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Sex and Soap Powder, Trial and Error

4 July, 2016 by James Lawther 4 Comments

An interesting story: Steve Jones is a geneticist, a well-known one, if you move in those circles.  He tells an interesting story about failure.  You can skip my version and watch it below if you wish. The problem There is a soap powder factory near Liverpool.  It makes Persil and Surf and things like that. In […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: culture, evolution, innovation, learning, test and learn

Pride and Ignorance

29 June, 2016 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Scurvy isn’t nice If you are unfortunate enough to contract it you will start to feel tired. Then you will develop spots on your skin and your gums will turn spongy. A week or so later you will start to bleed from your mucous membranes and your skin will turn yellow.  Eventually sufferers develop open […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: command and control, gemba, group think, human nature, ignorance, innovation, no substitute for experience, nothing new under the sun, political will

The Burden

19 June, 2016 by James Lawther 7 Comments

We all carry a mental burden A burden of things we worry about: We worry about our pension We worry about where we are going to get lunch from We worry about buying a present for our mother’s birthday We worry about our next performance appraisal We worry about.. I think you get the gist… […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: culture, employee recognition, workplace conditions

Preventable Harm

13 June, 2016 by James Lawther 3 Comments

A definition: The unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment), that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalisation, or that results in death. A simpler definition: A medical accident. A few statistics: The medical industry 2014: The estimated number of premature deaths in US hospitals […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: aviation, blame, error proofing, management style, medicine

4 Ways to Solve a Problem

8 June, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

The one that got away

An apocryphal story: A man you know is hungry.  There are 4 ways you could solve his problem: Slap him about a bit. This will take his mind of it.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fish to eat.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fishing rod and show them how to fish.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Develop a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, error proofing, problem solving, root cause analysis

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