Conference 7.286::digital

    I would hate to hear that this actually happened. I'd hate to return
    to the days when if you had an idea that wasn't for your group you'd
    have no one to give it too. If DELTA goes away I'd hope that an
    alternative process is put in place first.
    
    			Alfred

Well, edp did suggest it could be replaced by a phone book...

    Hmmm.  I guess that could be true if the phone book gets small enough.
    
    Steve

Well, Steve, your rumor source is right again.  The DELTA program is not being
funded for next year.  There will be an Employee Involvement Center of Expertise
established to work with organizations to start local programs.  It will
be staffed with consultants and will probably report to Human Resources or
Quality.  

For everybody's sake, I hope the phone book is still around!! :*)

    Does this decision mean that DELTA was considered to be a failure?
    If so why did the powers that be consider it to be a failure?
    
    Maxine, can you give us some background on what the funders of DELTA
    reckoned had worked well and what hadn't. Why was it determined that
    the ROI on DELTA was insufficient?
    
    Dave 

    Not another Center of Excellence! 
    
    ...tom

<<< Note 2493.5 by SMAUG::GARROD "From VMS -> NT; Unix a mere page from history" >>>
          -< What did the decision makers consider flawed in DELTA? >-

>    Does this decision mean that DELTA was considered to be a failure?
>    If so why did the powers that be consider it to be a failure?
>    
>    Maxine, can you give us some background on what the funders of DELTA
>    reckoned had worked well and what hadn't. Why was it determined that
>    the ROI on DELTA was insufficient?
>    
>    Dave 

Dave - would that the powers that be were as logical as you!  In designing
the DELTA program, we made the employees our customers, not management.
We tried to make it easy to submit an idea and worked hard to get responses.
From a management perspective I think we were a failure because they were
not our customers.  

No evidence that we had of ROI or satisfied employees really meant anything.
It was simply decided that what this company really needs is to try to fix 
the manager/employee relationship and that is seen as human resources work
and will be defined as involvement.

I also think that right now management is so busy redesigning the company
that that work has become all-consuming and anything extraneous to that
is not wanted or appreciated.

These are all my personal opinions as to the root causes of our demise.  I 
don't choose to repeat the actual statements made because they would add 
nothing to the dialog.

>>funded for next year.  There will be an Employee Involvement Center of 
>>Expertise established to work with organizations to start local programs. 
>>It will be staffed with consultants and will probably report to Human 
>>Resources or Quality.  

Swell. DEC's Human Resources _is_, in the experience of many, the single, 
largest problem this company has. Turning the DELTA function over to HRM here 
is like recruiting pyromaniacs to staff your fire department.

>>Dave - would that the powers that be were as logical as you!  In designing
>>the DELTA program, we made the employees our customers, not management.
>>We tried to make it easy to submit an idea and worked hard to get responses.
>>From a management perspective I think we were a failure because they were
>>not our customers.  

Good analysis. This move proves that DEC's management has no intention of
listening to its employees, who, we all know, are "whining malcontents."

>>No evidence that we had of ROI or satisfied employees really meant anything.
>>It was simply decided that what this company really needs is to try to fix 
>>the manager/employee relationship and that is seen as human resources work
>>and will be defined as involvement.

>>I also think that right now management is so busy redesigning the company
>>that that work has become all-consuming and anything extraneous to that
>>is not wanted or appreciated.

What could be more critical, in redesigning DEC, than ensuring that employees'
ideas are heard, and that the bad apples are "pruned?" If this is 
considered extraneous to DEC's redesign, then I submit that DEC's redesign 
involves making more powerful the very people that have brought us to the brink 
of disaster while cutting the comm lines to the people whose ideas can most 
help. Wait'll the press gets ahold of _this_ one.

In all, this says volumes about DEC's direction -- business as usual, but more 
so. 

For a good forecast of where DEC is headed, see where the airline industry has 
been in the past 5-10 years.

ken

                                            

    I wonder who will be the VP of Employee Involvement ...
    
    Steve

    >>Swell. DEC's Human Resources _is_, in the experience of many, the
    >>single, largest problem this company has. Turning the DELTA function 
    >>over to HRM here is like recruiting pyromaniacs to staff your fire 
    >>department.
    
    Amen!

    why does the Paul K. parting note seem so appropriate (again) right
    now...these 2 events seem somehow connected through a single thread.
    
    Mark
    

    Can anyone say what the DELTA program cost in FY93?
    
    Also, can anyone say what dollars were saved in FY93 as a result of
    ideas gathered via DELTA? (I remember seeing blurbs in one of the
    company newsletters about how much some of the ideas were saving...)
    
    I personally wouldn't make a judgement on the decision until I had
    these facts.
    
    Marty

    re: ... like recruiting pyromaniacs to staff your fire department.
    
    This is actually a rather efficient thing to do because when there
    are fires there will seldom be any need to wait for "help" to arrive 
    -- they'll already be there ...
    
    re: cost study
    
    I'd like to see this, too.  I would especially like to see how the tiny
    Delta organization is going to be more cost-effective than the bureaucracy
    that will apparently be replacing it.  
    
    Then, there's the sticky little issue of "trust" ...
    
    Steve

                     <<< Note 2493.12 by VERGA::FRIEDMAN >>>
                                   -< facts >-

>    Can anyone say what the DELTA program cost in FY93?
>    
>    Also, can anyone say what dollars were saved in FY93 as a result of
>    ideas gathered via DELTA? (I remember seeing blurbs in one of the
>    company newsletters about how much some of the ideas were saving...)
>    
>    I personally wouldn't make a judgement on the decision until I had
>    these facts.
>    
>    Marty

I can tell you exactly what the program cost since I have responsibility
for the budget.  But let me preface my remarks with this statement -
ROI is a metric for management.  As a customer (employee) focused program
our metrics were participation and cycle time.  

I will tell you that we were 20% under budget for the year, that we
brought in revenue from outside the company, that we cross charged over
$250K for projects requested by internal customers and that one idea
(see the March 22 issue of Digital today) saved more money than we have 
spent over the life of program.

Those are the "facts".

My guess would be that people who were dissatisified with the effectiveness of
Delta were heard by senior management.  We even have another whole string
in this conference that basically expresses dissatisfaction.

The problem with Delta was that they didn't have the power to bring about change.
They could only make suggestions.

Back at the beginning of Delta I submitted a suggestion that DEC really didn't
need 6 different employee newspapers for Mass and New Hampshire.  I suggested
cutting down to one or electronic only distribution.  I was told by the group 
responsible for all these papers that they couldn't do that.  Someone might miss
out.  Three years later and we as a company finally cut that waste.  But in the
meantime, how much money was wasted?  I got a response from someone who just tried
to justify their job.  Delta got my suggestion heard, but they had no way to raise
the issue to senior management so it could be taken up.

I'm sorry to see them go and they did bring about some good during their
existance.  However I think it was the same kind of good that came from some of
the touchy feely courses that are gone now and are being griped about in another
note.  If your willing to listen you got something from Delta.  But with no clout
it becomes an easy target.  The game is revenue now.  If you can't track the
revenue, either sales or savings, you're gone.

Thanks for trying

	Dave Brunell

    Re: previous: it is inconceivable to me that handing-over the
    DELTA function to HRM will either save money or result in any benefit.
    Digital's HRM is, among other things, like the plant 'Audrey II' in
    "Little Shop of Horrors." It has grown beyond the bounds of any control,
    has enslaved its "owners," and is responsible for apparently endless 
    carnage. [This is not to denigrate all HRM people here; some are first-
    rate and a credit to the company. Unfortunately, such are almost 
    exclusively lower-level ICs.]
    
    Giving DELTA to HRM will without doubt and in short order result in an
    even bigger, meaner, more expensive, and less controllable HRM bureaucracy.
    It would also destroy any utility for DELTA. One of the avowed reasons 
    for creating DELTA was to remove employee suggestions/involvement from the
    meddling hands of people in the normal reporting chain who had their 
    own agendas.

    If we were serious about saving money, we'd look at what DEC spends on HRM 
    and what we get in return. I suspect the ROI would be lower than for any 
    other group in the company, while DELTA, it is reported, was a success on 
    this basis. Remember hearing about the Benchmarking in HRM Study that was 
    done several years ago at Digital? Among other findings, I am told, was 
    that DEC had _three times_ as many HRM managers per employee as "best in 
    class" computer companies. Boy, did _that_ study disappear fast! 

    Giving DELTA to HRM makes no sense at all -- if the company is still 
    interested in employee involvement. And prosperity.

    Hey, it's a damn good phone book.  Even tells me how to send mail to
    the Internet!

    Does anyone know who, by name and title, made THE final decision?
    I'm bracing myself...  for I fear I know the answer, and it's not BP.

>>>    Then, there's the sticky little issue of "trust" ...

	Steve, you should know by now that we are not allowed to purchase
	"sticky little issues of trust". Or was that "sticky little pads
	of paper"? Same difference, I'm sure it was in a Jack Smith 
	policy...er...memo...

							mike

    re: -.1
    
    Oop ... <slap forehead> my mistake!  I forgot that my cost center
    couldn't budget for that ... or for PostIts ...  Actually, my cost
    center manager is one of the best I've ever worked with.  It bothers me
    to see him being twisted in knots over budget issues.  Near as I can
    tell, he simply cannot affort to invest in things that are good for the
    company.  He can *only* affort to invest in things that will directly
    lead to money into the cost center.  It was not always that way.
    
    Delta provided an avenue for focus on the good of the company, which is 
    one reason why I supported it.
    
    I understand that Personnel and Delta locked horns on numerous
    occasions.  I have little hope that Personnel will champion very 
    many ideas coming from the troops.  I expect the emphasis in the
    program to shift towards management service and concerns.  We might get
    a flyer or two.  Maybe a six-sigma-style program.  I fully expect some 
    sort of VP appointment out of this.  And, I expect that eventually 
    Personnel will expand to an organization that is larger and more 
    expensive than the 10 or so people that comprised Delta.
    
    To me, Delta represented hope in keeping "do the right thing" alive to 
    some extent.  I knew that when I submitted an idea to Delta it would
    usually land in the hands of someone that could do something about it.  
    I don't have that kind of expectation for Personnel as I regard 
    relations with them to be largely and politely adversarial.
    
    I recently read a memo from Win Hindel where he toured at Milliken and
    observed their successful ideas program.  Among other things, his
    report detailed how employees were aknowledged for their contributions
    through publicizing their successes and ideas.  Care to guess what
    happened when a similar Delta idea was run through Personnel?  I was 
    told that the rep was just going to render me an opinion.  The idea of
    requiring aknowledgement when a bonus was given out was strongly
    resisted.  Too much of an invasion of privacy or some such.  This is
    the same organization that may portend to champion good ideas from the
    troops and encourage public aknowledgement?
    
    The message this sends me is that if your idea isn't worth much you'll
    get public recognition. But, if it's so "good" you deserve a bonus, 
    nobody will hear a thing about you ...  Yup, I'm really going to want 
    to send my hot ideas to Personnel ...  Back to reality, moving the
    suggestion box to the Personnel Office means that they are going to
    have to EARN my trust if I'm going to cooperate with them in any real
    sense.  I don't again want to have to be "contained" by Personnel because 
    of an idea I submit that lands in their hands.  (Delta gave me the
    option of contacting Personnel on this idea.  I wasn't forced and
    appreciated all efforts.  Once I made contact with Personnel, I
    realized it was going nowhere.  Other circumstances came up and I did
    not pursue it.  I had planned to pick it up again with Delta after
    these circumstances cleared, but obviously that isn't going to happen.
    Not sure what I'll do now.)
    
    I do have hope, though.  If Personnel can provide a way for outside
    customers to make suggestions to Digital (Delta was in the process of
    addressing this, as I understand) then it may be possible for Personnel
    to add value.  I am glad that Delta worked out these processes. Their
    solutions are good enough that outside customers were paying cold,
    hard cash for them.  I hope that Personnel is able to competently run
    the processes that Delta designed, developed, implemented and sold.
    
    Gonna miss you, Maxine.  Would that Personnel could become as attentive 
    and caring as you have been in responding to concerns of the troops in 
    improving the company.  Man, I'm bummed tonight ...
    
    Steve

<<< Note 2493.20 by ECADSR::SHERMAN "Steve ECADSR::Sherman DTN 223-3326 MLO5-2/26a" >>>
                               -< it's late ... >-

    
>    Gonna miss you, Maxine.  Would that Personnel could become as attentive 
>    and caring as you have been in responding to concerns of the troops in 
>    improving the company.  Man, I'm bummed tonight ...
>    
>    Steve

Thanks for the kind words, Steve, they have been few and far between lately.

If Employee Involvement will finally get some management attention thru the
Human Resources organization, then something positive will have come out
of this.  

You learn what you live. Cancelling DELTA delivers a specific message from 
management to employee: "Shut up and do what you're told."

Cancelling DELTA makes us look like schmucks after having touted it and the 
rest of TQM as Digital strengths. I know the people in Corporate Quality and
they deserve better than this. I also know a number of HRM managers ...

The simple, sad fact is that we're all "temps" now.                    

    ken
    

I don't know why anyone who reads this notefile would be surprised that    
the Delta program is losing funding.  There are many entries in this 
conference (DIR/TITLE=delta) and the majority of replies are not what
would constitute a satisfactory survey.  If Delta received 200 ideas
a month there doesn't seem to be many satisfied customers of the several
thousands of ideas submitted.  If a program's customers are frustrated
and dissatisfied, it's of little importance that it came in under budget.

If Delta wants to take credit for actually doing anything, then it can
take satisfaction in being the vehicle which demonstrated to thousands
of employees the intransigence of Digital to substantive change..

Delta or its personnel cannot be faulted for its short-comings either.
In fact, Maxine Crowther, is an eloquent spokesperson for the Delta 
program, whose diligence and responsiveness in these notesfiles should be
applauded and emulated by program managers at all levels.

Mike

    
    re: .23
    
    In spite of the kind words at the end of the reply, those remarks in
    the beginning are not only unkind but untrue. While you may be counting
    the number of replies in this notesfile in total, or some such, there
    are two interesting and appropriate points:
    
        In many of the entries knocking DELTA - it's the same people over
    and over, while the supporters of DELTA come from a variety of areas and
    backgrounds. Maxine has answered unjust and unfounded knocking of the
    program in this and other notesfiles repeatedly and not without
    unsolicited support from others.
    
        Secondly, the survey results of the DELTA submitters covers a much
    more comprehensive selection than the DIGITAL notesfile. A lot of
    people who have submitted and implemented high impact suggestions don't
    even read notesfiles let alone write in them. Those survey results are
    tabulated and available - and a lot more instuctive than any review of
    the entries in this conference.
    
    But the botom line for me, is not was DELTA doing a good job (it was) or
    was DELTA in need of funding (as of recently, it wasn't), nope. The
    real measure is: Does the company support employee participation in the
    business of doing business? DELTA's unconditional termination answers
    that.
    
    For anyone who had enough gumption to get out of their own way and
    work, instead of just complaining, DELTA was there to assist in getting
    things done. To those people who thought, or still think, DELTA or any
    group should take on projects 'thrown over the wall' -  tough noogies.
    Life dosen't work that way. Now, at least, those folks can relax. We're
    in a new age. No one has to worry about getting employee ideas
    implemented. Ideas, directions and innovation are top down directed
    and mandated.
    
    Welcome to the new Digital - be glad you have a job.
    
    Good bye DELTA. Thanks for all you did, all you represented and all you
    had to offer.
    
    J.B. 

Note 2493.22 by SOFBAS::SHERMAN 

>You learn what you live. Cancelling DELTA delivers a specific message from 
>management to employee: "Shut up and do what you're told."
    
    Yup. Big time. But for me. N E V E R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Re .22:
    
    > Cancelling DELTA makes us look like schmucks after . . .
    
    I perceive no flaw in the appearance that cancelling Delta gives you.
    
    Cancelling Delta is the first good decision management has made in at
    least three years.  It wasn't good for much more than generating
    certificates.  Of course, replacing Delta with a department within
    "Human Resources" isn't any better.  A proper idea-handling division
    needs to have the power to get their ideas implemented.  Turning ideas
    over to the same imbeciles who are responsible for the problems in the
    first place is ridiculous, but that is what Delta did.
    
    
    Re .14:
    
    > I can tell you exactly what the program cost since I have
    > responsibility for the budget. . . .   I will tell you that we were 20%
    > under budget for the year, that we
    
    You say you can tell us exactly what the program cost, but you didn't. 
    Your statement, like the most of Delta's doings, is useless.  There's
    no useful information in knowing you were under budget unless we know
    what your budget was.  Maybe it was 200% inflated, so coming in 20%
    under that is a tremendous waste of Digital's money.
    
    > But let me preface my remarks with this statement - ROI is a metric
    > for management.  As a customer (employee) focused program our metrics
    > were participation and cycle time.
    
    Digital isn't here to serve its employees, and neither is the
    suggestion program.  Digital's goal is to serve its stockholders. 
    That's the ultimate goal; Delta's method of doing that should have been
    to set a direct goal of improving the company by implementing good
    ideas.  You did not aim to do that, so you were a failure.
    
    > . . . one idea (see the March 22 issue of Digital today) saved more
    > money than we have  spent over the life of program.
    
    One idea might have saved more money than Delta spent, but that does
    not mean Delta saved more money than Delta spent.  The idea might have
    been implemented without Delta, in which case credit for it does not
    belong to Delta.  The idea might have been implemented without any
    formal suggestion program at all, or it might have been implemented
    with a different suggestion program in place, one that produced even
    more savings than Delta.
    
    
    				-- edp

RE: .26

	Eric, 

	Giving DELTA the power to fix things would have been a better
	management decision. Why not stop blaming DELTA for the worlds
	problems and focus your energies on the poor management of DEC 
	in general. Beating up on a group that had its hands tied is
	like beating a dead horse. It's getting you nowhere in my eyes.

							mike

    
    Note .26 points out some of the problems with measuring a program
    like DELTA.  It should be measure based on profitability by looking
    at the savings the Ideas generated versus the cost of the program and
    if DELTA was the most cost efficent method of achieving these cost
    savings.  I was personally very happy with the program.  I submitted
    one simple idea, it was routed to the proper person and became a
    successfull product.  However I have no way of knowing if they would
    not have come up with the idea on there own ( I personally think that
    they would have eventually come up with it ) so it is difficult to
    judge how profitable the program is and if it should be continued.
    
    A program for cost savings should exist in any company the size of 
    Digital, most of us are too busy working on the trees to take the time
    to look at the forest.
    
    

    Once again, the Navy can be used as a good example of how to make an
    employee program work.
    
    First, the organization has to _want_ to improve. DEC has shown recently
    that it is interested only in (1) enriching the new in-crowd and (2) if
    there are any crumbs left, sending them to the stock and bond holders.
    Employees are clearly on their own now, or as one noter put it, "be
    glad you have a job (and shut up)."  Of course, in the long run this
    dooms DEC because it will quickly result in a second-rate work force
    who wait to be told what to do. Such work forces soon become unemployed
    work forces when their employers fail. Only first rate work forces will
    be employed 5 or 10 years from now.
    
    The Navy has long had a program called Anymouse (a corruption of the
    word 'anonymous' that stuck). Anymouse empowers anyone in the Navy --
    from seaman recruiut through admiral -- to submit an idea about
    improving anything in the Navy. It may be done anonymously or it may be
    done in the person's name. The key here is (1) the Navy is really
    interested IN MAKING THE NAVY NOT ONLY MORE EFFICIENT BUT ALSO A BETTER
    PLACE TO WORK (2) the Navy _rewards_ those people whose ideas make some
    improvement. Suggest a way to save money and, if it works, you get 10%
    of the savings, up to some limit of X-thousands of dollars. Suggest a
    way to improve the way your unit works and if it works you get direct,
    visible, specific reward (i.e. spot promotion, official commendation
    that becomes part of your record, etc.)
    
    That's why I laugh when some misinformed soul tells me that the
    military doesn't know how to manage. On its best day, a private company
    doesn't reach the Navy's success in employee involvement. And DEC is
    having fewer and fewer best days.
    
    
    kbs
                                    

    Many years ago, when I was in school, my professor informed us that
    cost-reduction programs are sometimes deliberately short-lived.  The
    theory was that the initial success was caused by finding things that
    could be done at less cost because they were implemented during
    high-growth and change.  After that, the program would see diminishing
    incremental benefits.  Also, once a cost-reduction becomes implemented, 
    the organization learns how to change.
    
    Whether or not my professor knew the real world is a worthy question,
    but I think he might have right.
    
                                         Kurt

<<< Note 2493.30 by CSC32::K_HYDE "Yes, we do windows -- CX03-2/J4 592-4181" >>>
                                   -< My 2� >-

>    Many years ago, when I was in school, my professor informed us that
>    cost-reduction programs are sometimes deliberately short-lived.  The
>    theory was that the initial success was caused by finding things that
>    could be done at less cost because they were implemented during
>    high-growth and change.  After that, the program would see diminishing
>    incremental benefits.  Also, once a cost-reduction becomes implemented, 
>    the organization learns how to change.
>    
>    Whether or not my professor knew the real world is a worthy question,
>    but I think he might have right.
>    
>                                         Kurt

 DELTA has never billed itself as a cost-savings program.  Those programs
lived in Finance and were called things like SPEND SMART.  Only half of the
ideas that came in to DELTA were for cost savings.  The other half included
revenue enhancements, market share, environmental, customer satisfaction,
employee satisfactions, process emhancements etc.

I think your professor was right.  Cost savings programs pick the "ripe fruit"
and get quick returns, but they do not support continuous improvement and
quality philosophies.

From:	STOWOA::DELTA_IDEAS "17-May-1993 1043" 17-MAY-1993 11:55:04.53
To:	@ADDRESSEE.DIS
CC:	DELTA_IDEAS
Subj:	DELTA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT


At the end of the fiscal year DELTA will no longer be in 
operation.  Between now and then, the DELTA Program Office will 
be winding down its work.

If you have submitted an idea that remains open, please refer to 
any memos you have received for the name of your contact.  This 
contact is either the individual that DELTA routed the idea to 
initially or the ultimate receiver of the idea and designated 
respondent.  Stay in touch with this person and remember that, 
whether or not there is a central idea processing system at 
Digital, your ideas are still important.

We would like to express our appreciation to all contributors to 
DELTA throughout the 3-1/2 years that the program has existed as 
a conduit for continuous improvement at Digital.  Although these 
3-1/2 years have been the most arduous in Digital's history, you 
have stepped outside your own concerns and come forward to make 
your unique contribution to the betterment of the company. 
Submitting and sharing your ideas in this way has been of value 
in itself, but perhaps even more valuable is the positive 
attitude that prompted these contributions. 

With fond regards,

The DELTA Team

    Re .27:
    
    > It's getting you nowhere in my eyes.
    
    Oh, gosh, that's terrible.  I will change my ways and live my life
    soley to please Mike Foley.  How silly of me to have done otherwise.
    
    I don't blame Delta for not having power to push change where change
    was needed.  But I do blame them for not following up where they should
    have.                             
    
    
    				-- edp

    RE: .33
    
    > ... But I do blame them for not following up where they should
    >    have.
    
    Excuse me?  Maxine has NUMEROUS times (in notes and elsewhere) pointed 
    out that Delta *did* follow up a where they should have and did all 
    they could to otherwise improve where mistakes were made.  Please cite 
    the specific and current examples that she or others at Delta did not or 
    would not address.
    
    Steve

RE: .33

>>    Oh, gosh, that's terrible.  I will change my ways and live my life
>>    soley to please Mike Foley.  How silly of me to have done otherwise.

	Good, maybe then we won't have to get in to these discussions
	in the future.

							mike

    
    I made a simple suggestion to DELTA some time ago that would save
    major money for DEC.   It was simply that we have many old world
    computer rooms with the temp maintained at about 65F using 
    chillers.
    
    These rooms are becoming full of low end machines that are quite
    happy with any temp up to 104F.  Turn the temps up in the summer.
    
    A second note listed the real cost savings with getting rid of all
    this pre-historic VAX hardware and consolidating down to things 
    like VAX4000's.  At transfer cost pricing compared to real cost
    to maintain this junk you could justify it in less than a year
    in many cases.
    
    Both of these simple suggestions have been in the system for
    2-3 years with no meaningful response.  Just a bunch of form 
    letters thanking me telling me that it has been forwarded to
    so and so, etc.   Very little value in my oppinion.  The
    suggestions that I have seen work are things you didn't need
    any central power to do in any case, like saving copier paper, etc.
    
    Jon
    

    Jon,
    
    Delta should have told you who got the ideas.  These should have been
    people empowered to make change.  Have you tried contacting these
    people, assuming Delta told you who they were?
    
    Steve

           Why not implement suggestion boxes locally, with WW contacts?
           
           Implement Deming's 14 Points for Management.
           
           Empower people (CRITICAL).
           
           I think Palmer embraces alot of this... let's wait and see if
           it's implemented.  I'd rather see a good implementation vs. a
           "we're doing TQM now" type of mind-set.
           
           Steve
           

    I agree with the sentiment that losing Delta is not catastrophic. 
    
    I co-authored a proposal with a manager to help lessen the pain of 
    layoffs and improve the # of applications on Alpha by setting up an 
    externally accessible notesfile [(Or news service, like JOBS but for 
    outside the company) for vendors that needed Alpha porting expertise 
    to draw upon, and let the tfso'd employees post their resumes there if 
    they had alpha porting expertise. 
    
    I deal with vendors daily that are looking for alpha migration people. 
    
    Well, at any rate, I never heard anything but thanks for your response
    please tell us how satisfied you are with Delta. 
    
    A friend in treasury had the same experience. 
    
    John

I have never been involved with Delta.  However, there's a common thread
evident in the responses against Delta in this string.  Those complaining
are saying that they submitted a good idea and Delta didn't FORCE someone
to make use of it.  Not that Delta is known to have not told the right
people about the idea, but that Delta had no power to compell action.

This is grounds for terminating Delta?  This is grounds for transferring
this function to Human Resources?  It's like smashing the alarm clock 
because you overslept -- and then getting a sun dial.  If you no longer
need to wake up at a set time, then get rid of the alarm clock!  But if
you still need to get up and the alarm isn't loud enough, then give it
a louder alarm!  Don't replace it with something less functional, or
functional for something other purpose.

I can see no other conclusion than that management doesn't want the job
done that Delta was trying to do.  If that's true, then it is indeed a 
good idea to cancel Delta.  But that raises other issues.

	Larry

PS -- Even in the best of times, simply telling someone a good idea is
seldom enough to get it adopted.  Changing things takes a lot of effort.
And these aren't the best of times.  LS

    One point no one has mentioned so far .....
    MAYBE Personnel will do the right thing and bring over key players
    of Delta (i.e. Maxine and others) and still let them run the 
    program....so that the only change would be placing the program in the 
    Personnel organization.
    
    

    re -1
    
    Yah...  Right

    Rumor has it that 4 of the 10 in Delta *might* be brought into
    Personnel as part of the new organization.  I have no idea who that
    might be, but I suspect it would be from Delta management and not
    Maxine or others who implemented Delta directly.
    
    Steve

    yeah, what do we need worker bees for when we have managers!

	From today's VTX...


              Delta Program office to be reorganized with new focus 
 
        The Delta office, which has managed a program for sharing employee 
   ideas throughout Digital, is being reorganized into a center of expertise 
   for employee involvement reflecting the corporation's new business model,
   according to Win Hindle, senior vice president, Ethics, Business 
   Practices and Quality.
        Effective July 1, 1993 activities associated with the Delta office 
   will be consolidated into a group which will shift emphasis from a broad 
   company-wide charter to one focused on facilitating work group improvement 
   efforts.  The center will be responsible for developing techniques to 
   engage employees to work together and with their managers to implement 
   customer response programs that will make Digital the best in the industry. 

        "Bob Palmer and the Senior Leadership Team have developed a new 
   business model for Digital.  As we begin operating as a customer-focused 
   organization, we are taking steps to align our other business functions in 
   support of this business model," Win explained.  "In the near term, we 
   will focus employee involvement efforts on assisting work groups in 
   developing practices that serve their customers most effectively."
        Effective immediately, Delta's Ideas Central will no longer process 
   new submissions.  Managers who have a backlog of ideas awaiting replies 
   should take the responsibility for responding to them as soon as 
   possible.      
        The new center of expertise will work closely with the Human 
   Resources, Employee Communication and Quality functions to promote 
   employee involvement efforts.  

"Assisting work groups in developing practices that serve their customers most
effectively" will not replace the work DELTA did.

However, the article is a nice spin on cancelling Digital's only corporate-wide
employee involvement program and TFSOing the whole group.

Paul

    
    Re:
    
>   Win explained.  "In the near term, we 
>   will focus employee involvement efforts on assisting work groups in 
>   developing practices that serve their customers most effectively."
    
    Translation: Jobs for the personnel boys.
    
>        Effective immediately, Delta's Ideas Central will no longer process 
>   new submissions.  Managers who have a backlog of ideas awaiting replies 
>   should take the responsibility for responding to them as soon as 
>   possible.      
    
    Translation: Ignore those ideas and go back to business as usual.
    	Nobody will be monitoring whether you respond any longer.
    
Re:
    
>        The new center of expertise will work closely with the Human 
>   Resources, Employee Communication and Quality functions to promote 
>   employee involvement efforts.  
    
    Translation: We'll enjoy our woods meetings.
    
    Please excuse me while I'm being sick.
    
    Dave

    Key concepts:
    
    Baffling corporate double-speak
    Damage control
    Spin doctoring
    Denial
    Sheer, offensive and blatant arrogance
    Hypocrasy to an advanced level
    Total lack of any respect for the (remaining) employees
    Self-protection
    Self-perpetuation
    Good ole boy network in action
    
    Other than that, a great memo!
    
    Pardon me whilst I take back my place at the galley oars...

    Re. .48: good analysis.
    
    
    ken
    

    
    Does this mean I will ***never*** get the certificate for the 2 ideas
    I sent in (and never got resolution to)?
    
    
    BTW...Isn't (wasn't) Maxine a manager in DELTA?
    

                      <<< Note 2493.51 by SPECXN::BLEY >>>

    
    
    
>    BTW...Isn't (wasn't) Maxine a manager in DELTA?
    
Gee and I thought I had everyone fooled!!  Actually, the DELTA team worked 
as a high performance work group.  We all shared the work that had to be done.
I kept asking others in the group to do the administrative stuff but no
body was dumb enough but me to actually do it.  But everything possible was done
as a team effort from reviews to salary planning to meeting minutes to the 
day to day work of processing ideas.  

Does that make me a manager??  I hope not!  

re            <<< Note 2493.52 by 58323::CROWTHER "Maxine 276-8226" >>>
                              -< I confess . . . >-
    
>Gee and I thought I had everyone fooled!!  Actually, the DELTA team worked 
>as a high performance work group.  We all shared the work that had to be done.
>I kept asking others in the group to do the administrative stuff but no
>body was dumb enough but me to actually do it.  But everything possible was done
>as a team effort from reviews to salary planning to meeting minutes to the 
>day to day work of processing ideas.  

>Does that make me a manager??  I hope not!  

Maxine,

   Don't worry, no one should accuse you of being a manager.
A "real" manager would have cajoled, threatened or convinced, a subordinate
to do the unpleasant tasks. If the team was a success, the "real" manager
would have been getting awards and recognition, while the team got little or
no recogniton. If the team was unsuccessfull, a "real" manager would have been
transfered (probably promoted) and the team would be TFSO'd  (no smiley face)

Regards
Barry