What if what’s in their best interest……doesn’t interest them?

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
salad

A very good post appeared on the FastCompany site yesterday, in which author Ginny Whitelaw declared, “Empathy is the most powerful leadership tool.”

There’s not a lot to disagree with in the article. It is, essentially, about Covey’s “seek first to understand” and represents both a practical, and I would say moralistic, way to approach your interactions with others. Seeing things from their point of view is a good thing, of course. It helps you to understand the other person better, so that you can align your message with their concerns. It’s a practical exercise for influencing others in any walks of life where negotiation, compromise, and change are necessary. It also indicates that you have a measure of respect for the other person’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs and opinions.

Unfortunately, there are times when people simply don’t act in a way that is consistent with what is in their best interests. Especially not in the long term. It’s as simple as David Meister’s Fat Smoker principle – you have to go through something difficult to get to something good, so change is hard and rarely happens. [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Continuous Improvement, Random observations Tagged With: , , , ,

Management Innovation Exchange, and the weekly rewind

April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Think Differently

I’m not certain how many of the usual readers of this blog are aware of the Management Innovation Exchange. According to their site:

What is the MIX?

An open innovation project…

The Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) is an open innovation project aimed at reinventing management for the 21st century. The premise: while “modern” management is one of humankind’s most important inventions, it is now a mature technology that must be reinvented for a new age.

The spur for a revolution in management… [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Business Management, Operational Excellence, Useful Tools Tagged With: , , , ,

Unlimited vacation, unlimited responsibility….for management

March 28, 2012 By 2 Comments
working outdoors

The true burden for making unlimited vacation work rests not on the workers for knowing what’s coming down the pipe and, therefore, which days they can take off. The burden rests on low-level managers who are aware of not just the workflow – but also have an emotional connection to the individuals placed within their area of control. The role of management in an environment that supports unlimited vacation is a crucial one. It necessitates that managers have a handle on the value stream and the ability to establish multiple workaround paths and redundancies to ensure work continues no matter who is in the office or on the shop floor. [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Business Management, Family, Operational Excellence, Planning & Measurement, Team Building & Human Capital Tagged With: , , , ,

More on kids and the wisdom gained from teaching baseball

March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

So, it struck me, that when we interview candidates or assign people to tasks based on what they tell us about themselves, we are really only going on that person’s interpretation – which may be very different from our own. Different professions have attempted to make the understanding of the job standardized by instituting certifications and licenses, however, there is still a great deal of variation in the ability to understand and implement those standards. There is still one universal truth – the definition of what constitutes “good” is often developed after the fact and is done so according to subjective interpretations by someone with a need to save face. [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Continuous Improvement, Education, Family, Team Building & Human Capital Tagged With: , , , , , ,

An All or Nothing Attitude Usually Gets You Nothing

February 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A big trap in leading major improvements is to set massive and sweeping goals with no intermediate steps or sub-goals along the way. Here’s the trap. Because these goals are so massive, it ends up taking forever to just get it started or to generate any measurable results. Consequently, people see little or no progress, they get [...]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Business Management, Continuous Improvement Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How do you go to the Gemba when the Gemba is anywhere and everywhere?

February 1, 2012 By 1 Comment

I have a dilemma. Since I have been blogging about ROWE and contemplating the virtual workspace, it is at odds with my affinity for Lean Thinking and, especially, the concepts of going to Gemba and Leader Standard Work. If process excellence is facilitated by having Leaders go to where the work takes place, how can this same process excellence be gained when workers are at home in their pajamas, banging away on laptops?
[Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Business Management, Continuous Improvement, Operational Excellence, Team Building & Human Capital Tagged With: , , , , ,

You can’t bloviate your way to an improved workplace

January 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

I think we’ve all encountered the senior manager who has been assigned to “fix” a dysfunctional chunk of the organization.  Typically, they come in with a great many ideas, usually born from experiences in other situations, and then they begin to implement the tools that worked elsewhere.  There’s often a short period of enthusiasm, if [...]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Team Building & Human Capital, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

To change the game, ignore those willing to play

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When it comes to change you have to worry about the people in the boat. Those who choose to stay in the water will either find their own raft, swim strongly, realize our boat is a pretty comfortable place or, sadly, they will drown. While we regret that, we must also remember that they have made their choices, and the outcomes are not our problem. [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Continuous Improvement Tagged With: , , ,

Change exposes the boss, so there is no change

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s no wonder that those in power resist transparency or programs that put a spotlight on their knowledge base. By doing “what the boss wants” as a means of getting promoted, these folks never developed a strong enough knowledge base to fully understand the position. Of course, no one would want to put that on display. The end result is fear – fear, on the boss’s part, that he or she will be exposed for having little to no knowledge of what in the hell it is their staffs do all day. [Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Continuous Improvement, Operational Excellence, Team Building & Human Capital, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

It’s not, “Should HR lead change?” It’s, “Why do we need HR to lead change?”

December 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

HR may or may not be at the Vanguard of creating the culture of the company. In fact, it might not be much more than a Benefits and Compliance department, but someone in the organization clearly has an understanding of the human resources, even if it’s not Human Resources that’s in control.

Which begs the question, what if not just someone – but everyone – in the company adopted the people-first mindset?
[Read more]

Filed Under: Behavior & Culture, Team Building & Human Capital Tagged With: , ,
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