newsletter archive.
(Previously published under the title Extreme Profits
under ISSN 1925-8941)
Incivility and productivity, spinning out of control
If you think that how your employees interact or feel about their jobs does not impact your organization's productivity, think again. Your employees' behaviours, singly or compounded, directly affect your organization's efficiency and productivity. How can it not?
Focusing on efficiency, procrastination, innovation
It hasn't escaped me how much work I put into everything I do. Somehow, it feels like there's a lot of effort applied, but when I ponder the effort, it really isn't a lot in relation to the result.
If I spend two hours communicating an event to a wide audience, is that a lot of effort? Here are some numbers to consider in this instance: I sent personalized messages to 150 of my contacts in two hours and ended up making 24 sales. Is this a good return on effort? You bet it is! But you might say: How did you manage to send 150 messages in two hours? If you do the math, that's 1.25 messages every minute. Here's how I did it.
Working harder or smarter, tapping into the millennial market
The dichotomy of working harder or smarter stems from the contrast between rural blue-collar and urban white-collar workers. One is purported to work harder while the other smarter.
However, this is not true in the modern age.
Dysfunctional organizations, people powered pursuits
A dysfunction is an impairment in the way an organization functions. Dysfunction is not just applicable to organizations - we can also see dysfunctional behaviours in individuals and teams. Dysfunction within an organization may not be noticed at first because it occurs in small steps starting with inappropriate behaviours that go unchecked and tolerated.
Rational decision making, decision audits
With a plethora of books, videos, podcasts, TED and similar talks, seminars, coaching sessions, and other services, why are leaders' decisions still not moving more organizations to success? McKinsey & Company reports that leadership development is consistently less than desired - in a 2016 survey of 510 executives, only 11 percent said that their leadership development programs achieve and sustain the desired results.
Lean leaders, musts for leading lean
Did you know that companies undergoing Lean initiatives are successful in only five-to-seven percent of cases?
If your organization is undergoing a Lean transformation, this figure should give you pause.
The brain in change management, downsizing teams
Change management is an over-discussed topic, so why am I discussing it here? There are two reasons.
First, people rarely get change right. Second, managers tend to lose sight of how technology is changing (ahem) change initiatives.
Communication technology success factors, skills
While most of us believe that communication technology is the be-all and end-all for organizational efficiencies, this is not true. Organizations that zealously implement information and communication technology solutions may be doing more harm than good.
Trust vs fear, how to build trust in teams
How do you build trust? According to Harvard, the simplest way to build trust is to create a perception of similarity. That is, we trust those that we believe are similar to us.
We can find that similarity with those that participate in similar hobbies, work at the same company, attend the same church, play the same sports, and so on. In this way, we form a ‘bond’ with that person; a bond that enables us to influence, and be influenced by, that person to achieve our goals. Our work performance is better when we work with those we trust. However, some organizations also get good job performance through fear. Let me explain.
Conquering the challenge of change, seeing the opportunities in obstacles
Author and professional speaker, Catherine DeVrye, claims that the seven most expensive words in business are, "We have always done it that way." Her claim is not wrong. Doing the same things over and over - while expecting a different result each time - can mean death to business.
The fallacy of efficiency, how real leaders lead
In a corporate world where efficiency is the father of productivity, there is a startling counter-effect: The most efficient die early. Perhaps what is even more surprising is that organizations hell-bent on making all of their practices efficient do so at the expense of common sense.
It was Peter Drucker that said: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all."
The devil is in the details, big data to the rescue
Big data, that "large volume of data - both structured and unstructured - that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis" is a hot topic these days.
Even though the "information explosion" actually started 70 years ago, an increasing volume of online content has created a sudden rush for businesses looking to big data as the next money maker. In fact, the big data industry is expected to grow from $10.2 billion (US dollars) in 2013 to $54.3 billion by 2017.
The internet and productivity, using social media to improve business
Some say yes, some say no. Depending on which side of the fence you're on, you either believe that the Internet has improved productivity or it has decreased it. However, a tool like the Internet does not deserve all the credit (or discredit, depending on your point of view). It boils down to how we use the Internet.
Change initiatives: it’s not us, it’s the approach
Here's a fact: Most of us have NO difficulty accepting change.
Here's another fact: 80 percent of change initiatives fail first time out of the gate. You may be wondering how these two facts are related.
Creating effective teams, change initiatives
Working with teams can be the best of times or the worst of times! Fundamentally, teams change the way people on the team relate to each other, to the organization, and to management.
How we work, top-down mapping
Mapping is an excellent way of "seeing" a process and determining where improvements are needed. But did you know that mapping is also an excellent way to improve jobs?
Meeting customer expectations, when to re-design
If you wanted to design a new product or service, how would you start? Would you pull out your sketch pad? Or your laptop? Or some other drawing instrument? Would you talk to your employees or managers? While all of these actions seem reasonable, there is an important first step-identifying what your customers want.
Into the future, forecast decisions
If you were asked to predict the winner of the next World Cup Soccer event, would you be able to make an accurate prediction? If Paul the Octopus was still alive, he may have used his divination powers to do just that. However, humans are not generally so endowed.
But predicting the future is an important element of decision making. So important, in fact, organizations go to great lengths to ensure that their operations align with their strategic targets.
As if, what’s holding you back
Efficiency: being able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort; competency in performance.
Productivity: the effectiveness of productive effort, measured in terms of rate of output per unit of input.
There are numerous books and articles written about both efficiency and productivity. And most of them relate to practical approaches to achieving both. However, if you are one of those individuals that just cannot follow a rigid methodology, there is another way.
Strategic competitiveness, the operations link
Every leader knows that strategy is important and, especially, that operations strategy is critical to an organization's success. Operations strategy allows an organization to better position itself in the marketplace by focusing on competitive priorities.
These "priorities" include cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. To be competitive, a company must be able to position itself on at least one of these competitive measures.