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Failing to Learn

23 July, 2018 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Flight 1549 On the 15th of January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of canada geese as it was climbing away from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.  The plane lost all engine power.  The pilots, Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles, were forced to land on the River Hudson off Midtown Manhattan. Boats rescued […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, culture, error proofing, human nature, incentives, learning, reinforcing behaviour

The World’s Most Toxic Culture?

5 July, 2018 by James Lawther 4 Comments

The Four Pests

Organisational culture If you have been reading this blog for a while you will have noticed that I am a caught in a repeating loop.  The human equivalent of a stuck record. I write about organisational improvement.  There are lots of fascinating advances in technology, management thinking and other whiz-bang solutions that I could pontificate […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, command and control, culture, human nature, incentives, management style, rhetoric, targets

Teenagers, Bedrooms and Cash Payments

9 June, 2017 by James Lawther 11 Comments

Over-justification effect

I nearly broke my neck At the entrance to my eldest daughter’s bedroom there is a short flight of steps.  As I went to wake her this morning I slipped on what I could most graciously describe as a pile of underwear.  I took 5 of those steps in one fell swoop.  I think “fell” is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: incentives, motivation, over-justification effect

Outputs and Outcomes

31 January, 2017 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Stockpile

Similar but not the same It may be semantics, but I think we confuse outcomes and outputs: Customers desire outcomes, organisations deliver outputs.  They are not always the same. Where do you place your attention? Outputs are easy to measure and manage.  Output data rolls off systems and out of processes.  Outputs are easy to quantify, target […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: incentives, measurement, office productivity

Corporate Cancer

10 April, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

anxiety

Fear and anxiety We have all heard of a “culture of fear”, but does fear really exist in our organisations? Fear Fear is a physical response danger, a reaction to an immediate issue that threatens your safety and security.  It is fear that overcomes you when you are walking home late at night, all by yourself […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, command and control, fear and anxiety, human nature, incentives, management style, performance management, systems thinking

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