Bill,
Hang in there! Don's suggestion is a good one. Show them. To steal a line "Make the invisible, visible." Management in your organization needs to step out of the "euphoria", take the blinders off, and make some good decisions. I guess it could be argued that we are wrong and they are right, I mean after all, they made profit! Three record years to boot! But what measurables are shared with management to coroborate senior management claims? The bottom line? Making statements without quantifiable measures is purely guess work. We would all like to think we make great decisions everyday. I would. Reality though, so long as you know your place in this world, is that you are probably right as often as you are wrong. So how could we collectively believe that we are so right, and in fact are? I think what leads me to believe that we are correct in our perspective is because of its objectivity and that it is constantly evolving. While statements are shared here and often delivered as "a matter of fact" is because there is underlying understanding of both sides of the story, and continued learning. Stating "We must be doing things right. Just look at the past three years!" which is based solely on the bottom line and not how you got there is a "matter of opinion" only. Don's words, "Rubbish." I agree. Opinion is always subjective.
crisis - 1 the turning point of a disease for better or worse, 2 a decisive or crucial time, stage, or event.
Both definitions are appropriate here I feel.
Marshal Thurber showed me something (perhaps he got this from Deming himself) about the word EMERGENCY. Within that word is the word EMERGE.
emerge - 2 to become visible or apparent, 3 to evolve. Again, very appropriate.
He spoke to the point of organizations emerging through emergency, specifically FORD. Only when the mighty empire was in danger of being demolished did management take action. Better for an organization, especially an organization with three record years of profit, to emerge without emergency unlike FORD. Funny thing; Ford's senior management was the stereo typical Western Management zoo. 80's purists through and through. They went to Deming, Deming did not go to them. In fact, when they sought his expertise, they sent the Number 2 or 3 man in the organization. He asked, "Are you number one?" "No." replied number 2 or 3. Deming's response, "I'll speak to number one." He sent number 2/3 back and told him to bring the message "I'll speak to number one only." FORDs CEO soon followed. Result: FORD is arguably the best Domestic automobile manufacturer (certainly in the late 80's and early 90's). Soon GM and Chrysler were knocking on Deming's door. Interesting I think.
So what about the caretakers (the one's who believe that the old rules still apply, ie Taylorists)? They are the ones who will look back at the past performance, as if that is an indicator of future performance. Rubbish, rubbish, more rubbish (I am working on not swearing)! You will need great patience, but you will need to lead them out of the darkness. Hurt feelings abound. People do not accept that they are wrong well, I don't anyway. But I am improving on that as well (remaining objective). The crisis is never over. It just changes shape. That's all.
Enough of my babble here. Time to shut up and listen (read). Back to the group...