10.13.2010

Kaizen: Volunteerism or Coercion?


Does kaizen require volunteerism to reach the highest level of success? Or does it require management mandated 100% participation? What if you are just starting an effort to have people in your organization formally improve their work? Do you recruit volunteers, or mandate improvement by each and every person? Does this evolve into an act of coercion, where people are not fully engaged with the act of continuous improvement - but only doing so to keep the boss off their backs? 

Below are some quotes on volunteerism and coercion...after considering these from the point of view of a leader, what do you now think of kaizen, volunteerism vs. coercion, management vs. leadership? Are there alternative approaches to managing and leading people than MBO, expectations, accountability, hoshin plans and the like?

I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.
-- Lily Tomlin

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and help them become what they are capable of being.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. 

“Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any measures.”
-- Source unknown

“People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example.”
-- Source unknown

If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak. -- William Godwin

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