In defense of sticklers
Here’s to unsung heroes! (ok, very unsung…) They might seem like a pain in the butt — those people on your team that are always
Here’s to unsung heroes! (ok, very unsung…) They might seem like a pain in the butt — those people on your team that are always
Let’s talk SUSTAINABILITY and LEAN: Are they the same thing? Which one comes first? How are they linked? Many people don’t understand how these popular
When you set a goal, your team might care about it. When you set a goal and let them own it, not only are they
Make it SMART…. and why that matters to your people! 2019 is coming and chances are you you’ve been planning for it for months. It’s
Deciding which metrics are important is actually quite a profound exercise, since it drives everyone’s behaviours, goals and mindsets toward improving those metrics. This is equally true inside a company as it is within an entire national economy.
As the pace of your business requires, you are on to the next problem to solve right away. You can’t sit beside your implemented solution to make sure that it works. You have to trust that things will stay in their improved state. There is nothing more frustrating than walking back to your newly improved area only to discover that all your team’s hard work has been undone.
Before I became a professional volunteer and entrepreneur, I worked to create value for companies using various business improvement (BI) methodologies. Most of that value I created (ahem, helped to create – BI is a team sport) can be expressed as cost savings – hence my former employers’ willingness to invest in my training and salary. Let me try to say this without bragging – I saved them a LOT of money! Thousands in some cases, millions in others.
Ebenezer Scrooge in a skirt?
How did I do that? Since the terms ‘cost reduction’ or ‘cost savings’ inevitably bring to mind a mean-faced, heartless approach to managing a business – squeeze as much as you can out of your employees, give them as little as possible, and watch your profit margins fatten – you might be thinking that I was a sort of “Grim Reaper of the Workplace”-type character. Well, not so.