People are often curious about how we can go into such a wide variety of organizations and businesses and somehow help them improve. One advantage we have is that we tend to see similar patterns over and over across industries and even across nationalities.
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The backstory on 52 Maxims was that we worked for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. for a number of years; during that time were introduced to their concept known as “The Basics” that consisted of 18 fundamentals of service, which they used as daily reminders for their staff.
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During a change program, everyone goes through a real emotional roller coaster. You tend to be a little overly optimistic at the front end
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Lesson Learned #49 One of the interesting things we’ve learned is that the manager who is initially the most outspoken opponent of starting a performance-improvement program often ends up its greatest champion.
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Lesson Learned #48 It’s not as popular in management discussions as it once was, but every so often we hear someone talk about the need to empower employees. No one would ever
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The basic principles of management don’t change from industry to industry, or one environment to another. In many ways, the shop floor has been a leader in management practices.
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Despite the apparent wisdom of not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’ve actually learned over the years that it is vital for most businesses to do exactly that.
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Lasting productivity gains in highly variable work environments can be elusive. Highly variable environments are those where the work volume fluctuates throughout the day, week, month or even throughout the year.
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Many companies have corporate improvement teams of one kind or another, such as quality or Lean or Six Sigma or some combination. And sometimes they bring in outside consultants to serve a similar role.
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An auto-parts supplier who made plastic components for a large car manufacturer needed to increase the throughput of one of its production lines, because the line was losing money.
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