52 Observations

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.

But where are the actual savings?

One of the more common complaints we hear about consultants and internal improvement projects is that the savings that are promised or reported never really hit the financial statements.

The three perspectives of sustainable improvement

When we look at organizations to understand where they might be able to make improvements, we do so from three different, but related perspectives: the process; the management system; and management behaviors.

The less obvious root problem

If you spend enough time trying to improve processes, one of the fascinating things you will observe is that sometimes the root problem has nothing to do with the process you are trying to fix.

Managers work for employees

A number of years back it was popular for consultants (and a few executives) to draw the company organization chart upside down. The idea was that organizations needed to recognize that managers actually worked for employees, and not the other way around.

Why “day-in-the-life” studies work

When we are trying to figure out how effective a process is or isn't, one of the basic studies we do is to spend a day in the life of an employee at some key part of the process.

The Achilles heel of every management system

Management systems are tools created to help managers plan work, execute the plan, and then measure and report on the results.