People aren’t you best asset, engaged people who are excited about working in your organization are your best asset. Not only that, celebrating small wins and big wins can help meet some ISO requirements – Leadership (5.1.1 h), Customer focus (5.3), Awareness (7.3) and others. In order to move the needle in this direction, […]
Celebrate Your Way to Success! Read More »
You can show recognition to your folks without spending any money! Bob Nelson has some great ideas in the latest version of his book 1001 Ways to Reward Employees. Rebecca Boyle of the Empire of America Federal Saving Bank points out that, “Any time you make people feel better about themselves you are building motivation”.
The Power of Recognition Read More »
In 1980, The American Council of Retailers did some research on why people stopped doing business with various organizations. Here’s what they found in 1980: 64% left because they felt ignored 12% left because they were treated badly (that’s our policy) 11% didn’t feel the organization was empathetic 9% found a lower price 3% moved
Give Me What I Want! Read More »
This is a phrase from one of my favourite practitioners, John Seddon. He’s expressed the importance of customer satisfaction in a way that really drives it home for most people. In the 80s I was working for a retail chain as a trainer and noticed that most of the department managers were telling the staff
Customers: People Who Help You Beat Your Competition Read More »
John Seddon has been a Systems builder since the 80s. He bases his work on the genius of Taiichi Ohno – The Toyota Production System – Beyond Large-Scale Production. Seddon has been successful adapting Ohno’s TPS approach but using it in services. There’s always a temptation to set targets and try to convince people to
What’s your ‘Purpose’? Read More »
James P. Womack identifies this as a place to improve in Lean Solutions with Daniel Jones. We don’t want to lose customers by keeping them waiting. Consider this: “If we had to pay our customers for the time they wait to get what they want from us, would we find ways to do things better
Don’t Waste My Time! Read More »
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 »
The short answer is, of course, “Never!”. Unless we have a proprietary solution to a global problem and no competitors, we always need to be fine tuning our processes to survive in a world of razor thin margins. And we’re not just talking about improving processes to make more profit. If we make the working
When can we stop improving? Read More »
It’s all about the risk, these days, and the better we manage it, the better off we are, period! The new Standard calls for it, yes, but it’s just good business practice to assess where the potholes are in our workflow and steer clear of them. Every hour of proactive planning will save 10 hours
