blog.
Improving Productivity by Working from Home
Does working from home improve productivity? A Stanford University study of a Chinese travel agency concluded that it does.
The Competitive Edge
What’s your competitive edge? What makes you or your business the “one” to beat?
If you’re like most businesses, you probably say that you’re good at what you do or that you’re better than anyone else in your craft. That’s all well and good, but why should clients care?
Off Target
When Target came to Canada in 2011, not only were consumers surprised that the retailer opened up over one hundred stores across the country, but so was the business community. To do such a “big bang” approach, you either know what you’re doing or you’re taking a major risk. Unfortunately for Target, its major risk did not pay off.
The Lightness of Black Friday
According to Kevin Roose of the Daily Intelligencer, Black Friday is “a nationwide experiment in consumer irrationality, dressed up as a cheerful holiday add-on.”
It's hard to disagree with Kevin's assertion!
Value and Billable Hours
Why do companies and individuals still insist on billing for services “by the hour?” If you are tracking billable hours, you are not being efficient. And, even worse, you are not providing the best possible service to your customers.
When companies focus on billable hours, it may be to the exclusion of other important activities, like building capacity to better serve customers.
Solving Problems using an A3
An “A3” is an international size piece of paper, approximately 11-by-17 inches. Using an A3 is an effective way to present a situation – a story that anyone can understand – all on one page.
It is a visual tool for problem-solving because it presents all of the main elements in a condensed space, allowing for on-the-spot review. It is a powerful management process encouraging learning through a scientific approach to problem solving. It includes a description of the current conditions, goals, analysis, and an action plan for implementing solutions.
There is no standard format for an A3. Each A3 suits the situation. At the end of this blog, a detailed example is provided that you can use and modify to suit your organization's situation.
Value: Defined
Lots of people are talking about value these days – especially in light of Lean culture.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides eight definitions for “value.” The definitions relate to market price, luminosity, and denomination. From a business perspective, value is related to market price and the customer’s perception of a fair return on an exchange.
Thriving or Surviving?
What is your worst case scenario? What will you do if: (a) you are unable to prevent it from happening, or (b) you are unable to mitigate the outfall from its actual occurrence?
What if the worst possible thing happens during your project, in your company, in your life? What will you do if you cannot prevent the thing you thought you could prevent?
It’s true. Sometimes even the best thought-out plans and prepared-for scenarios are beyond our control.
Kaizen to the Rescue
Successful organizational improvement initiatives depend on successful follow-up and maintenance. To this end, a very effective continuous improvement approach is Kaizen—“change for the best” or “good change.”
Kaizen is a Lean methodology that includes a set of activities applied continuously to all functions in an organization. What sets Kaizen apart from other improvement methodologies is that it involves all employees in the organization—from the CEO to the front line workers.
And it is easy to apply in any type of organization and to all processes within the organization.
Peak Performers: Not Always Good for Business
Are you a peak performer? According to organizational psychology, the five fundamental peak performance proficiencies are…
Measures of Control
Several recent experiences force me to the same conclusion: Organizations that place many controls on their processes do so because their processes are flawed in the first place. Let me give you an example…
Customer Service
Organizations exist to serve customers. That's obvious. What may not be as obvious is that organizations in turmoil often forget this fact.
When an organization’s focus shifts from serving their customers to serving their own needs instead, problems arise. For instance, if your staff is exerting great effort to try and get customers to follow the organization’s internal processes, this is a problem. Typically starting in one area of the organization, this problem can permeate like a mushroom cloud throughout the organization. The results can be disastrous.
What Keeps Leaders Awake?
In a recent risk management survey by Aon Global Risk Consulting, organizations cited 50 concerns that are “keeping them awake at night.” The top three are: the economy, regulations, and competition
Leaning for Success
Lean is a management philosophy aimed at reducing waste—a philosophy that, to be effective, must become “second nature” to the way we work. Lean’s roots can be traced to the early 1900’s, although the term was coined in the early 1990s. The following illustrates Lean's evolution…
Clutter: If it's organized, is it still clutter?
Understanding what constitutes clutter from an organizational perspective helps staff eliminate clutter—both electronic and physical. While experts agree that there is more to clutter than just physical and electronic space, the organization’s primary concern needs to be in these two areas and include the following categories…
The Good and Bad of Habits
Habits allow us to not “think” about what we are doing, they’re an automatic response to stimuli. They can be useful when we are engaged in rote or mundane activities like the way we get up in the morning, the way we shower, or the way we clean the house. Because we don’t have to think about these activities, we can do them quickly and free our mind to think about other things such as planning our day.
Technology and Social Media on a Collusion Course
In the olden days (remember those?), technology didn’t have a place at work other than as a tool to get work done faster. Today, technology in the workplace is much different than it was even a decade ago.
Effective Leaders Enable Productive Organizations
As an effective leader, you know that certain competencies are necessary to your success on the job. Things like building yourself as a whole person (emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, creatively), building winning teams, being respectful of others to earn their respect, communicating effectively, inspiring others to build trust ... just to name a few. You may also know that proven leadership methods aren't always the answer in every situation.
In God we Trust, for Everything Else There's Data
Statistics are all about data. But did you know that data can be manipulated to provide you with the results that you thought you should have had in the first place? Don’t get me wrong. I believe data is very important. Without it, we’d be hard pressed to provide evidence in specific situations. However, if data is not collected in a controlled manner, the data can be useless. Let me explain.
Turning Efficiency into Power
Time and again, I have spoken about the need for efficient processes and systems to enable employees to do their best. It’s not enough to do something right once and then forget about it. If the process or system isn’t set up to sustain efficient activity in the first place, then waste is (and will be) prevalent.