What You Can Learn About Improving Implementation?
(from 1940s Housewives in Iowa)
Every leader should know the seminal research on changing organization behavior known as the “Iowa Housewives Study.” It’s been referenced by every generation of management theorists since.
Simply stated: people come up with better solutions and are more likely to implement them when they are involved in the problem-solving.
Why Iowa Housewives? The study comes from 1942 in the middle of WW II and food rationing. The famed anthropologist Margaret Mead and Kurt Lewin (ultimately a professor at MIT) were asked to study how to get families more willing to eat “non scarce” meats (aka organ meat such as heart, tongue and kidney).
Experiment Design
Group 1 was subjected to an “expert”/top-down approach – where experts presented recommendations and directed the women on what to do.
Group 2 had a “facilitated” approach – where the participants were provided information and resources and asked to come up with ways to increase consumption.
No surprise, Group 2 with the facilitated approach came up with better ideas and were more enthusiastic about trying organ meats with their families.
The lessons from Iowa are rediscovered and applied in many contexts today, as leaders look to empower the frontline, commission breakthrough teams, and speed creativity and execution throughout the organization.
Evaluate if this approach is right for your situation
This approach is not always the best one. The choice between a facilitated/consensus-driven and directive/mandated approach is not black-and-white and really lies on a spectrum that depends on four factors*:
Time available to make the decision.
Likelihood of getting valuable additional information from the group
Clarity of plan and confidence in the solution
Importance of commitment to implementation
The classic example of a more directive approach (as provided by Professor Vroom) is a Coast Guard helicopter crew on a rescue mission far from land with fuel running out. The cockpit crew must make a quick decision and has all the relevant data needed to calculate remaining flight time. Those in the back of the aircraft will have no choice but to “go along.” The pilot will rightly make a quick and directive decision – without taking time to facilitate a discussion with the rest of the crew.
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Looking for better initiative, ideas and execution from the front-line? Remember what we learned from the Iowa housewives!
* For more information, see the Vroom-Yetten Decision-Making Model