I found a dreadful news article about a man who died after taking an overdose of the painkiller methadone. The reason why he took the overdose is because the directions typed out by the technician in the pharmacy said “take as needed” as opposed to the doctor’s prescription “take 4 tablets twice daily”. Tragically the […]
Archives for January 2010
Can’t Or Won’t?
The biggest complaint about administrative processes is the amount of red tape we have to deal with. So what is red tape? “The mechanical and totally unnecessary adherence to regulations, needless duplication of records and the compilation of excessive amount of extraneous information resulting in prolonged delay or inaction.” I got that from The China […]
Talk to Me
The more companies I work with the more it becomes apparent that members of staff realise that they are being asked to do wasteful things by their senior managers. They just don’t challenge back. (They are however very adept at bitching about the situation amongst themselves). Managers don’t ask for these wasteful things out of […]
Stupid Lazy People
The problem with most businesses is that they employ people who are too stupid or lazy to do the job properly. Let me give you an example: According to the World Health Organisation “hand hygiene is the single most important factor in reducing and preventing avoidable illnesses”, yet a survey by the National Audit Office […]
Small is Beautiful
This morning I had a conversation with a gentleman who (amongst other things) works with problem children and families. He is a strong proponent of “solutions based coaching“, which is getting people to work out for themselves where they want to be, and then working through the practical steps they could take to get there. […]