John Seddon in Freedom From Command and Control identified three things that employees need to get the results you’re looking for:1. Clear Instructions and purpose – what does the ‘right result’ look like?2. Methods that work and make sense3. The willingness to do the work well I’ve added 2 more:4. Infrastructure – all the appropriate […]
Are People Your Problem? Read More »
John Seddon, Vanguard Consulting, released a great book called ‘Freedom From Command and Control’. There are plenty of great ideas in there, and I enjoy sharing them with you! Seddon started applying the ‘Toyota Production System’ to the service industry back in the 90s. You’ll find his insights very helpful. Systems Thinking is what he
A New Twist on PDCA Read More »
John Seddon, Vanguard Consulting, published a book in 2005 called “Freedom from Command and Control”. Definitely worth reading if you’re interested in tapping the vast potential of any workforce. One of his interesting ideas is ‘Learn to see, learn to lead’ and it made complete sense to me. What a leaders learn from looking at
Learn to ‘See’… Learn to ‘Lead’ Read More »
Three more keys to improve employee engagement… 1. Improve Communications All organizations can afford to improve communications. In fact, a video I used to show in College included the line, “Communication is a synonym for ‘Life’.” So true… Sending an e-mail is NOT communication! ‘Communication’ has two components – 1. Send the message…2. Ensure that
More Employee Engagement! WIIFM – Part 2 Read More »
Since 1992, I’ve seen many things that make life tougher for people who use and improve management systems. These 3 things seem to be more persistent than a lot of other issues, so here we go… First of all, there’s no need to have multiple approvals for every document. The Standards today require that we
Stop Doing These 3 Things… Read More »
If your process improvement project has stalled, perhaps Management could give it a boost…if they’re on board! The first key is to make sure they understand the context of the project and how it fits into current circumstances. If a project looks like it’s ‘out in left field’ it will be hard to get support
Five Tips to Get Management Buy-in Read More »
You’ll notice in ISO 9001:2015 that clause 6.2.2 requires action plans for Quality Objectives. Yikes! Here’s the good news: these plans will help. Design your Action Plans to help you reach your targets – hitting targets will help you improve your Management System. You’ll see that the requirements include: To improve the chances of success,
Four Keys to Action Plans Read More »
Too many well-intentioned improvement projects end up in the weeds. How does this happen? Too much focus on the process and not enough focus on the goal. Unless that process is really causing people grief they won’t be all that interested in it. If you can relate improving the process to relieving some kind of
Two Keys to Process Improvement Read More »
If we focus on ‘cheapest’ sometimes there are unintended negative side effects. Buying from us can get harder (if we install cheap software), suppliers ‘cheaper’ product can end up costing us more in inspections, disposing of off-spec product or services that have to be repeated. The right quality at the right price can benefit both
Why Cheapest Costs More Read More »
Waiting until the end of your production cycle to do inspections is a recipe for disaster. By then, it’s too late. You have time and money invested by this point and it’s important to get a return on your investment. It makes more business sense to build checks in along the way. Better yet, design
Stop depending on final inspections! Read More »
