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Rule 1: Prioritise the Work

10 June, 2015 by James Lawther 7 Comments

prioritise the work

Café Culture The other day I walked into a café; it was a popular place, there were people crowded around all the tables.  Three members of staff were on duty. They were having a long and detailed conversation about a stock-take. I stood and waited. I waited and stood. The staff gave me a good […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, customer focus, gemba, good service, John Lewis, purpose, service design

Red is Good Green is Bad

19 May, 2015 by James Lawther 7 Comments

The RAG status We love RAG statuses, Red, Amber, Green: My project is on track :) We are meeting all our SLA’s :) We have some minor resourcing issues :/ Our cost performance is upper quartile :) We manage our businesses with green happy faces.  It gives executives a sense of control. And if performance […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: blame, fessing up, key performance indicators, performance management, project management

How to Improve (At Just About Anything)

3 May, 2015 by James Lawther 15 Comments

There are two ways to improve: 1. The classic way: Do – make an improvement Do – change a process Do – implement some training Do – install a system When you have been through the 4 do’s keep right on doing. 2. The recommended way: Plan – develop an idea or innovation, work out how […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: continuous improvement, plan do check act, video, W. Edwards Deming

Do You Understand the System?

24 April, 2015 by James Lawther 7 Comments

The pressure is on Your cost base is spiralling upwards, your boss is squealing, and his boss is squealing louder. Unless you get a firm grip of the situation you are going to get lots of “executive help”.  You need to do something and do it now. When caught like this it is easy — perhaps […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: complexity, root cause analysis, short term thinking, systems thinking, video

Where is Your Pilot Plant?

22 March, 2015 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Pilot Plant Experiment

To improve you must learn Unfortunately, you only learn when you mess things up.  You only learn how to ride a bike by falling off one.  If you didn’t fall off, then you didn’t learn (I guess you already knew how to ride it). If you try something new and it works first time, fresh […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, innovation, no substitute for experience, service improvement, test and learn

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