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Sweat the Small Stuff

25 March, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

TED Talk Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland points out that big, strategic, expensive initiatives don’t always work. There are a myriad of small projects that are just as powerful. Although big important people like big important projects, the money that they throw about is often wasted. Rory urges us to figure out what the small inexpensive […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: assumptions, capital investment, continuous improvement, Rory Sutherland, TED talks, waste

Build a Tower Build a Team

19 September, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

TED Talk Tom Wujec This is a talk about a powerful little game with some far-reaching implications.  It challenges the way we manage and implement projects. First Tom Wujec shows how we get caught up in a management world of plans, priorities and proposals. Then he demonstrates how much more effective we could be if […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: diversity, incentives, innovation, marshmallow challenge, TED talks, test and learn, Tom Wujec, video

Trial, Error and the God Complex

26 July, 2018 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

Now I can describe the symptoms of the God complex very, very easily.

TED Talk Tim Harford The “God Complex” is the overwhelming belief that, no matter how complicated the problem, we are infallibly right in our solution. Economist and journalist Tim Harford explains why we are deluding ourself and shows us the only problem solving technique that is guaranteed to work. It’s the Second World War. A German prison […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog Tagged With: beliefs, complexity, innovation, TED talks, test and learn, Tim Harford, video

What Are You Missing?

3 April, 2016 by James Lawther 3 Comments

Waiting Room

I have to manage your expectations It is a horrible phrase. I hate it when somebody says to me. It means that I am not going to get what I want when I want it. I am being softened up. There is going to be a delay. Suddenly I am thrown into the cost or […]

Filed Under: Blog, Operations Analysis Tagged With: assumptions, innovation, medicine, queue, TED talks, waiting

Do You Work for Super Chicken?

28 February, 2016 by James Lawther 5 Comments

Performance management and chickens William Muir is an evolutionary biologist who studies chickens and productivity. Productivity is something that a lot of chicken farmers (and most of the rest of us) want. Productivity in chickens is easy to measure.  You count the number of eggs the chickens produce — if only it was that easy in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: performance management, TED talks

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