It didn't take long to become familiar with the layout—after all, all
the jargon came right out of your daily office—which was fortunate,
because an all-too-familiar crisis hit in month three. Without warning,
incoming claims ("Features") jumped 20 percent. Your backlog of
unsettled claims ("Pending") rose alarmingly. Your understaffed office
was unable to keep pace and complaints from angry customers waiting
to have their claims settled shot up. Fortunately, you and your partner,
Rosabeth Harrold from the Schenectady office, had lived through
many a similar real-life crisis and you reacted quickly. You raised
production targets ("Desired Productivity")— in effect saying, "We'll
ask each adjuster to settle 15 percent more cases per month for a
while." You also hired a few more people. And you waited. Sure
enough, by the eighth or ninth month, your policies had taken hold.
Now, at the tenth month backlogs are back to normal even though
new incoming claims remain high, customer complaints are down,
and you and Rosabeth lean back in your chairs.
"I think we're in pretty good shape now," you say. "We weathered
that crisis. Our problems are behind us.