The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

  • Home
  • Blog
    • People
    • Data
    • Process
    • Wild Cards
    • Index
  • Podcast
  • Book

Standards Make Good Servants but Poor Masters

4 November, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

standard work

Standard work I found an interesting post about standardisation in public services.   The post argues that standardisation doesn’t work in the service industry.  Each customer or citizen is different and because each citizen is different they want different things.  So if you standardise everything and then force your staff to follow the standard process […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: andon, best practice, command and control, compliance, conformity, standardisation, work instructions

Organisations Create Culture

22 April, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Organisation noun /ɔːɡ(ə)nʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/ A group of people with a particular purpose, such as a business or government department. The way activities are managed and completed. synonyms: company, firm, concern, operation, corporation, institution, group, establishment Culture noun /ˈkʌltʃə/ The ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. The way we do things round […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: conformity, culture, human nature, organisation

Management Heresy

10 November, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Heresy — noun (ˈhɛrəsɪ ) An opinion or doctrine contrary to the beliefs of an organisation The act of maintaining such an opinion or doctrine An interesting word And an interesting activity. I often wonder about heretics. Are they a bunch of loony tunes who can’t see how wrong they are? Or are they perfectly […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: beliefs, conformity, human nature

A Culture of Fear, Intimidation and Retaliation

21 September, 2017 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Nervous Teacher

The scandal In 2011, a state report to the Governor’s office in Georgia claimed that there was “organised and systemic misconduct” in 44 of Atlanta’s 56 schools.  2 years later 35 teachers, head teachers and administrative staff were brought to trial and charged with racketeering and other offences. The smoking gun The accusations revolved around […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, conformity, data is not information, fear and anxiety, Goodhart's law, key performance indicators, performance management, political intervention, poor service, targets

Should You Dress Like Your Boss?

28 January, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

conformity

Conformity Have you ever noticed that people conform? If your boss comes into work wearing a pin strip suit it will spread.  Before you know it, there will be wall to wall pin stripes. If your boss is more of a creative type — skinny jeans and a hipster beard — then you can rest […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: conformity, group think

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

Explore

accountability assumptions beliefs best practice blame bureaucracy capability clarity command and control communication complexity continuous improvement cost saving culture customer focus data is not information decisions employee performance measures empowerment error proofing fessing up gemba human nature incentives information technology innovation key performance indicators learning management style measurement motivation performance management poor service process control purpose reinforcing behaviour service design silo management systems thinking targets teamwork test and learn trust video waste

Receive Posts by e-Mail

Get the next post delivered straight to your inbox

Creative Commons

This information from The Squawk Point is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Creative Commons Licence
Customer Experience Update

Try This:

  • Regression to The Mean

  • Glory Lasts Forever

  • Fish Bone Diagrams – Helpful or Not?

  • Brilliance Alone Won’t Take You Far

Connect

  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube
  • Cookies
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in