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Preventable Harm

13 June, 2016 by James Lawther 3 Comments

A definition: The unintended physical injury resulting from or contributed to by medical care (including the absence of indicated medical treatment), that requires additional monitoring, treatment or hospitalisation, or that results in death. A simpler definition: A medical accident. A few statistics: The medical industry 2014: The estimated number of premature deaths in US hospitals […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: aviation, blame, error proofing, management style, medicine

4 Ways to Solve a Problem

8 June, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

The one that got away

An apocryphal story: A man you know is hungry.  There are 4 ways you could solve his problem: Slap him about a bit. This will take his mind of it.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fish to eat.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Give him a fishing rod and show them how to fish.  Hunger gone, problem solved. Develop a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, error proofing, problem solving, root cause analysis

Go, Look, Understand

2 June, 2016 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Go Look Understand

Problem solving To solve a problem you need to understand the problem. Understanding comes at all sorts of places: Opinions We all have opinions, mental models of how things work and people behave.  Our opinions help us box off and make sense of the world. Data Numbers and patterns.  Information that helps us see how […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: back to the floor, gemba, problem solving

Productivity for Productivity’s Sake

15 May, 2016 by James Lawther 7 Comments

stock waste

The obsession We love to make things more productive. We strive to be cheaper, more efficient, higher yielding.  It is the holy grail, taking up most of our working hours. More for less in itself isn’t a bad goal, but who decides if we are being productive? Myopic measurement Imagine you flip burgers for a living and you […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: lean thinking, McDonald's, measurement, office productivity, over-production, stock, systems thinking

Synergy

7 May, 2016 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Synergy

A great management word We love to talk about synergies, it is a super word, hard and scientific. It gives the impression that we know what we are doing. That we are in control. Synergy: the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts What drives synergy? If synergy is […]

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

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