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The “Theory of Everything” ~ for Business?

Throughout the ages, philosophers, theologians and scientists have proposed the existence of a single unifying theory to explain all the fundamental interactions of nature. The greatest minds, from Aristotle and Plato to Einstein and Hawking have all considered the idea of a universal “Theory of Everything.” 

The PBS program NOVA recently broadcast a three part mini-series on the subject called, “The Elegant Universe.” It’s a surprisingly entertaining explanation of this mind-bending idea. (Watch a snippet here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULlR_pkHjUQ ) 

As a business leader you may wonder: If there’s one, fundamental theory to explain how the entire universe works, maybe there’s a corollary theorem that explains how a successful company works. 

Do you think there is a “Theory of Everything” for a business?  
 

The “Elegant” Business 

Imagine having a single, unifying theory that would explain how to manage a successful business. It would be like a magic formula that any leader can use to achieve his or her greatest success. The theory would present a consistent system that controls all the interactions that occur between people, processes and strategies. 

Best of all, being a universal theory, it would work equally well for any type or size of organization. It would work for a medical office, architecture firm, manufacturer or pizza shop.  It would also work for a small team, workgroup, department or even an entire company with thousands of employees. 

Do you think an all-encompassing “Theory of Everything” is possible?
 

Almost Everything 

During the past 70 years management theory has evolved at almost a “Moore’s Law” pace. Taken together these advances support the idea of a general theory of management. For example: 

• Most major academic institutions offer advanced degrees in general business studies, making an MBA a virtual prerequisite for any significant management position.
  
  
• Process improvement pioneers W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran created a universal set of quality-improvement methods.
  
  
• The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award promotes a general business assessment in its masterwork, “The Criteria for Performance Excellence.”  (Follow the link and download your free copy.)
  
  
• Quality improvement and standardization methods like TQM (Total Quality Method), ISO (International Standards Organization), CMMI, Balanced Scorecard, Six-Sigma, Kaizan, AI (Appreciative Inquiry) and the Toyota Quality Method are implemented by countless organizations representing a broad cross-section of industries.
  
  
• Thomas Leonard sparked the coaching phenomenon in the early 1980's by envisioning a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach for helping people and businesses.
  
  
• The idea of a universal formula for success has even been hinted at in best-selling management books like Good to Great, by Jim Collins, E-Myth, by Michael Gerber and Winning by Jack Welch, an early advocate of Six Sigma as a company-wide change agent. 

When studying the current body of management thought it’s easy to imagine a “Theory of Everything” for business. All that is missing is a practical, framework where specific management methods, like project management, strategic planning, continual improvement, knowledge management, communication and values alignment can work together to create an all-encompassing and universally-applicable, system of business. 

 
The Key to Everything is a System 

To discover the “Theory of Everything” for business you have to think like an advanced theoretical physicist. For example, physicists focus on understanding how the fundamental building blocks of matter (quantum mechanics and general relativity) interact to create a functioning system of nature. We can use this same strategy to understand how the basic building blocks of an organization interact to create a functioning system of business. 

The building blocks of an organization include: 

• Departments
• Processes
• People
• Values
• Core Competencies
• Strategies
• Projects
• Knowledge
• Communication 

These building blocks have to work together to achieve a desired result. 

For example, consider the follow series of events: 

1. A production employee has an idea to make a process more cost-efficient.
2. The employee communicates the idea to middle managers.
3. Decision makers adopt the idea and make it part of the department’s improvement strategy.
4. A project is created to implement the strategy.
5. The knowledge of the improved process becomes part of the company’s best-practices.
6. The knowledge is communicated to the relevant members of the department.
7. The organization benefits by having a more cost-efficient process. 

In the above example everything works perfectly. The employee’s idea interacts within an organizational system to produce a positive result.  However, without the benefit of a consistent organizational system the outcome becomes random. Success remains possible but is not probable.  For example, consider what could go wrong at each step: 

1. The production employee is not motivated to share his/her idea to save the company money.
2. The production employee does not have a way to communicate his/her idea.
3. Middle managers either misunderstand the idea or prevent the information from advancing.
4. The initiative fails because of a lack of a process improvement and project management methodology.
5. Best practices are not documented.
6. Employees resist the improvement because they are not adequately trained to perform the new method.
7. The company does not benefit from the cost-savings.

The above example illustrates that without an organizational framework; too much is left to chance. What’s needed is a universal, company-wide system to coordinate how the organization’s building-blocks work together to produce consistent and predictable results.
 

How Do You Harness the Power of People?

The focus of organizational improvement methodologies ~ originated by Juran and Deming and popularized by Six Sigma ~ is to reduce variation in a process. This means that the smaller the variation in a repetitive process the higher the consistency of its output. Applying this concept is relatively easy in the day-to-day operations of a business. It’s more difficult to apply to the ongoing management of a business. 

The problem is that people manage businesses, but, people are not a variable that can be easily controlled. Two people can hear the same information and understand it in different ways. People live in their own reality. People have feelings. People have different skills and capabilities. People have good days and bad days. People have their own agendas.

The question is how can you leverage variability in people? 
 

Create a Management-Language

Do you like science fiction?  

Consider the following: 

What if the mind of every employee, from your executive team to your front line workers, had built-in wireless Bluetooth technology that directly connects their brains into your company’s central management system? Communication between employees would occur at the speed of thought. All the information, knowledge and insight of every participant would be centrally processed and understood by everyone. Decisions would be made quickly with all available information considered. Strategies would be adjusted on-the-fly. Employees would be perfectly coordinated and able to contribute maximum value.  Your company would be transformed into an almost, perfect, unstoppable juggernaut like the Borg Collective from “Star Trek, the Next Generation.” 

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, if you watched the Borg link above), people do not come equipped with Bluetooth. Employees have to rely on written and verbal communication to achieve a meeting-of-the-minds. To make matters worse, every employee seems to have their own way of communicating information and managing their subordinates. This broad variation in approach creates a discouraging sense of chaos that prevents employees from achieving their personal best. In effect, the organization gets in the way of its own success.

The solution is to reduce the variation in the way employees communicate and manage by creating a company-wide management system. The system would replace the multitude of "employee ways" with one "company way."  Employees would finally be free of the distraction of their disorganized organization and become empowered to contribute their maximum creativity, insight and value. 

Imagine the benefit to an organization if all its participants would: 

• Communicate information the same way.
• Create strategies the same way.
• Implement projects the same way.
• Resolve problems the same way.
• Manage improvement the same way.
• Documents procedures the same way.
• Assesses progress the same way. 

The result would be a common team-language that every participant can use to communicate, collaborate and coordinate all the moving parts of their organization.  The organization would experience an explosion of innovation, cost-savings, mutual-understanding, efficiency and effectiveness.

The "Theory of Everything"

To create a common language you first need to integrate a set of management tools and processes including: 

• Strategic planning system
• Communication System
• Project management system
• Knowledge management system
• Quality improvement system
• Performance management

Most businesses employ one or more of the the above methods in one form or another. The problem is that they function within silos of capability: 

• They do not work together. 
• They are not used with any consistency.
• They are not accessible at every organizational level.

The "Theory of Everything" suggests that management tools and processes must seamlessly work together to form a holistic management system. Furthermore, the system must become part of the company’s organizational structure and function at every operating level: departments, roles and employees.  The end result creates an all-encompassing system of business.

The "Next Big Thing” 

• TQM
• Kaizan
• Baldrige
• Six Sigma
• ISO
• Lean
• Open-Book Management
• Toyota Quality Method

What's next?

The "Next Big Thing" is about convergence. 

The "Next Big Thing" will not replace the last big things. It will unite them. 

The "Next Big Thing" can't be about one method that's implemented by a handful of intensively trained employees. It has to be about one simple system that represents the essence of all the methods that is implemented by everyone.

Prevailing management thought points to a “Theory of Everything” for business. This trend is unstoppable. There is a consistent thread that connects process improvement methods, human resource methodology, project management, strategic planning, etc. Currently, these disciplines exist in a kind of vacuum in most organizations. However, to leverage their impact there needs to be a company-wide system that infuses a multi-disiplinary, best-practices approach throughout the organization.

www.onthesystem.com/collaborate sggests the first of its kind, ready-made framework that any type or sized organization can use to establish their consistent, company-wide management system. OnTheSystem provides a practical example of how the "Theory of Everything" can be applied by a business, department or team ~ right now.  It uses a familiar Web 2.0 Social Media interface that both encourages use and rapid company-wide deployment. (We are calling this use of social media, "Social Management.")

Managers will find that applying this consistent-system ~ or “Theory of Everything”  ~ provides the fastest route for any sized organization to achieve its maximum success: 

• Get very organized
• Reduce stress and avoid problems
• Improve the quality of your products and services
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Create a positive team-culture
• Improve productivity and efficiency
• Reduce dependence on key employees who can quit and take the know-how of running your business with them.
• Increase the opportunity of employees by freeing them from “job traps” that prevent their easy promotion.
• Reduce costs
• Increase bottom line results
• Build scalable operational systems that will prepare your company to break through to its next level of success
• Multiply the opportunity of all stakeholders (owners, employees, managers...)
• Break through to their next level of success.

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What are your thoughts?  Discuss this topic with the author: 
Michael Kramer
mkramer @ onthesystem.com
1-800-999-9231 x707

www.OnTheSystem.com/Everything