ABSTRACT
Process improvement methodologies are valuable. Each has powerful tools and logic based on a linear, step-by-step approach. They are founded on the underlying paradigm that organizations and their processes operate “like well-oiled machines.” The problem is that humans—individually and collectively—don’t work that way. People and the organizations they belong to are not—cannot—and never will be machines. This chapter provides a landscape to describe how one fictitious organization acted as it implemented a process improvement initiative. The role of several players who are involved in process improvement and quality efforts—the corporate officers, the team leader, project team members, and others in the organization are also included in the description.
