Thursday, June 01, 2006

Game Theory 2

In my previous post on Game Theory, I mentioned a disagreement (since partially resolved) between Bill Waddell (an expert on Lean Manufacturing) and Howard Schwartz (an expert on organizational psychology).

Having expressed an instant dislike for Schwartz, Waddell was persuaded (apparently by the woman who gave him the book in the first place) to read further and conceded (in a later post) that there was some good material later on.

But he then feels the need to taunt his critics. (Not sure whether he includes me in this category.)

"Your best shots have been cream puffs compared to the hailstorm I am usually under from Detroit and the MRP crowd. I work in manufacturing where brutal reality reigns supreme."

Excuse me? So what was that for? Sounds like a "manufacturing is from Saturn, org psych is from Neptune" moment - in other words, he wants to remind us of the cultural gulf between US and THEM.

Waddell affects surprise that General Motors management has failed to understand Schwartz. But given his own reaction to even mild disagreement with the psychology camp, I don't find this surprising at all.

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