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 »
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 »
If you look up the definition for ‘communication’ you’ll see that it involves sending a message then having the sender ensure that the message was received and understood the way the sender intended. ‘Sending an e-mail’ is NOT ‘communication’. It is simply ‘sending a message’. E-mails are often misinterpreted and if action is required by
Communication: Is Anyone Listening? Read More »
We need to focus on our users when we’re designing and improving our management systems. This may seem obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many times a client will ask, “Will the auditor accept this?”. Of course we want to get certified, but if we are sure of the requirements and decide what we
Whose Management System is it, anyway? Read More »
“What’s in it for me?” is a question everybody asks at one time or another. You’d think ‘What goes around comes around’ would be enough to engage and contribute, but not everyone believes in Karma. So if you feel that employee engagement would help your organization (I can guarantee it will!) and you want to
Employee engagement – WIIFM? Read More »
Not all of the managers that I’ve met over the years have been able to actually demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements of the ‘Leadership’ section of the Standard. On a few occasions I’ve run a training course and as an exercise, we took the requirements from Clause 5 and turned them into a
Management Commitment – Fact or Fiction? Read More »
“People are are most valuable asset” You’ve heard this a thousand times, maybe more. It’s simply not true. People’s involvement is our most valuable asset. If we don’t tap this vast resource in our organizations, we are missing out on infinite opportunities to improve the effectiveness of our management system (read: make more money or
People are NOT our most valuable asset…Simplify Tip #4 Read More »
Building Block #9 You need to be ready to trade off other values in favour of Quality There’s an anecdotal ‘constraint model’ in the world of Engineering: Quality – Price – Timing: pick any two. By staying focused on ‘errors are unacceptable’ (or at least have a rate of errors we can live with) we
Trade off other Values for Quality?? Read More »
During the planning session of my very first ISO 9001 management system in 1992, the president of the company told me that he was very busy and didn’t want to be bothered until the press came to take the picture of his team and the ISO 9001:1987 certificate. Times have changed! Today, this kind of
All you need to know…Leadership – Clause 5 of ISO 9001:2015 Read More »
Take me to your leader! ISO 9001:2015 Clause 5 – Leadership – the ‘make it or break it’ component of any management system. Leadership is one of the 8 Management Principles we’ve used for years as the guiding lights for our systems. They are now described in section 0.2 – Quality Management Principles and have
Take me to your Leader! Read More »
