You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
The Lean Shop does not exist because of cutting costs. It exists as a result of proven best practices. Sometime you have to spend money to save money. This Lean bulletin is about determining both the...
View ArticleTeamwork
My great grandfather had a team of mules he used for farming. He was the envy of the other farmers in the area because, as I learned, it is difficult to get mules work together as a team. Just because...
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Employee Engagement
Engagement is about respect. I can tell you from experience that someone from outside a business can come in and see internal engagement problems in less than a day. It is all about respect, which is...
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Seeing the Big Picture
Be aware of how much of the “Big Picture” you and your direct reports see. A common mistake in organizations trying to improve is the assumption that everyone gets it. The diagram below shows how our...
View ArticleThe Fundamentals of 5S
I coached high school basketball for 4 years. A significant learning from this experience was the importance of the basics, or the fundamentals. We won a lot of games because we rebounded better,...
View ArticleContinuous Improvement, Working Without a Safety Net
What gets in the way of improvement? Stated differently, what gets in the way of on-going success? Understand that today’s success is tomorrow’s mediocrity. I believe the answer is related to our...
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The Origin Of Things
Engineering begins with the axiom that there is nothing we can’t figure out. I used to call this roof top engineering because it requires a shift in the way we view challenges. Viewing a challenge...
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Building an Elite Operations Function
One of the first things I look at when hired as an operations consultant is whether managers are managing people or processes. Successful, growing companies spend 80-90% of their “managerial” time...
View ArticleGreat Teams
Getting the most out of yourself and others. Perspective is nearly everything when it comes to accelerating your performance, or someone else’s. Human motivation is more art than science. No matter...
View ArticleManaging Innovative Businesses
Engineers want to build things and scientists want to understand things. It takes both to successfully innovate. The ability to dream a concept and build it into reality requires both a drive to...
View ArticleHigh Performance Work Group Manifesto
High Performance Work Group Manifesto: Reject the “Box”. We do not want to be categorized into anything normal or stationary. Do not seek what is easy or comfortable. We value problems, roadblocks and...
View ArticleThe Reverse of Business Intelligence
We don’t know what we don’t know. We can’t do what we don’t know. We won’t know until we measure. We don’t measure what we don’t value. What we don’t measure we don’t do. We don’t value what we don’t...
View ArticleInnovation and Creativity in Motion
Many of the activities and strategies we use to innovate and manage are actually road blocks to creativity and innovation. Certainly, the enforcement of a time line and being cost conscience, are...
View ArticleBuilding New Skills
Much of our frustration with personal development comes from our failure to establish short term goals that lead to a long term goal. This frustration springs from a failure to understand that the...
View ArticleBuilding Great Teams
I did some research on team building recently. What I found were lists of qualities that define effective teams. The problem is that these lists are typically filled with descriptions of...
View ArticlePurpose
Once you have experienced purpose, nothing will be the same. Going back to “normal” is not an option. Joss Link to this post!
View ArticleForward Thinking
It is not enough to just innovate around a tried and true point of reference. To survive and thrive you must be willing create a “new” tried and true point of reference, continuously, and in real time...
View ArticleProject Management
A current project I am working on involves 4 companies. The principle, a web services company, an electronic hardware and firmware company, and a contract manufacturer. I am using a traditional Gantt...
View ArticlePursue Your Dreams
My mentor told me that I should pursue my dreams. Find the people who are the best in class in the talents I need, and learn from them by adding value to their dreams. By making a positive exchange in...
View ArticleMean Median and Mode in Central Tendencey
Before discussing measures of central tendency, a word of caution is necessary. Customers do not feel averages. They feel their specific experience. As a result, while central tendency is an important...
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