Today's Problems Come From Yesterdays Solutions. Stuart The above quote from Peter Senge's great book "The Fifth Discipline" is one of those profound pieces of wisdom that, even when said out loud,, doesn't always capture the depth of the insight. Edward D... Dec 26, 2020
What is Lean Enterprise Excellence & Operational Excellence Stuart Great stories have a p... Dec 26, 2020
Why "Cause" beats "Urgency" every time. Stuart I admire John P Kotter, I have been an avid reader of his books and an evangelist for his message about leading change. In his book "Urgency" Kotter says he believes that "the single biggest error peo... Dec 26, 2020
Transforming Lean: Is Leans Roots in Japanese Religion and Culture holding it back? Stuart Christian Wittrock from Aarhus University in Denmark wrote an interesting paper* in 2015 tracing Leans roots in Japanese religion and culture. The abstract from his paper states: "James Womack, Daniel... Dec 26, 2020
Service Sectors Biggest Problem Solved: How Long is a Piece of String? Stuart Anybody familiar with fractals will know that the answer to the question is "infinite". Fortunately most teams in service and knowledge work organisations don't need to calculate the length of your co... Dec 26, 2020
Easiest Way To Improve Performance? Step 1: Stop Making Things Worse! Stuart I work with service and knowledge work organisations and it's often quite surprising to them how much they can improve performance by just stopping making things worse. Of course, its not that people ... Dec 26, 2020
"Whistling Past The Graveyard" of Bad Performance Measures. Stuart In Ireland, where I come from, we have a tradition of folklore, mystery, tall tales, "sayings" and proverbs that cover every possible life situation, one of which is "whistling past the graveyard". Ac... Dec 26, 2020
Ryanair: When Complex Adaptive Systems bite back! Stuart Ryanair is Europe's largest airline and is probably the first modern day organisation to build a successful business model based on despising its customers, its people and its suppliers. It could do t... Dec 26, 2020
Ryanair: A Lesson for Leaders, Managers, Unions and Society Stuart There's been a lot of feedback on my earlier post on Ryanair supporting the post but also pointing out the great things that Ryanair has achieved for society such as low fares, the boom and ease in tr... Dec 26, 2020
McLaw & Associates and Xpertivity Join Forces Stuart McLaw & Associates and Xpertivity Limited were both founded by Alex McDonnell and Paula Lawton. Paula and Alex have now brought both companies together under the Xpertivity brand with the services pre... Dec 26, 2020
Demand and Capacity Management of Remote Working Teams in the “Post Covid” Era Stuart R evisiting proven management practices to drive efficiencies of remote teams . Managing the demand and capacity gaps in Service and Knowledge Work organizations is a big challenge when teams were phy... Dec 22, 2020
Why Common Practice is Not Best (or Better) Practice! Stuart Diffusion of Innovations In speaking to managers in service and knowledge work organisations, I'm often told that "we already employ industry best practices" but often find that what they really mean ... Dec 22, 2020
