Ever wondered why business leaders are obsessed with creating great cultures? The reason is surprisingly scientific. It has been demonstrated that the level of performance of a team depends largely on how people in the team collectively perceive the task at hand. Thus, the most effective way to manage team performance is to influence the team’s collective…
We often think of meetings as something that slows down the real work of the business or project. We frequently hear people say, ‘we haven’t got time to meet weekly, so let’s do it monthly or fortnightly’. Research suggests the opposite to be true. Teams are more likely to achieve their goals on time when…
Operational problems remain unresolved when we think about the business as a structure before thinking of it as a set of processes. Elements of business structure include – the people, the organisation chart, physical locations, equipment, branches, stores etc. The structure of the business helps us understand the resources that make up the business, but it provides little…
In many companies, decisions are made ‘top-down’. Owners and managers think through improvements, make decisions and rally their teams to implement them. Although this approach is valid, it has a number of downsides. Most businesses suffer from information asymmetry. This occurs when people at the top have less information than those closest to the work….
Compliance activities are often seen as ‘paperwork getting in the way of productivity’. This is a valid perspective, but it’s one that can put you at significant risk. Poor compliance can result in safety system failure, industrial relations ‘blowups’, loss of accreditations, stressed staff and the list goes on. We work to shift the paradigm to ‘productive…
Unlike big businesses, most privately-owned medium-sized businesses cannot afford full-time experts in HR and Safety. Despite this, they still have the same obligations. The solution is to embed expert knowledge into existing business processes. This sounds simple, but there are a number of tricks to getting it right. These are: 1) Get the right advice Consult with experts in HR and Safety that are happy to…
In the course of our day, problems inevitably turn up – such as quality failures, safety hazards, customer complaints, environmental impacts and so on. If we don’t get on top of these issues then pretty soon we are ‘fire-fighting’ – fires start just as quickly as we put them out. To move beyond fire-fighting, businesses need a clear process for dealing…
Getting inventory right can make or break a business. Too much inventory increases costs and ties up cash. Not enough inventory and your product or service cannot be delivered. So here’s how to get the right balance. 1) Predict less Spend less time trying to predict exactly where and when inventory will be needed. 2) Don’t ‘Push’ Inventory Don’t ‘push’ inventory…
Re-designing a process is a waste of time and money if that process isn’t used. A colleague asked me how to get processes to stick and deliver real benefits. Here’s how: 1) Assign a Process Owner This works best if the process owner is the most senior manager possible for that type of process. A process owner is responsible…
When projects are delivered late or over-budget, it invariably comes down to a planning problem. Either planning went for too long, or there wasn’t enough. To avoid this, we need to understand the potential impact of what we don’t know. Leaving things unknown becomes risky when the project is large, the deadlines are business-critical, or it’s the first…
