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The Simple and Ineffective way to Improve Performance

2 July, 2013 by James Lawther 8 Comments

Fact of Life target

There is a line of thought that there are three types of target: 1.  Fact of life targets If you don’t meet these targets you simply don’t qualify: To be a world-class 100 meter sprinter you have to run sub 10 seconds If you want to stay in business you have to sell enough to […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, management style, targets

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

Are You Cruel to Your Children?

15 May, 2013 by James Lawther 6 Comments

I tore into my 10 year-old-daughter yesterday. It wasn’t a half-baked telling off. It was a full on balling out. I was so angry, I must have screamed at her for 10 minutes. The poor little mite was in floods of tears by the time I finished.  She sobbed for half an hour. Why was I […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: capability, confidence, management style, targets, training, video, W. Edwards Deming

Are Your Team High Performers or Losers?

11 May, 2013 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Pygmalion effect

What do you think of the team you manage?  Are they the crème de la crème or a shower of … Is that a rather harsh question?  Perhaps, but the answer may well have a lot more to do with you than with them. Why do some people do better than others? In 1968 Rosenthal and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, employee performance measures, management style, pygmalion effect, reinforcing behaviour, Robert Rosenthal

Regression to The Mean

5 January, 2013 by James Lawther 16 Comments

Is the Stick Mightier Than the Carrot? Psychologists will tell you that carrots are a far more productive strategy than sticks.  You might think this is a blindingly obvious statement, but the facts don’t always support it.  Sometimes the psychologists are proven wrong, often by a case of “regression to the mean”. That is exactly […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: assumptions, aviation, capability, incentives, management style, motivation, regression to the mean, variation

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