Quality Without Control Charts

(Place soapbox down, hop up, start babbling like an idiot...)

You may not have noticed there was an article in the Smithsonian magazine this month that suggests Finland is better at educating students than (shock, horror) the United States.¹ Without control charts, or standardized test, or competition.Clearly something is seriously wrong.

So what are the Finns doing? I think they are

1. Focusing on long term outcomes - the Finns are focused on a very specific well defined goal. If it were written out it would look something like: Prepare our children to be contributing members of Society.
2. Investing in preparation - Finnish teachers spend more time preparing and less time teaching
3. Completing long term tasks - Finnish teachers move with a class often teaching the same students for years.
4. Letting the people doing the work design the work - Finnish teachers have guidelines not mandated curricula. This means they can tailor the class room experience to their own strengths and the needs of their children.

Can you run a business without control charts? Can it be a high performing quality business? Why don't we?

(Step off soapbox, pick up, quietly leave...)

Sources:

1. Why Are Finland's Schools Successful? LynNell Hancock, Smithsonian magazine, September 2011

Finnish Education Part 2 - Play

It hit me this week end, the Finns have another advantage in their educational system - they encourage play. In stead of expecting students to sit in class all day, they send students out side to play. Year round. In the far North. It helps the students get more out of the classes. It lets them see the sun every day.

I also realize I'm using the same techniques at home. I've been helping my son learn to play violin. We play violin games together. Notice we don't practice. Practice is a bad word for what we are doing. We aren't doing drills. We are playing games - we're throwing dice, picking cards, and drawing pictures. There is candy and rewards. We make up insane competitions that remind me of Calvinball. I always lose. Some days we do a lot. Some days we do very little. All in the service of working through a difficult complex task. Of course, I am trying to teach him that often something that takes effort is worth doing and can be fun and rewarding.

Using play to teach something or to learn something is not new. I believe there is no reason to keep it out of the workplace. Foldit is a game that helps scientist understand protein folding, by turning the problem into a game. The game players have help scientists find likely solutions faster than they could find them with out the help of the game players. There are computer simulations for everything from flight training to stock market trading. Some companies have "white space" time for software developers and engineers. Can we give white space to front line workers?

Why don't we turn some of our challenges into games and engage employees to play and solve them? Why don't we let our factory workers and call center employees take a crack at rebuilding our processes or finances by letting them play a simulation? Front line workers might just find a solution the specialists and mangers can't. What would be wrong with that?