ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to peel back the onion and expose the leadership-related root causes of continuous improvement failure. The purpose is not to point blame at our executive friends, discredit the thousands of people giving it their all with continuous improvement, or self-promote Lean Six Sigma or some new improvement program as the magic bullet of success. An important fact to keep in mind is that the recent meltdown and slow recovery, globalization, technology, and many other forces continue to present disruptions and insurmountable challenges to executives. This is not new, but when it happens, it changes the rules of perceived success with executive choices, decisions, and actions that run counterintuitive with continuous improvement. Today, the single largest executive challenge is constancy in leadership aptitude: exercising the right consistent behaviors, decisions, and actions among the many options available-on hundreds of daily tasks. It is funny how Deming said the same thing decades ago. Wavering leadership produces a serious multiplier effect because just a single executive working on a single task may impose abundant complexities, inef¥ciencies, or repercussions on the organization.
