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 ...
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The key to making people accountable
For accountability to work, which is necessary if you want to manage performance, people must be truly accountable for at least what they can actually manage.
Managing vertical functions in a horizontal process
Due to the functional nature of most organizations, workload can become quite easily unbalanced when you look at it from the perspective of a horizontal process.
The good and the bad of overtime
Whenever we see overtime over 5% an analytical red flag goes up and we start to suspect that there may be too much cost built into the process. Many organizations use overtime to offset peak volume periods.
A solution in search of a problem
A consultant spent three hours watching a production line trying to find opportunity. It was a simple quality inspection area where the product flowed in a continuous stream past a number of trained inspectors.
Managers don’t provide a “backup” assignment
In many operations, back up assignments can be a useful means to even out daily workflow. By providing a "ready backlog" of work that can be pulled if the main task is delayed for whatever reason, a manager can help optimize the productivity of an area.
Managers assign work unevenly
Uneven work assignment is a management problem, not a worker problem. Management's job is to try to elevate the overall group productivity.
Managers assign work without time parameters
We were working for a large software development company. One of the big operating concerns was the timely ...
When managers don’t assign work
A lot of productivity is lost due to how work is assigned, or in this case, when it's not assigned. What we often see is that the manager plays the role of a work collator, someone who creates a backlog of tasks that an employee can draw from. Work is "loaded" as opposed to "assigned."
The “X-Factor” paralysis
The X-Factor means problems that were initiated externally (i.e., outside the department) and were therefore difficult, if not impossible, to fix because local managers had no authority.
“Cushman bait”
Employees are often initially worried that our watching them work is some kind of "Big Brother" intrusion and that the outcome won't be beneficial to them.
“In the day, for the day”
In the day, for the day is a very popular way to describe how front line managers should think and act.