Problem solving our cultural crisis

 

There is an adage which goes, “Any fool can tell you what's wrong, but it takes an expert to fix it.” Prior to my retirement I taught problem solving to industry. It's an effective methodology used in determining root causality for problems that occur in a manufacturing or service process. There have been some attempts made to apply these principles to government particularly in state run health care, but few have been applied effectively largely due to the inherent cancerous and metastasizing nature of bureaucracy. Since we are faced with a crisis that is literally deconstructing limited constitutional government under the rule of law and parliamentary oversight, it's time to resurrect how to do a root cause analysis of where we have come as a society. We need to know why our government is failing us, and how to apply the cooperative effort needed to address these failures using what is known in as a Kaizen effort. I think the most important aspect of Kaizen is that it is a discipline using clearly defined methodologies which seek to address the root causes of issues quickly, effectively, where they occur, and most importantly it engages all involved in managing problems to address them with documented corrective actions. This allows for a military like precision to be applied without muddying the waters with overly emotional reactions from stake holders which allow politics to affect how problems are to be analyzed and resolved.

It is interesting to note that much of problem-solving methodology was created by military analysts. Oddly there seems to be a reluctance among military leaders today to apply the training that they have received. This is indeed peculiar since it affords us a practical way to solve the exact problems with which we are confronted which are resulting in a loss of our ability to defend our borders, as well as our ability to defend ourselves from enemies both foreign and domestic.

Given what we now know about the CCP funding Canadian politicians who Beijing felt were sympathetic to it and the resulting outcome of their interference on our elections in 2019 in 2021, we have no time to waste in addressing this problem. This issue affects our ability to ensure that our government answers only to the Canadian people rather than to totalitarian foreign interests. It is literally painful to watch Hansard and hear the moronic, hyperemotional discussions that occur on the floor of parliament from politicians who sit on both sides of the aisle. Our Prime Minister engages in bafflegab to confuse the Canadian electorate while refusing to answer questions directly. Our politicians lack of ability to defend our democracy in the face of foreign intervention is nothing shy of or less than treason.

So, in an attempt to address my first assertion regarding why any fool can tell you what the problem is but it takes an expert to fix it, Kaizen efforts remove the singularity of having only one expert. A Kaizen team is just that, a team. A team who are trained to sniff out waste, excessive cost, and unwanted variation in order to assign documented corrective actions to the problems our nation faces. It removes ego from the equation in order to focus only on what went wrong and its solutions. It does not assign blame rather it assigns the means by which the root cause for issues can be addressed at their source, where they occurred, in as timely a manner as possible the moment an issue is identified.

And since politics is all about protecting fragile egos and bureaucracy is all about passing the buck while defending the sanctity of bureaucratic fiefdoms, there is little, if any, hope for change in such a system. The system itself is inherently flawed due to the natural tendencies inherent to each branch of government and its bureaucratic administration. An independent ombudsman known for their ability to train in and use Kaizen problem solving must be appointed by an independent parliamentary committee to manage this Kaizen process of analysis. His or her office must be created in such a manner that it will remain independent of any hint of influence from the executive branch of government as well as from the Clerk of the Privy Council so that the ombudsman may act independently to assess accountability, assist with team Kaizen efforts in each department and then report directly to an independent parliamentary committee which cannot recuse itself due to parliamentary privilege.

A tall order? Yes, very, but given the depth of our constitutional crisis, I honestly cannot see any other process sufficient to even begin to resolve how deep the systemic issues are in our current system of government.