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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

What Type of Boss are You?

18 January, 2015 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Manager or Entrepreneur

In most businesses there are two types of bosses (maybe more): Some are managerial Managers think strategically, they work out exactly where they want to go and then create plans to get them there, as effectively as possible.  They plan, organise and execute. Managers… Have big plans Search out resources Exploit and optimise Work out the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: innovation, learning, management style, planning

What is Your Management Blindside?

13 January, 2015 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Exam Hall

An education is a wonderful thing Every year in the UK 16-year-olds study for their General Certificates of Education (G.C.S.E’s.).  And every year the the Government publishes the results.  This is how they have changed: I did my GCSE’s (or something similar) in 1984.  I am an old (and as you can extrapolate from the chart) […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: customer focus, key performance indicators, measurement

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