The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

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

Targets Work!

21 January, 2017 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Goal

In praise of the goal On the 25th of May 1961, in a speech before the joint session of Congress, the President of the United States set his country a goal: This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: motivation, objective setting, performance management, SMART goals, targets

Does All That “Structure” Help?

26 September, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Escapology

Organisations are complicated They have: Customer requirements Partner requirements Legal requirements Compliance requirements Legacy systems Specialist teams Obsolete databases Competitive pressure Profitability problems And all those competing priorities are in conflict with each other. How do we manage complexity? By creating process and structure: RACI frameworks Target Operating Models Interim targets Delegated authority levels KPIs Heads […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: best practice, blame, business process management, collaboration, command and control, complexity, constraints, office productivity, performance management, systems thinking, teamwork

How Good Are Your People? Comparatively?

21 September, 2016 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Comparetive Advantage

The theory of comparative advantage In 1817 the economist David Ricardo developed the theory of comparative advantage.  It explains why nations trade. He gave this example to explain it: Scenario 1. Imagine the economy consists of two countries that produce both cloth and wine; Portugal and England. Though their output is of equal quality, Portugal is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: collaboration, comparative advantage, constraints, leadership, performance management

Synergy

7 May, 2016 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Synergy

A great management word We love to talk about synergies, it is a super word, hard and scientific. It gives the impression that we know what we are doing. That we are in control. Synergy: the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts What drives synergy? If synergy is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: management style, performance management, reinforcing behaviour, systems thinking

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

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • …
  • 11
  • 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:

  • Customer Service the Virgin Atlantic Way

  • Target Setting, Cause and Effect

  • Should You Guarantee Your Service?

  • Rewarding Failure

Connect

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

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