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Paying People to Lie

3 October, 2015 by James Lawther 1 Comment

The best way to fill your organisation with liars… Is to set up an incentive scheme.  I guarantee at least two deceptions: The first deceit The lying starts with the debate about the target: What service level can you meet? What can you shave off your budget? How much extra can you sell? 10%? 20%? 30%? If someone has a bonus […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: employee performance measures, human nature, incentives, motivation, performance management, targets, video

The Problem With Education

7 June, 2015 by James Lawther 3 Comments

F for Fail

What was your time at school like? The Organisational Development Consultant Peter Block gives a rather disarming view of his own experience: When I went to school we competed. When I got my “B” I needed somebody to get a “D” or an “F” or I was in trouble. If I had any integrity — which I don’t […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: employee performance measures, performance management, video

100% Utilisation Isn’t a Good Idea

25 April, 2015 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Fully Utilised

Improving Efficiency Your job as a manager is to deliver the best service at the lowest cost. Cost and service are all that ever worries the guys upstairs. Conventional wisdom is that the easiest way to do that is to keep your staff fully occupied. Ensure they are always working as fast as possible without […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: backlog, best practice, employee performance measures, key performance indicators, short term thinking, staff utilisation

Management Beliefs

25 January, 2015 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Management Beliefs

Do you believe in self-help? One of my favourite quotes is from Henry Ford: Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right Personally I am all for a bit of self belief, but does it work for organisations as well as people? Does belief have a place in business? In 1974 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, employee performance measures, office productivity, pygmalion effect, research, self belief

Christmas Measures

28 December, 2014 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Christmas Bicycle

Father Christmas had a problem… His planning elves had confirmed it. It was mid October and it was looking increasingly unlikely that he would get all the presents wrapped by Christmas. His management information team endorsed their view. His key measure – Presents Wrapped per Elf per Hour (PWEH) was well awry. There were reasons […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: employee performance measures, Goodhart's law, targets

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