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The Shocking Truth About Your Improvement Project

6 August, 2013 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Is this an improvement?

Yesterday I read that only 5% of the changes we make at work are changes for the better.  Only 1 in 20 improvements actually improve things. Allegedly everything else we do is ineffective or, worse still, counter-productive. Ungrounded statistics I thought that sounded horribly harsh.  Only 1 in 20 improvements are really improvements?  It sounded more […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: beliefs, continuous improvement, office productivity, project management, service improvement

The Problem with NPS (Or do I Look Fat in This?)

3 August, 2013 by James Lawther 14 Comments

fat man

I am 45. They say that when middle-age is upon us our broad minds and narrow waists swap sizes. It is happening to me, (certainly around my waist, and as I no longer enjoy finding strangers in my kitchen first thing in the morning, probably my mind as well). I need to lose some weight […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: customer requirements, customer surveys, net promoter score, nothing new under the sun

How to Walk in Your Customer’s Shoes

30 July, 2013 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Hire your Staff

We have all been told to “walk in our customer’s shoes”. When we walk in our customer’s shoes we can understand what our customers want: What their problems are What pressures they feel What is going on in their minds And if we can really understand our customers we can: Communicate better with them Give […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: colleagues, customer behaviour, no substitute for experience, recruitment

The Simple Reason People Won’t do as You Ask

27 July, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Girl in Burqa

Some people just won’t follow commands. They won’t follow directives; they hate being told to what to do. This is a problem, particularly if you want them to behave differently, if you want that all elusive “cultural change”. Some cultural changes are harder than others Imagine the challenges facing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the man who […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: human nature, motivation, reinforcing behaviour

Facebook: It is so Rewarding

25 July, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Bored at Work

We work in large organisations that ban access to social media. We have long-winded IT policies that forbid our employees from tweeting, liking, stumbling or commenting. After all we are paying these people to work, not to surf the internet catching up with their friends. But is our logic sound?  Should we isolate our employees […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: communication, Facebook, information technology, innovation, social media, Twitter

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