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A Very Public Screw Up

14 September, 2023 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Nigel Mansell's 1991 Williams-Renault example of avoiding blame culture.

Blame Culture, Isolate the Problem, Not the Person At the Portuguese Grand Prix in 1991, Formula One racing provided a textbook example of why organisations should avoid a blame culture. Nigel Mansell, driving for the Williams-Renault team, was in first place as he pulled in for a pit stop. What should have been a slick […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: blame, continuous improvement, culture, leadership, Nigel Mansell, simplicity, video, Williams-Renault

Risk Compensation

3 January, 2023 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Using "shared space" to avoid risk compensation.

Understanding Risk Compensation — Because Error Proofing Isn’t Enough Road safety is an excellent example of a system where many have tried to change the public’s behaviour and stop things from going wrong. Error proofing is a common approach, making things easy to get right and difficult to get wrong, but it isn’t without its […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accident prevention, continuous improvement, error proofing, human nature, perceived risk, process control, risk assessment, risk compensation

Efficiency versus Effectiveness

15 June, 2022 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Is the cybertruck efficient or effective?

Quality Problems How do you define efficiency versus effectiveness? If you google “Tesla build quality“, you will uncover a mountain of complaints and dissatisfaction. [There] are problems with the rear-view mirrors, trim pieces, uneven panel gaps, sun visors, top halves, and rubber seals. ~ autoevolution.com Tesla has long been known to have issues with quality control, especially when […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: continuous improvement, cost of poor quality, efficiency versus effectiveness, Peter Drucker, Russel L. Ackoff

Operational Controls

13 June, 2022 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Poor Operational Control Caused DC Metro Train Crash

Operational Controls are Worthless if They Aren’t Maintained At approximately 5 pm on Monday 22nd June 2009, a Washington Metro train heading towards Shady Grove smashed into the rear of the train ahead of it. The Automatic Train Control system had instructed the train to travel at full speed (55 mph). When the driver of […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: automation, business process management, checklist, continuous improvement, controls, error proofing

The Daily Grind

22 January, 2020 by James Lawther 1 Comment

How do you cope? I run (maybe it would be more accurate to say am loosely responsible for) a back office.  It provides a service to an organisation.  It doesn’t talk to customers It doesn’t make sales It doesn’t drive revenue It is one big cost.  A lonely place to sit on any profit and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: continuous improvement, nothing new under the sun, operational excellence, systems thinking

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