Much Too Much Work

Two reservations I often hear are that the discipline would overwhelm decision makers and, anyway, why would individuals cooperate when their tacit knowledge is their most negotiable personal asset? To answer the first concern, Capgemini points out that, on average, each “business-critical” decision currently takes managers more than two weeks to make (Capgemini, 2004). If executives complain that this is insufficient, I tactfully suggest a good time-management course. As for the other concern, it needs to be explained that the type of knowledge required has already been paid for. All the employer is asking is that the experiences within their corporate context be explained. To overcome any misunderstanding and encourage generalized acceptance of the discipline, the organization needs to make this clear at the time of employment, even include it in contracts of employment. In my experience the exercise rarely becomes an issue if handled sensitively and couched in language that professes a genuine desire to learn from individuals’ experiences (Kransdorff, 2006).

Imagine a classroom where students are taught how best to learn experientially from their future employers and a workplace where organizations provide their tried-and-tested experience in ways that allow their transient managers to make fewer poor decisions. In particular, picture the scene where the effort to improve decision making is not just focused on problems but on decision making as a whole. Then envisage management making similar incremental progress in their decision making as the modern building-block technicians of medicine and technology. Is there not a better way to cut waste, professionalize the decision-making process, and improve productivity and competitiveness?

Penultimately, let me flag up one of Corporate DNA’s quoted bits of research that would confirm another rudimentary lesson of business history and the lost value of OM: For new initiatives to have the best chance of being favorably received, always make the case in terms of hard cash. According to Capgemini, the business-critical decisions that managers make in medium-size companies number an average of 20 every year (Capgemini, 2004). Then, keeping in mind the research that at least one in four of the decisions made by British managers was wrong, reduce by varying degrees the number of poor decisions that an average 33 decision makers per organization might make at a rate that Capgemini computes is worth an average of £3.4 million (US$6.9 million) per decision (Capgemini, 2004). An independent actuarial calculation would, I contend, make the more efficient management of OM and experiential learning a cheap investment, even if the decision-making improvement was small.