The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

Welcome to the Squawk Point

The Squawk Point is all about service operations and our ability to make things far more complicated than they really need to be.

Running an operation should be as easy as finding out what your customers want, then giving it to them. Nothing more or less.

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Index

Service Improvement Index

A

  • abandon rate (5)
  • accident prevention (17)
  • accountability (33)
  • altruism (1)
  • Amazon (5)
  • analysis paralysis (4)
  • anchoring (2)
  • andon (2)
  • Andrew Dilnot (1)
  • anonymity (2)
  • Anscombe’s quartet (1)
  • Apple (6)
  • Aravind Eye Hospital (1)
  • Asda (1)
  • assumptions (49)
  • auditors (4)
  • authenticity (5)
  • automation (9)
  • availability heuristic (3)
  • average (3)
  • average handle time (5)
  • aviation (12)
  • Aviation Safety Reporting System (2)

B

  • backlog (3)
  • back to the floor (16)
  • bad process (9)
  • ballistic model of success (1)
  • being too helpful (2)
  • beliefs (50)
  • benchmarking (6)
  • best practice (45)
  • big data (5)
  • bitching and moaning (8)
  • blame (41)
  • bling (2)
  • Bob Sutton (1)
  • bottleneck (7)
  • brainstorm (4)
  • bullwhip effect (4)
  • bureaucracy (39)
  • business process management (12)
  • business rules (1)

C

  • call centre (9)
  • capability (32)
  • capacity (9)
  • capacity planning (5)
  • capital investment (10)
  • case study (1)
  • cheap and nasty (5)
  • cheating (11)
  • checklist (5)
  • Christmas (6)
  • clarity (54)
  • cobra effect (1)
  • collaboration (15)
  • colleagues (6)
  • command and control (30)
  • communication (83)
  • comparative advantage (1)
  • competence (5)
  • complexity (39)
  • compliance (13)
  • confidence (4)
  • confirmation bias (1)
  • conformity (12)
  • constraints (16)
  • continuous improvement (68)
  • controls (1)
  • cooperation (2)
  • correlation (2)
  • cost of poor quality (10)
  • cost saving (39)
  • cost versus quality (3)
  • credibility (10)
  • cross-functional processes (1)
  • culture (38)
  • customer behaviour (6)
  • customer complaints (3)
  • customer effort (2)
  • customer focus (45)
  • customer intimacy (1)
  • customer requirements (8)
  • customer satisfaction (3)
  • customer surveys (6)
  • cycling (4)

D

  • Dan Ariely (1)
  • Daniel Pink (6)
  • data integrity (4)
  • data is not information (35)
  • data presentation (19)
  • decisions (21)
  • default option (4)
  • defects (3)
  • design error (1)
  • devil is in the detail (6)
  • Dilbert (8)
  • Dilbert paradox (1)
  • diversity (6)
  • do as I say (5)
  • dogmatism (5)
  • Domino’s Pizza (3)
  • dopamine (1)
  • Douglas McGregor (2)

E

  • e-mail (3)
  • East Midlands Trains (7)
  • economies of scale (3)
  • effective meetings (9)
  • efficiency versus effectiveness (9)
  • employee ownership (3)
  • employee performance measures (22)
  • employee recognition (7)
  • empowerment (21)
  • error proofing (54)
  • escalation (1)
  • estimation (2)
  • Eugène parks his car (1)
  • evolution (1)
  • exchange of value (1)

F

  • Facebook (2)
  • fail safe (1)
  • false positive and negative (2)
  • fast food (5)
  • fear and anxiety (7)
  • fedex day (1)
  • feedback (1)
  • fessing up (23)
  • first call resolution (3)
  • five s (3)
  • flow (3)
  • focus (11)
  • forced fun (3)
  • forecast accuracy (1)
  • form follows function (6)
  • free gifts (1)

G

  • gemba (35)
  • global warming (2)
  • good enough (1)
  • Goodhart’s law (4)
  • good service (7)
  • Google (4)
  • government (9)
  • graphical user interface (3)
  • group think (13)

H

  • hack day (1)
  • happiness (1)
  • Hodding Carter (1)
  • human error (1)
  • human nature (83)
  • human resources (5)

I

  • ignorance (15)
  • incentives (28)
  • influence (1)
  • information technology (38)
  • infrastructure (2)
  • innovation (68)
  • inputs and outputs (2)
  • insight (10)
  • integrity (4)
  • interactive voice response (6)
  • irrelevance (1)

J

  • jargon (10)
  • job titles (1)
  • John Boyd (2)
  • John Lewis (4)

K

  • key performance indicators (40)
  • knowledge management (5)
  • knowledge worker (1)
  • Konica (1)

L

  • ladder of inference (1)
  • lead and lag measures (2)
  • leadership (14)
  • lean six sigma (2)
  • lean thinking (14)
  • learning (39)
  • legacy systems (1)
  • legal system (2)
  • less is more (6)
  • leverage (1)
  • listening (13)
  • literacy (1)
  • local government (6)
  • logic tree (3)
  • long term (1)
  • luck (1)

M

  • make it so good they will want to come back and bring their friends (4)
  • management (1)
  • management by wandering around (8)
  • management style (92)
  • manufacturing (9)
  • marketing (13)
  • marshmallow challenge (2)
  • McDonald’s (7)
  • measurement (63)
  • medicine (20)
  • memory (2)
  • mental models (2)
  • Michael Blastland (1)
  • mission statement (4)
  • mitigating demand (6)
  • mixed messages (8)
  • momentum (2)
  • monitoring (7)
  • motivation (63)
  • mura (2)

N

  • net promoter score (3)
  • Nigel Mansell (1)
  • no substitute for experience (6)
  • nothing new under the sun (8)

O

  • objective setting (17)
  • office productivity (18)
  • ohno circle (1)
  • Olympics (3)
  • one step at a time (1)
  • oobeya room (1)
  • OODA Loop (1)
  • operational definition (1)
  • operational excellence (7)
  • organisation (12)
  • outsourcing (8)
  • over-justification effect (1)
  • over-processing (7)
  • over-production (2)

P

  • pareto principle (10)
  • peer review (1)
  • perceived risk (5)
  • performance management (52)
  • Peter Drucker (2)
  • Peter Scholtes (1)
  • plan do check act (5)
  • planning (5)
  • planning fallacy (2)
  • point measure (2)
  • point optimisation (14)
  • political intervention (7)
  • political will (10)
  • poor service (27)
  • Post Office (1)
  • presentations (7)
  • pride in the job (6)
  • proactive reprioritisation (1)
  • problem solving (21)
  • process control (33)
  • process mapping (9)
  • process noise (3)
  • product leadership (1)
  • project management (10)
  • proportionality (1)
  • protectionism (1)
  • public relations (3)
  • purpose (77)
  • pygmalion effect (8)

Q

  • quality assurance (3)
  • quality control (7)
  • quantitative or qualitative (1)
  • queue (4)

R

  • recruitment (6)
  • redundancy (2)
  • regression to the mean (1)
  • reinforcing behaviour (44)
  • reorganisation (4)
  • research (3)
  • resilience (1)
  • results only work environment (2)
  • revenue generation (10)
  • rework (9)
  • rhetoric (5)
  • risk assessment (16)
  • risk compensation (1)
  • road sign (5)
  • Robert Rosenthal (3)
  • Roger Banister (1)
  • roles and responsibilities (8)
  • root cause analysis (21)
  • Rory Sutherland (1)
  • Russel L. Ackoff (1)

S

  • sacred cows (7)
  • salaries (1)
  • sales (1)
  • sample bias (1)
  • self belief (7)
  • service design (29)
  • service differentiation (4)
  • service improvement (19)
  • service recovery (1)
  • shared services (1)
  • Shawn Achor (1)
  • short term thinking (6)
  • silo management (25)
  • simplicity (11)
  • six sigma (14)
  • SlideShare (5)
  • slogans (2)
  • SMART goals (6)
  • social media (3)
  • solutioneering (2)
  • spans of control (1)
  • spurious accuracy (1)
  • staff utilisation (1)
  • standardisation (9)
  • stand up meetings (3)
  • statistical process control (2)
  • statistics (11)
  • stereotype (7)
  • Steven Johnson (1)
  • stock (3)
  • strategy (13)
  • suggestion schemes (2)
  • supply and demand (12)
  • supply chain (7)
  • surge capacity (2)
  • swiss cheese model (3)
  • systems thinking (55)

T

  • tampering (17)
  • targets (39)
  • teamwork (27)
  • TED talks (9)
  • template (2)
  • test and learn (34)
  • theory X and theory Y (2)
  • time series plot (1)
  • Tim Harford (4)
  • Tom Wujec (1)
  • tools to do the job (5)
  • Toyota (5)
  • training (16)
  • transportation waste (3)
  • trend analysis (2)
  • trust (42)
  • twenty percent time (2)
  • Twitter (2)

U

  • usability testing (3)

V

  • variation (5)
  • video (125)
  • vigilance decrement (1)
  • visual management (16)
  • voice of the customer (1)
  • volatility (1)

W

  • W. Edwards Deming (9)
  • waiting (6)
  • waldsterben (1)
  • waste (34)
  • wasted intellect (11)
  • wasted motion (3)
  • web site design (3)
  • weltanschauung (3)
  • what don’t you see (8)
  • William Chase (1)
  • Williams-Renault (1)
  • work around (3)
  • work instructions (6)
  • work out (2)
  • workplace conditions (2)
  • workshop (1)
  • world class (2)
  • World War 2 (3)

X

  • xylophone (1)

Y

  • Yo Sushi (1)

Z

  • Zhao Zuohai (1)
  • zombies (2)

Try This:

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  • Should You Punish Mistakes?

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