The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

  • Home
  • Blog
    • People
    • Data
    • Process
    • Wild Cards
    • Index
  • Podcast
  • Book

Zombies will do Wonders for Your Motivation

2 February, 2013 by James Lawther 10 Comments

I have just wasted 2 weeks of my life playing “Plants versus Zombies”, the worlds most foolish computer game.  The premise is at best dubious, I grow plants in my garden and these protect my house from an onslaught of brain eating zombies, yet I am totally addicted. I’m 44 years old, I should know […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: competence, flow, focus, motivation, video, zombies

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

How do you Motivate an Elf?

22 December, 2012 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Unhappy Elf

Things are getting a bit tight. It is the 22nd of December and Father Christmas and his bunch of elves are not on top of the situation. They are not even close. They have the backlog to end all backlogs: Wishes have not been processed Presents have not been made Wrapping is at a stand […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: Christmas, incentives, motivation

Do You Have the Best Job in the World?

6 October, 2012 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Moulding clay

Question 1: What was the best job you ever had? Think about that question for a while; write down the answer, what was so special about that job?  Be very clear. Now I will lay you a bet… I bet you that when you were doing that job it was a perfect fit for you: […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: motivation, purpose

Shit Happens

28 July, 2012 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Spilt Milk

It’s not nice,  but it is a fact of life, a certainty.  Things go wrong, events conspire against you, milk gets spilt, shit happens. Maybe you can mitigate it, but you certainly can’t avoid it.  It will get you in the end. How are you going to deal with it? Option A: Cry Play the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accountability, bitching and moaning, motivation, resilience

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • …
  • 13
  • Next Page »

Explore

accountability assumptions beliefs best practice blame bureaucracy capability clarity command and control communication complexity continuous improvement cost saving culture customer focus data is not information decisions employee performance measures empowerment error proofing fessing up gemba human nature incentives information technology innovation key performance indicators learning management style measurement motivation performance management poor service process control purpose reinforcing behaviour service design silo management systems thinking targets teamwork test and learn trust video waste

Receive Posts by e-Mail

Get the next post delivered straight to your inbox

Creative Commons

This information from The Squawk Point is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Creative Commons Licence
Customer Experience Update

Try This:

  • Fish Bone Diagrams – Helpful or Not?

  • Why Were You Late for Work?

  • Solutioneering

  • Do Slogans Work for You?

Connect

  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • YouTube
  • Cookies
  • Contact Me

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in