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Have You Killed any Swans Today?

29 June, 2013 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Swans

We live and work within systems, systems that connect things.  One way or another everything is connected. That sounds like psycho-babble, so let me give you an example: Legislation leaves swans starving The In the far north of England on the border with Scotland is the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.  In 1994 the flock of swans […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: devil is in the detail, point optimisation, service design, systems thinking

What Did You Learn at School Today?

30 April, 2013 by James Lawther 1 Comment

1970's school children

Education is important; nobody would disagree with that.  It is a sensible use of our taxes. But if we are spending all that money on education, it is also sensible to make sure it isn’t going to waste, it is sensible to make sure we are getting the best from your school system and teachers. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: auditors, blame, cheating, quality control, systems thinking

Are You Doing What’s Important?

9 March, 2013 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Busy

All organisations are full of work, stuff that needs to get done. That work is divided into two nice neat categories: 1. Customer work Work done for customers (for the sake of argument people who pay). That type of work includes: Capturing order details X-raying broken arms Cleaning hotel rooms Sometimes we call it front line work. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: bureaucracy, customer focus, gemba, systems thinking

Rearranging the Deck Chairs

23 February, 2013 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Iceberg

There is an old adage that form follows function. In his book “The Leader’s Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done” (which is great and you should buy it) Peter Scholtes builds on that idea.  He shows how the different parts of an organisation interact, one level following and supporting the next: One level follows […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: reorganisation, systems thinking

It’s all About the System Stupid

9 February, 2013 by James Lawther 13 Comments

It's the system stupid

I work for a large multi-national corporation.  Like most large multi-national corporations we have wisely outsourced our IT.  Part of it to a “technology provider” and part of it to a “service provider”.  On paper this gives us a very cheap and flexible solution but the reality is that the overall experience is a little, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: customer surveys, information technology, outsourcing, systems thinking

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