Maximizing Return on Investment Using ERP Applications

SUMMARY

This chapter outlines simple examples of how things develop over time and eventually create what Chris Argyris in Overcoming Organizational Defenses calls the triple-blind failure to resolve them. In other words, we decide not to discuss the fact that we cannot discuss why discussions around these thorny issues cannot be successful.

If you read back over the several iterations of what ended up being an intransigent cultural process that prevents improvement, think about what happens at each stage of the evolution when you try to change the system. As the system of managing resources and assigning them to accounts evolves, as the account managers learn how to manage resources to achieve business targets, as growth targets get set that drive compensation programs at all levels, and, finally, as the business is segmented into parts that are evaluated and reported on separately, this is a story of the inability to see the organization from top to bottom. In the second example, as the industry grows, in its early development systems are established to address market needs; however, as it grows, diversifies, and ultimately converts from a specialty business to a commodity business, all of the changes are made within the functional culture of the organization without any view to the impact that it is having on the other functions. Beyond that, because each change in organizational structure was developed and implemented by the functional departments, they are committed to their ...