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Can You See The Future?

1 March, 2015 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Lead Measures

How useful is your data? Data comes in all shapes and sizes, you could classify it in a hundred and one different ways: categorical, ordinal, Boolean, composite … Here a couple of the less technically challenging – read eye-rollingly dull – categories: Opinion or Observation Opinions are what people think, so opinions are important. Some argue […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: data is not information, inputs and outputs, key performance indicators, lead and lag measures, measurement

A Management Fable

21 February, 2015 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Frank and the Spanner In the Midlands there is a factory.  They make bits, which fit into other bits, which eventually find their way into washing machines and lawn mowers. It is a grimy old factory that bumps along the bottom of the industrial supply chain, just about making enough money to keep its doors […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: empowerment, listening, pride in the job

Strengths and Weaknesses

12 February, 2015 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Harry was not a well man He was in a terrible state of health.  Cancer had eaten away at his digestive tract, it was so bad that surgeons had removed three-quarters of his stomach. He was constantly in and out of hospital, surviving on a diet of caffeine, nicotine and blood transfusions. A friend’s daughter […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: assumptions, continuous improvement, human nature, learning, management style, performance management, reinforcing behaviour, World War 2

The Problem with Solutions

1 February, 2015 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Hiding Problems

Clever management phrases When I was a graduate trainee I had a manager who loved to say: “Do not come to me with problems, come with solutions” He believed it was a clever and motivational sort of thing to say.  It would make me more creative, I would start to think ahead and develop my own solutions, and — […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: ignorance, leadership, listening, problem solving

Management Beliefs

25 January, 2015 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Management Beliefs

Do you believe in self-help? One of my favourite quotes is from Henry Ford: Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right Personally I am all for a bit of self belief, but does it work for organisations as well as people? Does belief have a place in business? In 1974 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, employee performance measures, office productivity, pygmalion effect, research, self belief

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