That’s why it’s useful to specify certain types of decisions as outputs. Then they can be assigned to people and those people can be trained and evaluated.

These are the main benefits to bifurcation: More output (if you have different people doing each subsystem at the same time). Lower labor costs (if some of the subsystems can be done by people with lower salaries and less training). More places to improve quality.

The outputs of upper-level management include a clear strategic direction for the company along with plans and resources to achieve that strategy.

Brilliant process management is our strategy. We get brilliant results from average people managing brilliant processes. We observe that our competitors often get average (or worse) results from brilliant people managing broken processes. —Daniel T. Jones, Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy

You want problems solved by the right people who can do it most effectively.

Good management starts by defining what outputs someone needs to produce.

This is the part that’s commonly documented in standard operating procedures and training. This is where processes and procedures live.

you want people to live the values of your company culture, you have to describe them in visible, behavioral ways that everyone can agree on.

First-level managers tend to ask When? What? and Where? because they are responsible for getting stuff done. Middle managers ask How? and Who? because they are given a goal and have to muster resources and assign them, often within budgetary constraints. Top-level managers ask WHY? because they are responsible for the strategic purpose of what is