing student engagement does lie in the attitudes and behaviours of teachers. However what we found was that unless the culture of the school was totally supportive of the new attitudes and behaviours any improvement was transitory. (More information about this is available on request) This lead us to the realisation that we needed to deal with leadership issues first and foremost.

Deming, the 'father of quality' (as some have said), made the point that only about 15% of problems are caused by special causes. He also made the point that frequently these are the areas on which most attention is focused because we are "seen" to be doing something about the problem - that fact that it may be simply a cosmetic repair that will eventually break down doesn't really seem to faze us. Deming argued that the time, money and effort should be put into dealing with the systems causes because, although they will probably take longer to fix, the repairs will be long-lasting.

Effectively Deming argued that leaders deal with the systems causes of issues because they know that ultimately quality is always a cultural matter- and leaders determine culture.

There used to be a joke that stated military personnel of a particular country had a philosophy of "ready, fire, aim" - when the defence budget is astronomical and the culture is "gung ho" then it is easy to slip into a behaviour that shoots first and asks questions afterwards. I see this today in the behaviour of many "leaders" - and it shows primarily in a predilection for immediate rather than considered action. In the area of service quality this can be seen by disciplinary action against individuals rather than correcting the culture that forces them to minimise the amount of time and effort they spend with each person seeking help.

Because of the pressures under which so many people operate today it is easy to fall into the habit of "papering over cracks" rather than fixing things - all that one hopes is that the paste job will last until dealing with it is someone else's problem. Sometimes this works.

One TV program that I find both interesting and informative is called "Air Crash Investigations". Recently the story was of an airplane that crashed into the ocean killing everyone on board. When the pieces were all found and put together it was discovered that the real cause of the crash was a repair that had been effected some 30 years' previously - there had been a long scratch on the fuselage and this had been patched - but the job hadn't been done properly and the maintenance systems ever since had missed the telltale signs of inadequate repairs. The records showed that it was a systems fault - because no-one had checked on the systems many people died a terrible death.

Papering over cracks and failing to deal with systems problems in your organization might not result in the death of others. But it might result in the death of your organisation.

What is the culture like in your organisation? What systems issues need to be addressed in order to ensure all your customers/clients receive high quality help when they need it? Before singling out individuals for blame and correction, remember that when you point a finger at someone, there are more fingers pointing back at you. If its a systems or cultural issue, dealing with a special cause won't fix it.

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Article Tags: air crash investigations, cracked eggs, Deming, leadership, quality



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