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Are You a Lazy Manager?

25 June, 2013 by James Lawther 4 Comments

lazy manager

I’m all for blanket policies, they make life easy, everybody knows where they stand: Everybody on the same pay scale Everybody entitled to the same amount of holiday Everybody gets the same computer If you treat everyone fairly then everyone feels fairly treated. But I’m not so keen on blanket solutions A few years ago […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bad process, employee performance measures, problem solving, public relations, root cause analysis

Should you Standardise?

31 March, 2013 by James Lawther 5 Comments

There is a line of thought that says standardise your processes. After all without standardisation you just have anarchy. But every customer is different There is another line of thought that every customer is different: So no customer wants a standard outcome. If you insist in giving cookie-cutter service all you will do is create […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bad process, customer requirements, standardisation, variation

92 People Die for Lack of Trust

8 December, 2012 by James Lawther 8 Comments

TWA flight 514

In 1974 TWA flight 514 was flying into Washington Dulles airport.  As it came into land the air traffic controller said “cleared for approach”.  The flight crew thought it meant one thing (we will guide you in) but the control tower meant something ever so slightly different (guide yourself in).  It was simple miscommunication. Flight […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accident prevention, aviation, Aviation Safety Reporting System, bad process, blame, reinforcing behaviour, trust

Please Don’t Add Any More Process

12 April, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Bureaucracy

I was talking to somebody the other day who wanted to “add some process” to what they were doing. The thing is, I don’t think you can add some process.  Processes produce things, the fact that things were being produced showed that he already had a process. You can add some checks You can add […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bad process, bureaucracy, constraints, over-processing, tampering

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