Lean principles for knowledge workers (and everyone else)

October 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

There is an article on the Harvard Business Review entitled “Lean Knowledge Work” by Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton. I think it is one of the more important pieces examining the applicability of Lean concepts to areas other than manufacturing.

The article, in my mind, focuses on the reasons why organizations who commit to Lean end up succeeding. That is, they begin to understand that addressing the mura (unevenness of operations) and muri (overburdening of people and resources) in the workplace as the root cause of muda (waste and inefficiency). [Read more]

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Half of Your Team is About to Quit….12 things to do about it

September 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

A recent survey of over 30,000 employees including 2400 US-based employees had some grim results.  One-third of US employees are considering leaving their current company – it’s even worse with younger employees.  There are also those who are so unmotivated that they are unproductive.  Statistically, those who are either ready to leave or are completely unmotivated make [...]

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Stop Placing Blame and Understand the Why.

September 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

Leaders don’t worry about the who.  Leaders figure out the why and fix it. When a problem occurs don’t worry about who did what or find fault.  The important thing is to figure out the problem, contain it and then determine why it happened. Too often people are worried about covering their tracks and start [...]

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Factors that Create Effective and Successful Project Teams

September 14, 2011 By 3 Comments

Creating an effective and successful project team – one that works well together to meet the project objectives – is a combination of a number of factors. Certainly, as a team leader, understanding the five stages of team development and how those stages impact the team is essential to you developing a high performing team. [...]

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The messed-up paradigm of long hours

September 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’re not familiar with the concept of ROWE, the Results-Only Work Environment, you should be.  Implemented at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters, it is founded on the belief that people become happier, more engaged and more innovative when the value of their work is measured on results – not on time served in the office. [...]

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Are You Managing the Grapevine?

September 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

This grapevine is an important source of information for any manager, executive or business owner. It provides you information that you may not otherwise hear, such as how employee morale is doing and issues that are important to employees. The grapevine is of value to employees because they tend to trust what comes from the grapevine. This is due to the fact that usually management is not involved in grapevine communications. And grapevines are not all about rumors – there is fact in there. As a manager or business owner, don’t discount the grapevine conversation, or assume it isn’t happening. [Read more]

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Work/Life Synthesis

September 6, 2011 By 2 Comments

So, you may have noticed some changes around here.  I decided, in order to really express what I believe is at the heart of this blog, that I needed some help.  I hope you’ll enjoy the posts from guest bloggers in the future as I invite them to share their thoughts on “Management Excellence and [...]

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“Labor” Day? Only if we make it so

September 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

  According to the Department of Labor, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. Labor [...]

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Guest Post: Happy Employees = Good Business

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I recently read an article on Business on Main entitled Is Happiness the Key to Success and I want to share my thoughts on what was an interesting and timely article. Too often entrepreneurs do not consider how their emotions affect their business – and everyone around them: employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, partners, etc. What [...]

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Guest Post: The Importance of Respect for People

August 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

Sometimes lean thinking and behaviors are being used without being known.  Common examples are Subway or Zappos.  But it can happen in our own work too. I have been implementing lean for 10+ years now and just this morning it hit me about a time when I was putting good lean thinking to work and [...]

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