This is the key insight of the book, and deceptively simple. It's the reason why the Toyota system works. It's exemplified by firms like Kingston Technology, number 2 in Fortune's 100 best places to work in America, who say If you do it, then you will know. And by Honda's actual part, actual situation approach to quality. It's the key enabler in Solectron's superb customer satisfaction management systems where the people who solve quality and performance problems are close enough to the production lines to see every action.
People often forget that a decision, by itself, changes nothing.
Writing and publishing mission statements, for example, is a common substitute for action but having one is not the same as implementing one. And don't confuse 'having a plan' and 'doing planning' with actually implementing a plan and learning something. Another common inhibitor is fear. Fear creates knowing-doing gaps because acting on their knowledge requires that people believe they won't be punished for doing so. Malcolm Macpherson is a veteran quality award assessor, publisher and communicator.