I agree that Nordstrom’s market defining customer service is as this article suggests, the result of employees empowered by automony which is tempered by standards. But to have this kind of impact, standards can’t be created in a vacuum. And this level of service doesn’t happen by accident.
I believe this level of service and the standards that enable it, wouldn’t be as distinctive or impactful if they did not […]
Harvard Business Review’s article, “Storytelling That Moves People” , has resurfaced again recently. Though it’s been over 10 years since it was first published, I’m struck by its still very relevant message and how eloquently interview subject, writer and director Robert McKee, describes both the components and power of a good story as well as the qualities of a good storyteller. Organizations are desperately in need of both. Employee […]
Mark Graban gets to the heart of what keeps organizations from cultivating a CI culture – lack of organizational alignment and commitment:
“The problem is many (if not most) of these Lean initiatives are completely project-based or rely on top-down decisions, missing the opportunity for truly continuous improvement that engages each employee and leader – “Kaizen”.”
Mark’s tips on how to make it happen.
Interesting take on the ways giving drives learning, professional growth and even success for employers.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/how-to-succeed-professionally-by-helping-others/284429/
For better or worse, organizations that experience performance pain tend to feel the burn most acutely in Operations. Macresco is often brought in to assess the damage and charged with conceiving of the “Lean” remedy executive management (misguidedly) believes will put an end to their troubles. It is at this point where my uphill battle begins. I’m either battling leadership on the purpose and application of Lean or management […]
Lean and Six Sigma methodologies both hinge on getting to the root cause of an issue as a means of addressing performance. Generally speaking, this approach reveals significant opportunities to improve productivity by way of more streamlined processes.
Sooner or later, however, the same issues Continuous Improvement (CI) initiatives were implemented to fix, crop up again. I believe it is because the true root cause driving this operational pain isn’t […]
I believe that everyone comes to work every day to do his or her best. Sometimes life and work can get in the way, but I believe that in general, when people are given a chance to “do good” they step up to the challenge.
I didn’t always think this way. In all of my years of observing the way organizations went about improving performance, management consistently placed the blame on […]
