How managers propagate Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson's Law exists and thrives in environments where expectations and deadlines are not clear.
Peter Follows
The power of momentum
Change-management projects can be affected by shifts in positive and negative momentum. It’s the reason that most change efforts stress the need to demonstrate some “quick wins” early in the engagement.
Where are all the front-line managers?
A number of years ago, we started an interesting study called the “whereabouts” study. The idea behind the study was to try to illustrate where a front-line manager spends most of his or her time during the course of the day; correlate it to what is actually happening in the business at the same time
Why CEOs struggle to align their organizations
Properly integrated management systems are the most important tool that a CEO has for aligning an organization and creating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Management systems help all management levels plan, execute, report and improve their area of responsibility in accordance with the CEO's strategic direction.
The origin of “R2”
When we studied organizations and how management reacted to off-schedule conditions or variances from their plan, we noticed that results that came relatively close to an objective were generally considered "good enough."
Changing management behavior is difficult
If you put some smart people in a room and ask them to look closely at your processes and systems, they will figure out better ways to do things.
The art of seeing opportunity
When we bring new consultants on board, they usually don’t see opportunity when we ask them to observe a functional process. We have to teach them what to look for -- and then train them how to watch the process objectively.
Why better planning can sometimes hurt a good career
A basic objective of many improvement programs is to figure out how to improve planning. The idea is that if you can plan better, you won't end up scrambling as much when it comes to actually executing the plan.
The complexity of simple workload analysis
Every manager needs to assess their resource requirements, so they can have the right number of people they need to get work done while also being as productive as possible.
The problem and need for savings evaluations
Financial managers are often skeptical when they hear people claim that their projects have generated, or will generate, substantial financial benefit. There is often a long legacy of projects or investments that were based on some type of ROI.
Productivity improvement with no benefit
One of the great heartbreaks of performance improvement is to generate legitimate gains in productivity, but then discover that they have had no material impact on an organization's financial results.
Why results don’t always sustain
To meaningfully impact financial results, performance improvement needs to sustain. Performance improvement projects, by design, jump performance from one level to another.