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Organisational Mechanics

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Does All That “Structure” Help?

26 September, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Escapology

Organisations are complicated They have: Customer requirements Partner requirements Legal requirements Compliance requirements Legacy systems Specialist teams Obsolete databases Competitive pressure Profitability problems And all those competing priorities are in conflict with each other. How do we manage complexity? By creating process and structure: RACI frameworks Target Operating Models Interim targets Delegated authority levels KPIs Heads […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, blame, business process management, collaboration, command and control, complexity, constraints, office productivity, performance management, systems thinking, teamwork

How Good Are Your People? Comparatively?

21 September, 2016 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Comparetive Advantage

The theory of comparative advantage In 1817 the economist David Ricardo developed the theory of comparative advantage.  It explains why nations trade. He gave this example to explain it: Scenario 1. Imagine the economy consists of two countries that produce both cloth and wine; Portugal and England. Though their output is of equal quality, Portugal is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: collaboration, comparative advantage, constraints, leadership, performance management

The I-Bomb

15 December, 2013 by James Lawther 10 Comments

Bang… There’s been an explosion.  Not a Car Bomb or a Molotov Cocktail, nothing that crude, it was much more sophisticated, it was an Infrastructure Bomb, it… Shredded your systems Destroyed your data Pulverised your processes Macerated your MI Splattered your specifications Brutalised your business rules The whole lot is gone… wiped… deleted.  The waste […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, constraints, information technology, infrastructure, innovation, legacy systems

The Beauty of Low Tech

10 August, 2013 by Bernie Smith

low tech solution

This is a guest post I had my eyes tested at Specsavers a couple of weeks ago: I got my eye test, but not without three separate initiatives on my part and one wasted trip to the store. Too much technology All of this happened despite Specsavers having: Perhaps they had taken a leaf out […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capital investment, constraints, error proofing, information technology, service design, simplicity

Why is it so Difficult?

14 June, 2013 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Change Yourself

The message I preach is very simple: I’m a little like a stuck record (I’m showing my age, do you remember records?), I bang on a bit, I even bore myself.  The message isn’t rocket science nor is it brain surgery, but it isn’t common practice. What I see is: I bet you see exactly […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, constraints, credibility, customer focus, human nature, management style

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