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Getting Away with Murder

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Chinese Police

A Chinese man, Zhao Zuohai, who was sentenced to death and spent 11 years behind bars for murder has been acquitted and given £65,000 compensation. In 1999 a neighbour he had fought with disappeared and a headless body was found.  Police assumed that the body was the neighbour’s and, under pressure to find the murderer, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: assumptions, targets, Zhao Zuohai

Bad Behaviour

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I read an interesting posting by Seth Godin.  To quote him: “Bad behaviour and irrational decisions are almost always caused by fear. If you want to change the behaviour, address the fear.” The other week I spent some time with a business that runs a team of field service engineers.  The guys who turn up […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: measurement, poor service, reinforcing behaviour

God Save the President

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

President Obama launched the SAVE award last year.  The (nothing new) principle is that US government employees suggest ideas to save money.  The first winner of the award was Nancy Fichtner whose idea for reusing medical supplies is expected to save $2 million p.a. So far President Obama has received nearly 40,000 ideas. This is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, continuous improvement, cost saving, government, reinforcing behaviour, suggestion schemes, video

The Exception

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

All databases have exceptions and exception reports that need to be manually fixed.  It is a law of nature.  And exception reports get very messy. What is the priority? How do you know you worked everything? Will the report you didn’t work blow up in your face? Did you look for all the accounts that […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: capacity, clarity, complexity, information technology, process control

Ecological Disaster

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico is now roughly the size of Puerto Rico.  Oil is rushing to the surface at the rate of 800,000 litres per day. The cause of the spill is known and understood and attempts are being made to stem the flow of oil. What is not so well […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: cost saving, process control, root cause analysis

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