| It is 7am at the front desk of an exclusive hotel in | | | | If in doubt, next time you take your kids there try |
| the US. She is tall, wearing a name badge, | | | | to ask for a 'medium rare' for you and a 'rare' for |
| immaculately dressed, extremely polite, and, | | | | them, two kinds of fries, overcooked and normal, |
| fundamentally, very unlucky to have me in front of | | | | double-size bread for you and to swap the inclusive |
| her. I am an angry customer checking out after a | | | | soft drink for another liquid. They'll call the men in |
| three-day stay when everything that could go wrong | | | | white coats. |
| went wrong. The shower went from volcanic to | | | | Judgement is in short supply. It requires exercise of |
| polar temperatures with no warning, room service | | | | the cortex in the brain. McDonaldised management is |
| took an average of 70 minutes, the housekeeper | | | | mainly under paleoencephalic, subcortical control. |
| thought that the room was empty and stormed in | | | | Management spends an enormous amount of time |
| during my post-jetlag early bedtime, the TV screen | | | | creating, designing, redesigning and changing |
| told me I would be charged for movies that I had | | | | processes. It's all a matter of having lots of |
| not watched, one of the telephones in the room did | | | | well-defined pipes connected to each other to push |
| not work, and next door neighbours had a 24-hour | | | | things through. Managers who believe that |
| party which the thin walls broadcast to the world. | | | | management is basically a plumbing system will make |
| And the price of the room was astronomical. | | | | sure that the right things (ideas, money, time, |
| I looked in her eyes and described the litany of | | | | products, molecules, memos, checklists and |
| problems, frustrations and near-suicidal feelings. I was | | | | teleconferences) enter the system through the right |
| furious. I looked and sounded furious. She took some | | | | input pipe. Then they'll go home and back several |
| notes on a little yellow pad while nodding at my list | | | | times until at some point things start to appear at |
| of problems. She even looked sympathetic for a | | | | the end. Helas, here it comes: the project team |
| fraction of second. "Obviously, sir, I will let the | | | | minutes, the new hires, the amended SOP or the |
| manager know." OK, great! Then she hands me the | | | | decision to proceed |
| bill. | | | | (to the next set of pipes). |
| "Did you have a good stay, sir?" | | | | Henry Ford epitomised the McDonaldised manager |
| I couldn't believe it at first, but it was something in | | | | when he wondered, "why is it that each time I ask |
| her automatic pilot look that gave me the clue. The | | | | for a pair of hands, they come attached to a brain?" |
| handing out of the bill must come, I thought, in their | | | | He also produced the famous "you can have any |
| automatic pilot Customer Happiness, Care and | | | | colour of car you want as long as it's black". |
| Services Training sort of way together with a "did | | | | It would be easy to see the caricature in all this, the |
| you have a good day, sir". The fact that the | | | | surface, the tip of the iceberg in these lines, and |
| customer has just given an apocalyptic account of | | | | pretend that I am praising a lack of processes. Far |
| the hotel does not figure in the manual. | | | | from it. We need processes, and, dare I say, strong |
| "No, I didn't have a good stay, as a matter of fact, I | | | | and solid ones. But they have to come with an equal |
| have just explained to you for the last ten minutes | | | | dose of judgement, sometimes based on values and |
| that I've been on the verge of a nervous breakdown | | | | beliefs, that may force you to bypass the process. |
| and those sort of states usually are mutually | | | | We are rich in pipes and poor in new ideas to flow |
| exclusive with a good stay." "I am sorry to hear that, | | | | through them. We can create enormous, fabulous, |
| sir. Next time we will make sure that things are | | | | pristine and elegant plumbing systems that may push |
| better." "There isn't a next time, my friend." "Excuse | | | | rubbish through. Add to that process a 'time to |
| me?" | | | | market programme' and you will deliver rubbish faster. |
| "Oh, forget it." | | | | Not bad. And sad. |
| Then she looks puzzled. I have the bill in my hands | | | | Management needs to be aware of the potential |
| and haven't put it away or gone yet. I am in the | | | | danger of McDonaldisation of work itself and |
| process of exhibiting the strangest of behaviours, | | | | management practices in general. There are no |
| apparently, that is, reading it. | | | | esoteric tricks here to fix it. Ask yourself as many |
| "OK, all set," she sort of insists. "No, it's not all set," I | | | | times as you can the most important management |
| pronounce with a heavy accent on the 'all'. "May I | | | | question: "what is the question we are trying to |
| read it and see if I agree?" "Yes, sure, but it's all on | | | | answer" and its equivalent: "why are we doing this?" |
| your American Express already." "Tell me, is it | | | | "is this the only way?" "what are the alternatives?" |
| common practice here to ignore the content of bills?" | | | | Kids go through a period of personal development |
| "No sir, of course sir, you are welcome to do it... but | | | | when they ask 'why' every other second. |
| usually people here come on business." | | | | Management could do with some regression to |
| I'll spare you my comments on the incredible | | | | childhood. |
| inference that people in business are not expected to | | | | Supermarket checkout at 4.30pm. I have reached the |
| care about bills; they are all expenses after all and | | | | checkout with the same pride as a climber planting |
| usually somebody else's money. | | | | the flag on the summit. I carry about 100 items in a |
| That lady at the front desk had a very precise | | | | basket designed to hold half a dozen little packets. I |
| mental (and physical) algorithm on what to do and | | | | look overwhelmed, exhausted and am praying for a |
| what to say. It was all in the training manual, I | | | | magic trick that will automatically allocate my |
| suppose, and in some sort of Standard Operating | | | | groceries and the rest to the right plastic bags. I |
| Procedure where deviations are not allowed, | | | | have bought more things that I can carry. "Will that |
| judgement not needed. A robot from Silicon Valley | | | | be all, sir?" |
| could have done a similar or even better job. | | | | I thought of the girl at the front desk in the US hotel. |
| Management can be very similar to front desks at | | | | Somewhere in her subcortical system, the word 'bill' |
| 7am in exclusive business hotels. In some | | | | (or was it the noise of the printer) triggered the |
| organisations things must happen in a standard way | | | | 'did-you-have-a-nice-stay' thing. |
| and deviations are a sin. Many managers are trapped | | | | "No, it's not all, I just happen to be in the checkout |
| in semi-religious attitudes towards 'the process'. | | | | proximity and thought, hey, let's unload the stuff in |
| A 'process' is a pathway that usually takes you to | | | | bits and pieces; I am going to leave all this here with |
| places. The more people follow that particular path, | | | | you, I promise I'll be back. Tell the other 20 in the |
| the higher the probability of reaching that particular | | | | queue to wait." |
| destination. When the process is king, no | | | | I did not say that of course. I behaved myself. I am |
| spontaneous efforts are needed to reach the | | | | getting increasingly intolerant of automatic behaviours. |
| destination - this is why we have a process, we say. | | | | The supermarket assistant would ask the same |
| But the process runs the risk of creating an | | | | question of everybody regardless of the number of |
| automatic pilot culture where people don't question | | | | items, size of the basket, or any other variable. |
| things any more and where work has been | | | | There is something somewhere in the SOP part of |
| 'McDonaldised'. | | | | the brain that makes people in supermarket |
| McDonaldisation of work has been described as a | | | | checkouts ask that question. Invariably, 100 out of |
| way of ensuring consistency and continuity well | | | | 100 customers say, "yes, that's all" (at least in my |
| outside the fast food industry. How many times do | | | | random sample experimental conditions). |
| we use the word 'consistency' in our daily | | | | Next week, same time, same place, same assistant. |
| management? Probably as many as we use the word | | | | Before he could say a word, I said "That's all today". |
| 'objective'. When was the last time you wanted to | | | | He looked at me. "Funny you should say that! I was |
| hire a manager who was inconsistent and subjective | | | | going to ask you." |
| (yes, like your teenager daughter)? | | | | My natural inquisitive nature, or my frustrated |
| Many management practices in organisations are | | | | anthropologist within, led me to ask the question: |
| there as a given, unquestioned, as part of a | | | | "Why do you all say this all the time?" "You'd be |
| supposed 'body of good practice'. The problem with | | | | surprised, sir, some customers ask for a pack of |
| semi-obsessive process-driven organisation is that | | | | cigarettes once we've finished the transaction, that's |
| progressively it generates less and less need for | | | | why we ask if they're sure that it will be all, you |
| judgement. Total McDonaldisation equals end of | | | | see?" "But, you don't sell cigarettes here at this |
| judgement. It works for McDonalds. | | | | checkout!" "You have a point, sir, you have a point. |