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Organisational Mechanics

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Medieval Plumbing

12 September, 2019 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Delayed feedback When I was a child I lived in a farm house in North Yorkshire.  I’d like to tell you that I was part of the county set and owned a Range Rover and a horse, but it wasn’t that sort of farm house.  It had stone walls that were three feet thick in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: human nature, lead and lag measures, learning, measurement, systems thinking, tampering

Which Is Most Important, Perception or Performance?

28 April, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Perceived performance Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that’s the truth in people’s minds.  Steve Young For those who believe that perception is reality, performance isn’t important, but perceived performance is everything. There are three ways to improve perceived performance: 1. Distort the data […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: cheating, credibility, gemba, key performance indicators, operational excellence, systems thinking, tampering, targets

The Siren Call of the Reorg

18 March, 2019 by James Lawther 1 Comment

The perfect organisation There are a hundred and one ways you can structure your organisation: You can have a flat structure You can have a tall structure You can have an inverted structure It could be network driven It could be geographically driven It could be project driven Power can be devolved to the regions […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: reorganisation, silo management, systems thinking, tampering, wasted intellect

Are You in Control?

23 February, 2014 by James Lawther 4 Comments

Bird Brain

Simple Birds It was half term last week. I took my children to North Norfolk. We explored sandy beaches, rolling countryside and panoramic skies.  It was as beautiful. The highlight was a walk across the salt marshes and the sight of a flock of startled geese scurrying across the sky.   How do the birds […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: complexity, incentives, process control, service design, tampering, targets

Gordon Ramsay, Darcey Bussell and Your Next Re-Org

19 February, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

When we are faced with a problem, maybe a new competitor, a cost challenge, a product launch or simply a new job, we marshal our forces to deal with it. We reform our departments Shuffle our management teams Hire the right talent Politely ask those who aren’t performing to the standard we expect to leave. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: form follows function, redundancy, reorganisation, tampering, teamwork, trust, video, wasted intellect

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