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The Management Conundrum

16 March, 2020 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Trust or control? Imagine a scenario where your employees keep on changing things.  All in the name of improvement and innovation.  Everybody is spending time making your organisation run that little bit better.  It sounds great, a management nirvana,  until you realise that they are tinkering with processes, messing with procedures and running roughshod over […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, compliance, Dilbert, human nature, management style, trust

The Blind Men and the Elephant

3 March, 2020 by James Lawther 2 Comments

The art of listening There is a tale that originated somewhere in the Indian subcontinent about six blind men and an elephant.  My favourite version of the story is a poem written in the mid 19th Century The blind men and the elephant It was six men of IndostanTo learning much inclined,Who went to see […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: communication, human nature, listening

Learning From the Boy Who Cried Wolf

10 February, 2020 by James Lawther 2 Comments

False positive and false negative Lots of us are paid to make decisions: Maybe you decide how to treat a patient Maybe you decide if a prisoner is guilty Maybe you decide how much soup to prepare Maybe you decide if a payment is fraudulent Maybe, maybe, maybe. There are plenty of decisions to be […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: data is not information, decisions, false positive and negative, risk assessment

The Daily Grind

22 January, 2020 by James Lawther 1 Comment

How do you cope? I run (maybe it would be more accurate to say am loosely responsible for) a back office.  It provides a service to an organisation.  It doesn’t talk to customers It doesn’t make sales It doesn’t drive revenue It is one big cost.  A lonely place to sit on any profit and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, nothing new under the sun, operational excellence, systems thinking

Fixes That Fail

2 January, 2020 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Cost cutting Definition : An effective short term financial fix that has long-term consequences. These ultimately require more of the same short term fix. Examples: Profit numbers were low so managers deferred essential maintenance.  They saved money in the short term, but the machines failed.  This led to poor customer service, reduced sales and — in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, cost saving, systems thinking

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