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Slimy Customer Service

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Scientists in Japan have been working with a species of slime mold.  It spreads out radially, growing a network of veins as it looks for food.  When it finds food it then contracts to remove redundant veins . The scientists carried out an experiment; producing a map of Tokyo with oat flakes (food) and watching […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: capability, clarity, communication, complexity, decisions, purpose

The Toasted Bagel

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I went to a breakfast meeting this week in a “euro” hotel.  It had gold plated taps, stripy carpets and sat in the middle of an industrial estate.  I am sure you would recognise it. They served smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels.  This should have made up for the gold taps, I get hungry […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, customer focus, poor service

Evolutionary Pressure

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Outsourcing costs jobs right?  It is bad for the economy; exporting jobs to low wage countries. Well maybe not.  In an interesting economics paper John van Reenen of the LSE puts a different slant on it.  His view is that the increased imports from China and India have led to job losses in areas of […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: assumptions, capability, continuous improvement, outsourcing, supply and demand

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

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