When organizations get far enough along the lean journey they inevitably ask the obvious question: Why are we doing all of this cross-functional value stream mapping, finding waste and inefficiencies, then going back to our functional organizations that (1) created the inefficiency to begin with and (2) made it impossible to see without the value stream mapping exercise?
Finding no good answer, the next question is, Why not just organize by the value streams and keep everyone focused on eliminating waste and creating value for customers all the time instead of only when they are working on kaizen events?
Again, seeing no reason why not, they formally realign their organization, metrics and accounting systems and a whole new world opens up
Changing the organization changes everything - all of the old frictions, debates and rivalries change as the question becomes which customer gets scarce resources rather than which department. That is an entirely different conversation all together. Changing the way things are structured - changing management's viewpoint - changes the culture and forces an entirely new way of setting priorities.
What if we did the same with the tax code? What if we said tax rates by income bracket are the wrong way of looking at things?
What if we said tax rates should be graduated based on age instead of income?
That would trigger a discussion about our national priorities that would get quite interesting. Young folks just starting out in life would have more money to pay for their kids' schooling, their housing, buying furniture and cars big enough to haul lots of kids and diaper bags ... while people in their fifties who are at the prime of their careers with no kids left at home would pay the most ... then the old folks would drop back down to the minimum. Not a question of how much you make, but where you are in life.
Or how about basing the tax brackets on how the money was earned instead of how much was earned?
This would trigger quite the national discussion wouldn't it? Arguing about what our collective priorities are?
I would be in favor of this approach just for the sheer entertainment value of watching the mass confusion ...
Hollywood becoming libertarian overnight ... economists who have built their whole gig on the old Marxian capital versus labor thing having no idea what to suggest ... unions knowing that when they advocate for lower tax brackets for their members CEO's will reap the benefits too ... and unions not knowing which party to support ... politicians not knowing who or what they are supposed to shill for.
The tax code has long had the dual purpose of raising money to fund the government,as well as encouraging and discouraging behaviors based on our national values. Arguing about how much to punish success strikes me as as rather inane argument.
Let's change the structure, change the debate, and start to have more productive and interesting arguments.