The Squawk Point

Organisational Mechanics

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

Messy by Tim Harford — Book Review

5 August, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Messy Tim Harford

What is it about? According to the author, Tim Harford, Messy “celebrates the benefits that messiness has in our lives: why it’s important, why we resist it, and why we should embrace it instead”. According to Maria Konnikova’s New York Times review, “a less catchy, but perhaps more accurate, title for the book would be […]

Filed Under: Blog, Book Tagged With: beliefs, command and control, complexity, innovation, systems thinking, test and learn, Tim Harford

People Trump Technology

20 May, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Tibetan Monk

Poverty Nepal is one of the 30 poorest countries in the world.  In the fiscal year 2015-6, the average weekly income was 1,556 Nepalese Rupees. That’s about £10.50. Agriculture forms the base of the economy. Two-thirds of the population make their living from farming.  The industrial and commercial sectors are also based on agriculture; processing […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: automation, collaboration, human nature, systems thinking

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

The Proxy for Performance

6 April, 2018 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Proxy

Did you hit your numbers? It is a common challenge. You must make your numbers. You must smash your sales target You must slash your budget You must decimate your waiting times If you’ve hit your numbers then you’ve met your performance goals. Numbers and performance are synonymous. But the numbers are only a proxy […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: cheating, Goodhart's law, key performance indicators, measurement, objective setting, performance management, systems thinking

For “Game Changing” Performance, Change the Game

13 November, 2017 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Game Changing

Game changing Everybody is hell-bent on moving quicker, faster and harder. Everybody wants “game changing” levels of performance improvement.  Managers, executives and shareholders demand it… So if you want “game changing”, what are your options? Three parts to an organisation The systems thinkers categorise organisations into three elements: The components. The team-members and functions, the […]

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

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 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:

  • Fish Bone Diagrams – Helpful or Not?

  • Did Process Improvement Destroy Starbucks?

  • The SMART Goal Myth

  • Your Memories are Being Frozen

Connect

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

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