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A Culture of Fear, Intimidation and Retaliation

21 September, 2017 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Nervous Teacher

The scandal In 2011, a state report to the Governor’s office in Georgia claimed that there was “organised and systemic misconduct” in 44 of Atlanta’s 56 schools.  2 years later 35 teachers, head teachers and administrative staff were brought to trial and charged with racketeering and other offences. The smoking gun The accusations revolved around […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, conformity, data is not information, fear and anxiety, Goodhart's law, key performance indicators, performance management, political intervention, poor service, targets

Management Cardboard

11 September, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Management Cardboard

Management control Rather longer ago than I care to admit, I worked for an FMCG company.  I worked in R&D, and developed new frozen food products for a living. There were two things we worried about: The contents – the product that customers pay for, the fish finger or ice cream. The container – the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, command and control, complexity, waste

Poor Behaviour

5 September, 2017 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Dysfunctional situations It is easy to blame other people’s behaviour for poor performance: He is uncooperative She is selfish He is incompetent She is a bully He is power crazed She is rude Poor behaviour causes all sorts of dysfunctional situations.  Doesn’t it? The experiment In 1971 Phillipe Zimbardo set up the Stanford prison experiment. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, management style, reinforcing behaviour, systems thinking, video

Tool Hire

1 September, 2017 by James Lawther 3 Comments

tool hire

There are lots of tools out there I don’t mean that in a derogatory way.  I mean process improvement tools: 5S, control charts, swim lanes… those sort of tools. There are also lots of people who know how to use those tools. It is easy to recruit staff who can bring a toolbox stuffed with approaches […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: beliefs, lean thinking, six sigma, training

One Hundred Bad Ideas

21 August, 2017 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Bad Idea

Notable failures Even the most successful people have failures: James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before he perfected one vacuum cleaner. Mozart wrote over 64 symphonies.  How many have you heard? Richard Branson has launched over 400 business ventures, remember Virgin Vodka?  Nope, nor do I. Over 30 years Albert Einstein published ~ 345 scientific papers but his major work […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: blame, innovation, learning

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