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Can You See the Forest for the Trees?

14 March, 2024 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

waldsterben forest trees

A Broken System Waldsterben is a nasty word. It is a German noun that means “death of the forest.” Trees have been dying across swathes of Germany and central Europe since the 1970s. Leaves and needles fall, and the bark drops off, leaving great tracts of tall, dead stumps. It is a dismal sight and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Wild Cards Tagged With: management style, point optimisation, systems thinking, waldsterben

Optimising Each Part… Doesn’t Optimise the Whole

25 June, 2020 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Harvard Business Review Greg Satell provides a classic example of sub-optimisation in his post. Managers strive for efficiency in every part of their businesses. Yet many of those businesses are bloated and ineffective. This is the efficiency paradox; it runs something like this… The more efficient you make the parts of your organisation, the less […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web Tagged With: collaboration, communication, point optimisation, systems thinking

Centre of Excellence or Management Folly?

28 July, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The centre of excellence How many times have you heard the claim “We are building a centre of excellence”? Or, even more triumphant, “We are a centre of excellence!” It is great management speak. It shows strategic drive and direction. Every thrusting young manager wants a centre of excellence, why wouldn’t they? There are a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: cheap and nasty, collaboration, cost saving, human nature, organisation, point optimisation, silo management, systems thinking, targets, world class

Best-of-Breed

9 May, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Best of Breed

A beguiling idea Here is a pleasingly intuitive thought for you.  To improve business performance… Work out what the component parts of your organisation are Find the best-of-breed for each component Replace what you have with the best-of-breed If you have the best-of-breed components then you can’t be beaten.  You will have created a world-class […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: point optimisation, purpose, systems thinking

Myopic Management

8 January, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Myopic Management

The quick fix Managers are problem solvers. We spend our days finding issues and fixing them: We solve the problem of low sales by offering discounts. We solve the problem of high costs by cutting budgets. We solve the problem of poor quality by extra inspection. Our time is filled with discrete problem after discrete […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accountability, blame, collaboration, command and control, objective setting, point optimisation, roles and responsibilities

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