Oftentimes my efforts to help client organizations improve performance involves assessing the impact of their culture on productivity. For example, despite the fact that many of our days are over stuffed with appointments and conference calls, we don’t typically feel like we’re getting enough done or doing enough well. This article from HBR sheds some light on why that is.
There’s an interesting read in this month’s Harvard Business Review (HBR): The Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making. The article explores the implications of variation in employee judgment and specifically, how to solve for that variation. In essence, the article was about Mura – the Japanese term meaning waste of unevenness / variation.
Like many of my clients, the organization featured in the article hadn’t previously considered the impact inconsistency […]
I was recently engaged by a VP of Operations to help him make the case for Lean to executive leadership. To that end, I was also tasked with convincing the CEO to revisit (and maybe refine) the organization’s values, purpose, goals. My recommendation was that an airtight business orientation would be essential to driving the organizational alignment necessary for Lean to flourish.
While I waited for my meeting to start, […]
I get the idea behind incentive plans –reward employees for extra effort related to achieving some sort of organizational goal. Typically one that has been hard to come by.
Sometimes they work.
When expectations are VERY clear.
When the goal isn’t too complex.
When employees have enough autonomy to affect ANY issues in their path that impede performance.
Most of the time they don’t.
First, because the issues incentive programs are intended to fix, aren’t […]
As a Continuous Improvement expert, I’m a control freak big fan of data. I wholeheartedly believe that you can’t create lasting improvements without 1 – benchmarking and 2 -understanding the context in which the data was derived. But despite the fact that you can quantify nearly every aspect of a process in its current state, when making projections about the future state, stakeholders must understand that even highly detailed […]
If you’re in the Chelmsford area tomorrow, I’ll be presenting my thoughts on how conflict creates waste in the organization and how that – not just process – is ultimately what derails performance.The ASQ Merrimack is hosting the event. Check it out HERE.
I had the good fortune of attending and presenting at AME’s annual conference in Jacksonville last week. As is custom, the event provided a myriad of learning opportunities that I am pleased to say included more emphasis on how organizational culture impacts Continuous Improvement. I think more education, case studies and opportunities to explore the complex people side of the Continuous Improvement equation will have a huge impact on […]
If you’re at #AMEJAX, I’ll be co-presenting with Deirdre Gruendler, senior consultant and director of the CultureSync Academy Friday, November 14, 2014 at 8:00 am. Stop by to say hello and check out our session: Building a Tribe that Excels to learn more about the ways culture impacts performance.
