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The Simplest Way to Improve Performance – Possibly

3 January, 2016 by James Lawther 15 Comments

An interesting story: Courtesy of Donella Meadows: Near Amsterdam, there is a suburb of single-family houses all built at the same time, all alike. Well, nearly alike. For unknown reasons it happened that some of the houses were built with the electric meter down in the basement. In other houses, the electric meter was installed in the front […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: key performance indicators, measurement, systems thinking

Solutioneering

29 December, 2015 by James Lawther 1 Comment

solutioneering: səˈluːʃ(ə)nɪərɪŋ/ noun attempting to solve a problem or deal with a difficult situation without understanding it the branch of management concerned with embedding the latest management thinking as fast as possible a mechanism of creating activity that gives the appearance of progress without developing forward motion a field of study concerned with characterising a problem by […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bad process, group think, human nature, ignorance, management style, solutioneering

The Problem with Cause and Effect

20 December, 2015 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Northern Rock

We think in straight lines Cause and effect. If I do this, then that will happen.  If I make this change then I will get that outcome. Unfortunately the world isn’t like that.  An initiative might work for a while, but then it will stop or backfire. Unintended consequences and side effects bedevil us.  Performance will plateau or […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: problem solving, systems thinking, test and learn

Busy Doing Nothing

13 December, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

I am a busy man An executive with a burgeoning inbox — or so I tell my wife. This week I… Wrote presentations Prepared for audits Attend stakeholder briefings Drafted investment proposals Wrote appraisals Reviewed budgets Socialised information Reorganised departments Hired new staff Brainstormed solutions Talked about customers Discussed automation strategies Visited suppliers Defined new […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, human nature, management style, purpose, video, wasted intellect

Selling an Idea

3 December, 2015 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Entrancing Presentation

Presentation skills I guess that you — like me — spend lots of time selling ideas.  Trying to get funding and resources for the projects and improvements that you want to do. My standard approach is to bang a load of information into PowerPoint and hope for the best.  I want to show the man […]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Techniques, Wild Cards Tagged With: communication, presentations

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