Unintended Consequences

Did Six-Sigma destroy Creativity at 3M? When someone comes in and applies a new technique, you typically see "improvements" (better profitability) in the short term but, as in this case, the cost-cutter is often gone by the time the downside impacts begin showing up. As long as you measure "the right things" then you can make yourself look really good.

At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity: "What's remarkable is how fast a culture can be torn apart." Cultural factors are fragile things, and don't usually show up on spreadsheets when you're doing quick fixes to the bottom line.