“Mr. Walther, the test you just handed out isn’t fair!”

“Why do you say that?” replied Professor Larry Walther, chairman of the University of Texas at Arlington accounting department.

“The test has four essay questions. Our other teachers always give us multiple choice questions!”

This dialogue that took place during the 2005 Fall Semester highlights an issue that has migrated from the public school system, to the university, and now to your business. The Baby Boomer generation was taught how to think. More recent Generation X, Y and beyond have been taught what to think. As a result, the 21st century work force lacks common sense, critical thinking skills, e.g., the ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems.

Beginning in the 1980’s, American public schools began using standardized Assessment of Academic Skills (AAS) tests. Because AAS test results influenced administrator salaries, principals encouraged teachers to allocate more time to teaching answers to the statewide exam to improve test scores. Test results improved but the problem solving skills of students did not. As a result, many businesses today are staffed with young people needing to be taught how to solve business issues by gathering, organizing, and communicating facts.

Old School
My 7th grade English teacher told my class to write a research paper on Mark Twain. To accomplish the assignment some forty years ago, I still recall her teaching us a three-step process:

Step 1: Go to the library (pre-Internet) and collect important, interesting facts about Twain’s life on 3X5 note cards.

Step 2: Organize the facts into a logical, Roman numeral outline.

Step 3: Using the outline as a guide, write the research paper using the cards as factual footnotes.

Initially, my 13 year-old brain assumed that my teacher’s objective was for us to learn about the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Fact is, learning about Twain was the teacher’s secondary purpose. Her primary objective was to teach us a reusable, problem solving process… (a) gather facts; (b) organize facts; and then (c) communicate the facts.

New School
My 20th century misconception about the English class assignment has carried over to the 21st century topic of Activity Based Management (ABM). Many people assume the objective of ABM is to allocate costs more accurately. In fact, that’s a secondary purpose. The primary objective is to understand and document your organization’s daily work in a logical, straight-forward, sequential, process map. Old School logic is used in ICMS’ New School software named CostMapper™:

Step 1: Describe daily work in a flowchart-style process map;

Step 2: Define attributes of the work … activity time, workload, cost per minute; and then,

Step 3: Deliberate the value of work by costing each path through the process using CostMapper’s built-in business analysis tools.

Gen X & Y employees bring knowledge to your business but often lack wisdom and discernment. When they’re taught the process that produces correct answers, positive results can be repeatedly achieved. CostMaps™ of your organization teach everyone the principles and process of Activity Based Management:

• Manage the work, not the worker.
• People don’t make mistakes, process allow people to make mistakes.
• Complicated processes produce complicated problems, while simple processes result in simply enjoyable success.

And then what?
My five-year old grandson’s favorite question is “And then what?” When I tell him we’re going to the hardware store, he asks “And then what?” Because of this inquiring habit … which I encourage … I predict he will grow up to be a valued member of many process improvement teams. When someone defines an activity, the best question to draw a process map is “And then what?”

Why did only one of Professor Walther’s accounting students pass the test? The likely reason can be traced back to their 7th grade English class where they were taught what to think instead of how to think and ask “And then what?”