The Frontline Change Trap
When methods overshadow results
“If your only tool is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
—Abraham Kaplan, professor of philosophy at UCLA1
Chapter at a glance: When rigid methods overshadow frontline wisdom, change efforts falter regardless of leadership commitment or proven tools. This chapter examines how Six Sigma’s transformation from powerful improvement method to inflexible doctrine reveals the dangers of valuing process over people. Learn how to balance proven tools with employee experience to accelerate results and sustain innovation, preparing for the planning framework introduced in Chapter Three.
IT’S A SCENE that plays out daily in organizations worldwide: A team of frontline workers sits silently as their project leader clicks through another detailed PowerPoint presentation. The problem—frequent delays in a critical pharmaceutical production line—seems straightforward to the operators who run it. They know exactly why the delays occur and have ideas for fixing them.
But instead of acting on this knowledge, they’re about to spend the next six months collecting data, creating charts, and following a rigid methodology that will ultimately confirm what they already know.
It’s a persistent paradox in organizational change: Leaders want employee involvement but often create or adopt systems that stifle the very wisdom they seek to harness. While Chapter One showed how trusting frontline wisdom turns employees into drivers of change, this chapter examines what happens when well-intentioned methods extinguish employee ideas, initiative, and enthusiasm—making frontline employees hostages of change or worse, its terrorists.
Read more about the rise and fall of Six Sigma and what leaders can learn to avoid letting methods overshadow results.
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