Operation Improvement Inc.

September 17, 2025

“If you attend my class,” the professor said, “you should be able to pass the test.” The law students perked up immediately.

“What do you mean by attendance?” they asked. “If I arrive late and leave early, is that okay? What about sick days? Can I tape the class? Does community service count?”

It amazes me how much effort people pour into seeking loopholes for compliance. Instead of simply accepting that attendance means showing up and engaging, the legalistic mind hunts for ways to collect and cash in behaviors, credits, certifications, and even frequent-flier miles—anything to earn that compliance checkmark.

“I met the attendance requirements. I did what you said. Why didn’t I pass?” they’ll ask.

The honest answer? When it came to attendance, they were desperately searching for ways to skip it altogether while still claiming credit.

Box-Ticking Management

This mindset truly alarms me in the workplace. In top schools, students pass by mastering the material—not through mere compliance, but through proven performance. Attendance and grades reflect real achievement.

Graduates of what I call the “Let’s not and say we did” school of management appear at every business level, becoming the biggest barrier to true operational improvement.

Box-ticking managers will declare a meeting “held” even if no one attends. They’ll deem operators “trained” simply because the company bought an instructional video.

They mark project tasks complete not based on actual work, but because the deadline has passed. For these managers, a Quality Initiative boils down to certifications, awards, or any other compliance badge.

Root Cause

Ideally, a business’s decision-support function delivers a complete, clear snapshot of its current state. Yet, most internal reporting and analysis falls far short.

Instead, metrics often get twisted into justifying managerial pay. We aim to reward salaries, bonuses, and promotions for performance, but compliance ends up stealing the spotlight.

If bonuses hinge on ticking off three quality improvements and two cost-savings initiatives, a box-ticking manager naturally wonders, “How can I qualify?”

Misguided metrics and incentives can divert management attention from performance to compliance. Once the precedent has been set, it is very difficult to turn metrics from the comfort zone of compliance back to their proper role of monitoring process health and product performance.

The “ask-the-user” approach often taken by programmers results in automated metric reports that reinforce this negative business culture.

Solution

To cultivate a performance-driven culture, begin by redefining excellent operational performance.

For tactical managers, it means running facilities correctly and consistently. For strategic leaders and engineers, it’s about optimizing capacities, capabilities, and costs.

Metrics must mirror the business’s real-time state and guide improvement. Great metrics are designed around Better Decisions, Better Products, and Lower Costs, not bonus plans!