The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

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

Bad Behaviour

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

I read an interesting posting by Seth Godin.  To quote him: “Bad behaviour and irrational decisions are almost always caused by fear. If you want to change the behaviour, address the fear.” The other week I spent some time with a business that runs a team of field service engineers.  The guys who turn up […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: measurement, poor service, reinforcing behaviour

God Save the President

12 May, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

President Obama launched the SAVE award last year.  The (nothing new) principle is that US government employees suggest ideas to save money.  The first winner of the award was Nancy Fichtner whose idea for reusing medical supplies is expected to save $2 million p.a. So far President Obama has received nearly 40,000 ideas. This is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, continuous improvement, cost saving, government, reinforcing behaviour, suggestion schemes, video

This is Mine that is Yours

12 April, 2010 by James Lawther 1 Comment

We decide how we spend money in three areas: 1.  Purchasing:  which materials we buy. 2.  Specification:  what product or service we offer. 3.  Efficiency:  how well we convert raw materials into finished goods. These activities are controlled by the Purchasing, Brand Development and Operations departments.  They have the ability to make changes that will […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: clarity, communication, constraints, cost saving, marketing, measurement, reinforcing behaviour, silo management, tampering

One Half of One Percent

23 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

If I said the sum total of all your efforts today would make you 1/2 a percent better than you were first thing this morning, would you have bothered getting out of bed?  Or would you have just rolled over and gone back to sleep? We like to be bold, think strategically and lay big […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: continuous improvement, reinforcing behaviour

The Rear End of a Horse

23 March, 2010 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

There is an urban myth that the design of the rockets that propel the shuttle into space is constrained by the size of a horses bum. The logic goes something like this: 1.  The rocket diameter was constrained by the width of the railway tunnels that the train that delivered the rocket passed through. 2.  […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: constraints, continuous improvement, innovation, reinforcing behaviour

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 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:

  • Blame Culture: More Dangerous Than You’d Think

  • The SMART Goal Myth

  • Target Setting, Cause and Effect

  • What is Sample Bias?

Connect

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

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