The problem with industry experts
Lesson Learned #30
American psychologist Abraham Maslow was reportedly an optimist, famous for his hierarchy of ...
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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 ...
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 ...
Are you recognizing your employees effectively?
Appearance, environment, history, politics, and what’s going on in someone’s personal life all shape how we judge others. So the real challenge for managers is to be fair in determining what exactly “merit” refers to when a he or she recognizes, rewards or meters out consequence.
Too bright to see opportunity
It takes quite a lot of humility to find opportunity and sometimes being smart simply makes it that much harder.
Don’t draw your findings from your conclusions
In the last Opportunity we discussed the value of being a contrarian, so it seems only appropriate that now we'll ...
The opportunity that hides in plain sight
Cyril Parkinson wrote a humorous essay for The Economist magazine, in part drawing from his experience working in the British Civil Service. He observed that work tends to fill the time available for its completion.
The hunt for opportunities
"Opportunity" is one of those euphemisms we use instead of "problems." It's arguably a better word, because most ...
The red flags of management system changes
Management system changes often entail tightening up the planning standards that are used to schedule the operations, and then providing managers with tools to control, monitor and report on attainment to the plan.
The red flags of process changes
Implementing change requires re-configuring processes - and modifying the management systems and behaviors that need to accompany them. But as anyone who has ever tried to instill change knows, maintaining those gains can be very difficult
The insidious nature of complexity
You simply can't be great at everything. There are not enough hours in the day, and companies would come to a grinding halt if they managed entirely by this edict.
The analytical side of management behavior
We tend to zero in on management behavior, as opposed to employee behavior, because we find that management behavior is critical to a well-run organization and, in turn, significantly influences employee behavior.