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Imprimatur:
The Imperative for
Improvement
 One business
lesson I learned long ago is that meaningful progress occurs only
when an imprimatur—an official sanctioning or approval statement—for
improvement exists. In the business world, a high-level person or
committee must give their formal permission for personnel in
the organization to proceed to make improvement. Fundamental to
every improvement initiative is the need to provide personnel
written or verbal permission to make improvements.
Many managers are surprised to learn this. They believe that
every employee has the responsibility to improve his or her job, and
that no special permission is needed. The reality is most employees,
supervisors, and managers are consumed by the routine activities of
their daily jobs—they get their work done, on time, and with a good
effect on the customers. Most employees simply do not have the time
to make improvements.
Additionally, employees who are inclined to make improvements
are faced with many barriers. First, in today's complex world (where
processes and technology are tightly intertwined) a single change to
one area generally affects several other areas. While employees may
be able to influence their own department to make a change, they
rarely can influence an outside area. Consequently, when an
unsolicited change is put forth by one unit, other affected units
will either ignore the proposed change or try to stop it because the
change has undesirable consequences.
A second barrier serves to dissuade those entrepreneurial
employees who want to make improvements. This barrier is one of
social custom. For whatever reason, people need specific and formal
permission to make improvements. If you think this is a hollow
statement, try this experiment at home. Go into one of your spouse's
favorite rooms and rearrange the things in that room under the
pretext of making an improvement. Make the change without talking to
your wife or husband or asking permission. The reaction you will
likely get from them is the same reaction many employees get when
they approach a manager with an unsolicited improvement idea: "Who
asked you to do this?" Frequently, this is the last time the
employee will offer up an unsolicited idea for consideration.
In short, people wait for permission before volunteering
their ideas for improvement. While a whole lot more is needed to
bring improvement changes into the workplace, the beginning step is
an imprimatur.
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