Operations needs to own the project
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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Too many reports, too little time
Lesson Learned #8 When we work for an organization we always look closely at how managers plan, execute the plan and then report on the results. We’ve learned over time that the
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Clients Don’t Care What Consultants Think
Lesson Learned #4 One of the key things clients expect in a performance improvement project is that their managers will take ownership of the changes that are required to improve performance. That’s not
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Learning through observation
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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It’s easy to lose sight of the purpose
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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The emotional roller coaster (of change management programs)
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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The most dangerous kind of resistance
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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The misconception about employee empowerment
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 office can learn from the shop floor
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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Actually, you do need to reinvent the wheel
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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