Process, Simplicity, and the Power of Scaling Yourself
From my associate Dan Elliott. In every profession, people strive for better results, better focus, and a better rhythm to their work. Yet most of us underestimate the role that process plays in creating those outcomes. We often focus on the goals we want to achieve but overlook the systems and routines that determine whether we reach […]
The Overlooked Lens of Process and Efficiency
From my associate, Janice Giannini. Efficiency is the lifeblood of business. From assembly lines to boardrooms, the pursuit of smoother processes and higher productivity drives innovation and success. Yet, for all its importance, discussions about efficiency often feel predictable. They focus on incremental improvements to tools and workflows, missing deeper, more human layers of the […]
The Most Significant Broken Process of Your Life
From my Associate Janice Giannini. Is Effective Communications! It is a profound weakness across the board, wreaking havoc across all aspects of life. A recent Quote from Axios Short Brevity illustrates this. “It has never been harder to get people focused on what matters most, and the work from anywhere reality has turned communications into […]
Wait! Don’t Mess Up Our Process
Our crack failure analysis team in Quality Engineering received the first call when a hi-tech manufacturing process started turning out defective products. They rapidly went to work, examining process data, taking measurements, assessing raw materials, asking questions about operators’ training levels, and calming down panicking manufacturing managers. Most often, the team defined the problem and […]
Process Excellence Progress: Navigating Pitfalls and Powering Success
Starting any process improvement initiative can be challenging, and it’s not uncommon for organizations to encounter various errors and oversights. Here are ten of the biggest mistakes often made by teams in their early stages of process excellence initiatives: 1. Lack of Clear Objectives: Defining clear, measurable goals for the process improvement initiative can lead to […]
Fix the Toaster
Do you want to fix the toaster, or do you keep scraping the burnt part off the toast? It seems like a simple question, but hear me out. In business and life, we get what we accept. If so, why would we continue to accept an unacceptable outcome rather than address the core problem? These […]
New Ways to Think About Business Processes
From my associate Grant Tate. Our normal template for thinking about business processes includes a smoothly flowing set of steps leading to a desired result or product. Each step has a specific purpose with clearly stated input and outputs. Given that, we decide how each step should be accomplished, for instance, by a human being, […]
Do You Want Your Business To Thrive? It’s About the People
From my associate Janice Giannini. In today’s rapidly changing environment, companies either thrive or die. Thriving requires closely integrating the business and people imperatives into the processes driving the business. Inadequate recognition and integration will fail to deliver the needed business results. I opine that looking through a few different lenses might be helpful: Are […]
Are You a Complexifier?
It may be a funny word when we first hear it. But when we let the impact sink in, it may be one of the most costly words on the planet. The true cost may be well more than the extra time that a project takes to reach completion. How many extra meetings were needed […]