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Assumptions Kill Creativity

3 September, 2014 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Innovation in reading

The population of India is well over 1.2 billion people. Second only to China in size. Roughly a quarter of that population can’t read or write. Or, depending on who, how and when you count, there are something like 300 million illiterate people in India. This is a problem that is worth fixing. But how? Teaching 300 million […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, innovation, literacy, problem solving

Top Secret Information

8 August, 2014 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Top Secret Information

Knowledge is power We talk a lot about big data; it is the new thing, the magic bullet that will solve all your organisational woes. No matter what your problem… the solution is in the data. This is the information age. We are knowledge workers and knowledge is power. Data is an asset, we should […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, big data, information technology, knowledge management

What Did you Learn?

25 July, 2014 by James Lawther 7 Comments

I in teamwork

My daughter (11) has developed another irritating habit. Whenever you say something to her she replies “I know” Your sister needs help. — “I know” We are late for school — “I know” E = MC squared — “I know” The cat is on fire — “I know” Of course I explode. How can you possibly learn anything new if […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, beliefs, human nature, learning

Ignorance and the Hippo

22 June, 2014 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Ignorance and the Hippo

Hidden Problems Ernesto Sirolli tells a lovely story in his book Ripples from the Zambezi: In the 1970’s he worked for an Italian NGO that provided aid for the people of Zambia. One of their projects was to teach the Zambians about agriculture and how to cultivate food. Ernesto tells how they arrived in a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, human nature, ignorance, management by wandering around

Leadership and the God Problem

13 June, 2014 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Leadership

A little question In his book Good To Great, Jim Collins poses a small but very interesting question: What is the key to organisational excellence?  Why do some businesses thrive whilst others bumble along at the most mediocre of levels? The answer is obvious…  Leadership If you have an operations problem you need better leadership Profit problem – […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: assumptions, beliefs, human nature, leadership, management style

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