One of the difficulties of thinking is that we all tend to drop into the ruts of previous thought patterns. The deeper the rut the more difficult it is to think outside that rut. To escape the rut, it is useful to think in terms of analogies: to take an idea or method and apply it in a different context. It is a powerful tool. Managing people is not always straightforward. The uncertainty of outcome, which is normal with people, makes the mathematical tools of probability a relevant analogy. An engineering analogue might be the derivation of reliability statistics for complex systems. Human beings are definitely complex systems!
Continue readingCategory Archives: continuous improvement
Continuous Improvement, Motivation Matters Creating environments where people want to give of their best, increasing productivity and helping you and your business be a success
Organizational Sludge
As an organization ages it accumulates sludge. Sludge is something that the organization once need to do, it solved a need, but things have changed. Sludge is what remains. It slows down processes, absorbs effort, blunts productivity and, of course, loses profitability. Enjoy the video!
Continue readingHow is your organisation running?
Does your organisation run like a well oiled machine or does it feel like you have square wheels? Enjoy the video.
Continue readingRevenue Growth through Operations
Your Gross Margin is an essential statistic to live and breathe. Improving your margins is something everyone should do every day! Enjoy the video.
Continue readingBrexit and the Frog
Brexit, are you fed up of hearing about this now? This seems to have been in the air forever! But, in reality, it hasn’t been a live issue for long. The Referendum was never expected to return a Leave vote, for obvious reasons. The Leave majority was a shock and galvanised businesses into action to consider trading conditions when we put a tariff barrier between us and our nearest neighbours. The sudden shock produced a reaction. Human beings are good at determining relative differences: warmer or colder, nearer or further, louder or quieter. Business could see what Brexit might mean! But what about the slow change, the slow decay of our productivity?
Continue readingDull, menial jobs? NO! Just dull, menial managers!
How many times have you heard that you can’t expect people doing dull, menial jobs to be engaged in their work? I suppose it’s just as well that there are people stupid enough, that we don’t care about, to do them? Total twaddle. The people that say this have no idea what they are talking about, and I find it insulting! Enjoy the video!
Continue readingThe drivers of Employee Engagement
Have you wondered how to engage employees or increase employee engagement? If you have, then you need to understand the drivers of employee engagement.
Continue readingHow to improve Employee Engagement
You can’t have missed the chatter about employee engagement. It has become THE thing to have in the last decade, so you might be wondering what are the drivers of employee engagement? My interest in this started in 1978, when we called it espirit de corps, involvement and stickability. In that time I have done a lot of research, both academic and in the real world with the people I managed. I learnt a lot of things that should work, but don’t and some things that work that are counter-intuitive. The only thing more complicated than a human being is more than one human being! People believe that employee engagement makes a 10% difference at best. That’s because they have had poor advice. Employee engagement, done properly, will double your performance, double your profit. Enjoy the video and please share it!
Continue readingHigh Performance Teams
Are you responsible for Team performance? Do you think about how to create high Team motivation? You know you are measured by how well your Team performs. You want to be better! Enjoy the video
Continue readingEmployee engagement ideas to raise productivity
Employee engagement is the way to raise productivity. This is widely accepted now. But how do you install “employee engagement”? The hint is that it isn’t software, it isn’t surveys, and it isn’t perks or benefits. What is left you might ask? Watch the video?
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