Just a little more to wrap up on Gamification. It really is THE way to make work fun and addictive! Just look at the popularity of Social Media, engineered to grab your attention and make you play the game. Good luck with your Games. Just make sure that you manage the Game and that the people working for you are not playing a Game of their own! We are always here to help.
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
Productivity through Gamification
Have you, or someone you know, been totally addicted to a game? Minecraft,Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario? Avid players become totally absorbed in the game, in the “Flow”, and lose track of time. They put every ounce of effort into achieving the objective. They even read about how to do it, how to improve their game playing skill! Don’t you wish people showed the same addiction to their work? Why don’t they? Enjoy the video!
Continue readingPraise the person, criticise the behaviour – Performance Review
Whether you do annual Performance Reviews or have adopted a process of regular ‘chats’ the title applies – Praise the person, criticise the behaviour. It is possible to have a conversation about what they did, their behaviour, as something apart from their self. You can have a dispassionate discussion as to why the behaviour was not appropriate, not optimal. It is impossible to discuss what went wrong when the person feels attacked and threatened. Conversely, when someone has done something well, praise the person for the behaviour. The balance makes a person feel more positive about their work, their manager and their employer, so they seek to achieve more positive feedback. Don’t forget “Praise the person, criticise the behaviour”! I’d call that a win-win, wouldn’t you?
Continue readingEmployee Engagement Initiatives that don’t work!
Employee Engagement Initiatives, I’m sure you’ve tried some or seen some? They promise to fix your low engagement score yet your survey results barely change? Using to a survey is like using a microscope – any change you see will be microscopic! An effective employee engagement programme will show on your bottom line. If it doesn’t then it hasn’t worked.
Continue readingFocus on improvement, not results
We all have targets don’t we? The target at the top determines the strategy and the direction of the organisation. Have you ever been on a trip with your children and five minutes down the road they start with “are we there yet?” If you have you know how annoying, frustrating and miserable the journey can be! It’s supposed to be a fun trip! Is your Boss one that asks “are we there yet incessantly”? Don’t be the Boss that asks that! Watch the video for what to do instead – the clue is in the title!
Continue readingThe Bradford Factor or how not to manage absence
The process to manage absence relies on data. One of the problems of data is that it is easy to create, instead of being easy to use. The Bradford Factor is a wonderful example. Anyone who has had a face to face meeting with someone to understand and improve their pattern of attendance at work knows this!
Continue readingThe thought process to raise productivity
There is much confusion around productivity, and its meaning, not helped by the same word being used to mean different things. The meaning differs for an individual, an organisation and the Government! Productivity is important, indeed vital. It determines your standard of living: whether your organisation succeeds and how much the Government has to spend. We need better productivity to afford the NHS, Education, Police, in fact, for everything the Government provides. You can watch a definition of productivity here Watch the video to improve your thinking on productivity.
Continue readingValue Engineering your Processes
Value Engineering is an approach to understanding how what you are doing contributes to the value your Customers’ receive, and that they value. You may be surprised at what you unearth when you think about it! The video shows you the way.
Continue readingContinuous Improvement – how do I implement it?
Continuous improvement is a way of life. In your personal life you extend your exercise a little at a time, or aim lose a kilo and not ten kilos. Little and often is the way. So it is in business. People think improving productivity means working harder, faster, longer. Can anyone explain to me how that is supposed to work? Continuous improvement is detecting, evaluating, and then stopping processes that add no value. Then as the time needed to do each process shortens, you can’t help but get more done!
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