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Layering Your Problems In

13 March, 2016 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Creating Problems

How to cook a leg of lamb When my wife cooks a leg of lamb she asks me to cut off the last 7 inches – the shank. Cutting the last few inches off a leg of lamb is not easy.  It requires a hack saw and good deal of gusto.  By the time the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bad process, complexity, quality control, reinforcing behaviour, waste, work around

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

Are You in Control?

23 February, 2014 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Bird Brain

Simple Birds It was half term last week. I took my children to North Norfolk. We explored sandy beaches, rolling countryside and panoramic skies.  It was as beautiful. The highlight was a walk across the salt marshes and the sight of a flock of startled geese scurrying across the sky.   How do the birds […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: complexity, incentives, process control, service design, tampering, targets

Less is More

6 February, 2014 by James Lawther 9 Comments

FedEx

All children are artists They can pick up a pen or a crayon and create.  Before you know it they have drawn something beautiful, a flower or a house or a friend.  Simple, clear and elegant. Unfortunately they just don’t know when to stop. The colouring in starts, red felt tips, green pencils, blue crayons, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: clarity, communication, complexity, lean thinking, less is more

Simple is the New Clever

30 December, 2013 by James Lawther 10 Comments

Management is about clarity But clarity is a rare gift… Most of us like to be more strategic in our communication… We love to look serious and feel clever… Nobody likes to sound simple We must penetrate the customer base vertically and horizontally If we reallocate our assets we can achieve synergy and benefit from […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: communication, complexity, Dilbert, management style, simplicity

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