blog.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
What’s the secret to working smarter, not harder? The answer is standardized work methods. If you do not have documented standards for your work, then you are working much harder than necessary.
Secret to Enabling a Paradigm Shift
Do you have a paradigm? Yes, of course; we all do. Paradigms are what we use as a frame of reference for whatever we do. Paradigms are our boundaries that tell us what to do in order to be successful within those boundaries.
Efficiency: There is Only One Best Way
It occurs to me that many people are bound by habit to repeat inefficient behaviours. Inefficient behaviours are those that require us to use more time and more steps to accomplish tasks. Sometimes we don’t even realize how inefficient we are until a faster way is demonstrated to us.
How Can "Voice of the Customer" be Used to Improve Organizational Performance?
In Lean Six Sigma, a specific methodology is used to address improvements in an existing process. These improvements are based on “the voice of the customer.” In other words, the organization’s motivation for improving organizational performance is based on what the customer is telling the organization. This makes sense since the organization’s sole purpose is to serve its customers. Without customers, the organization fails to exist.
What are the Top Ways to Improve Team Dynamics on a Project?
If you’re working on a project, you’re most likely working with a team and you know that sometimes there can be conflict within teams. Team dynamics are influenced by both the differences and the similarities that people bring to the team. So how do you improve team dynamics to maximize high performance?
How Can “Bottleneck” Executives Improve Their Personal Workflow?
Have you ever worked for a boss that seemed to be the ‘black hole’ of the organization? You know the one I’m talking about: documents that went into that office, but never came out, preventing you from doing your job. If you’re that boss, listen up. There is a way to improve your personal workflow.
35 Ways to Kill Ideas
I do not know the author of this list, but I found it to be a concise expose on how leaders (or anyone) can stifle innovation. It bears heeding that all ideas are valid ideas and some, if percolated sufficiently, may even lead to ingenious breakthroughs.
Using Internal Resources to Implement Projects
An organization can use its internal resources to implement new projects even if its internal resources are not subject matter experts (or SMEs). Here’s how: have your staff work alongside SMEs to learn how to implement projects in one or more pilot sites. By working alongside SMEs, staff is exposed to detailed implementation procedures which procedures they can apply to other sites as implementation progresses.
Traveling Executives can be Productive
If you’re a busy executive that travels frequently, listen up. Your productivity doesn’t need to suffer just because you’re on the road. And, in fact, travel time is the perfect opportunity for catching up on work. This is the time when you are free of telephone and office interruptions, so there’s really no better time to focus on some of your priorities and increase your productivity. Here are five steps to staying on top of your productivity when you’re traveling.
Project Charter - Why do we need one, anyway?
I’m often asked why one needs a project charter. After all, if we're working on the project (or if the project was our idea), we certainly know what needs to be done, don't we?
While organizations, individuals and project managers may very well know what needs to be done, the project charter is an essential tool that provides purpose and motivation for a team to do its work.
Managing Overnight Success
I recently worked with a client organization that became successful, seemingly overnight. Their dilemma was about how to manage their instant success and continue down a road of high efficiency and productivity.
While instant success is a dilemma that many organizations would love to experience, one of the things that struck me about my client was that they recognized very early the need for effective systems for continuous improvement. This recognition alone speaks volumes about how they will continue to be successful.
Productivity or Greece?
Productivity is a very complex topic and even among experts it is difficult to exact a prescription to improve productivity. In its simplest form, productivity measures the efficiency of production. It is the ratio of production output to what is required (inputs) to produce the output. In terms of economic growth, governments look at productivity as the product of labour based on the average number of hours each employed person works and the proportion of the entire population that is employed. Labour productivity drives living standards. However, just because a person is employed does not mean that they are productive.
Overworked? Really?
I have worked with many clients over the past few decades and one of the common complaints that I hear repeatedly is that they are “overworked.” While this doesn’t typically surprise me when I hear it from staff, it continues to surprise me when I hear it from executives.
Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For?
Is there such a thing as too much customer service? The more I ponder this question, the more I believe this to be true. Sometimes organizations may go “over the top” to please the customer, but in doing so, they create the opposite effect. Here’s an example.
The Big Lollapalooza: Exposed
Lollapalooza: an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
When was the last time you experienced a lollapalooza? Well, these days it seems that Lean and Six Sigma are the big lollapaloozas, although Lean and Six Sigma are nothing more than common sense approaches for efficiency. And getting work done efficiently is never an exception to how organizations are (or should be) practicing. Along with effectiveness (doing the right job), efficiency is essential to ensuring productivity.
The OHIO Method
The “OHIO” method is an easy way to be more efficient and productive in the way one handles records and information resources. In fact, it can help anyone to achieve more efficient workflow.
OHIO stands for: Only Handle It Once. The premise of this method is that when paperwork lands on your desk, you only handle it once by immediately assigning it to its correct place instead of re-shuffling the paper back to your inbox. Here’s how to do this.
What Productivity Improvements Make The Most Positive Impact In An Organization?
I am often asked: In what areas of an organization can productivity improvements make the most positive impact? There is no one correct answer to this question, but here are some things to consider.
How I Help Clients Operate More Efficiently
I am often asked how I can help clients operate more efficiently. My response to this is that it’s quite easy to become efficient. The secret is in eliminating as much wasted time and effort as possible from the tasks that are being performed. Here are my top four areas where I tell my clients to focus in order to operate more efficiently…
Remove Complexity to be Productive
There are many roads to productivity, but the best way I know how to become more productive is by eliminating complexity from personal and business processes. And the way to eliminate complexity is to identify areas in your personal and/or business processes that are costing the most and/or are creating the most customer dissatisfaction in the shortest period of time. Let me give you an example relating to a business process that is also impacting personal process.