The ideas of control and improvements are often confused with one another. This is because quality control and quality improvement are inseparable. (Karou Ishikawa)
Reality, Perception and Your Workplace Culture Part 1: Is there a Problem?
In our book Reality, Perception and Your Workplace Culture I discussed the two views of the world that organizations have regarding problems. They either see them from looking in the mirror or looking out the window. They either see problems how they see the problems, or they see them as their customers see the problems. […]
A Simple Way to Get Your Leadership Team Aligned on Strategy
Harvard Business Review suggests in an article that aligning strategy is not as difficult as it seems. See the full article at https://hbr.org/2019/01/a-simple-way-to-get-your-leadership-team-aligned-on-strategy?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_monthly&utm_campaign=strategy_activesubs_dalertnlsubs&utm_content=signinnudge&referral=00210&deliveryName=DM23511
Is that all there is?
In the continuous process improvement world, we consistently here about the need to listen to the voice of the customer when trying to resolve organizational problems. The problem is that this approach is primarily retroactive in nature. According to Wikipedia, Voice of the customer (VOC) is a term used in business to describe the in-depth process […]
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tip
In producing evidence-based solutions they are meaningless if we don’t measure, we won’t question #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
We can’t act on what we don’t know – Dr. Mikel Harry #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
We don’t know the answer until we search for the cause. #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Don’t be a problem solver, become a solution seeker. #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Do you feel the problem facing your organization? #TheChangeMaestro#TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Critical to project success is the removal of the fear of trying #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Clients don’t hire us because we are balanced. They hire us because we are extraordinary in some way #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Change management without culture change is not change management #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
Attached to choices are consequences, choose wisely
The Change Maestro’s Daily tweet
Are your customer’s part of your improvement process? if not why not? #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro Daily Tweet
Are you the critical HR leader in your organization, if not why not? #TheChange Maestro #TLSContinuum
The Change Maestro Daily Tweet
75 percent of all process improvement efforts fail because of the lack of cross-functional teams
The Change Maestro’s Daily Tweet
75 percent of all process improvement efforts fail because not everyone is on board with the new normal
Daily Tweet
75 percent of all process improvement efforts fail because of the fear of the unknown #TheChangeMaestro #TLSContinuum
Tweet of the day
75 percent of all process improvement efforts fail because of the lack of employee engagement
Tweet of the day
Any realistic vision of change must be based on the empowerment of people
Tweet of the Day
Are you doing things because that is the way you have always done it? #TheChangeMaestro
What was the last book you could not put down?
In the past year I took the opportunity to join the Next Best Idea Club and part of the benefits is the delivery to your home four times a year. In the box that just arrived was a copy of the new book Uncensored by Zachary Wood. It is one of those books that is […]
From HR Dive: Feedback-shy employees can cost employers $25K or more
AUTHOR Valerie Bolden-Barrett PUBLISHED July 16, 2018 Dive Brief: Employees who keep quiet for too long on problems they spot could cost their employers as much as $25,000, a new VitalSmarts’ study found. Researchers David Maxfield and Steve Willis said that when employees don’t to speak up, or wait too long to do so, about […]
Are you safe?
I recently conducted a two-day training class for business managers in the six-sigma methodology at a major university in which one of the participants stated that the least beneficial part of the course was having to create a project centered around an issue from their individual workplace. One of the participants responded that the project […]
TLS Continuum Part 89: Empowerment: The DNA of Sustainable Change Management
You and I constantly hear the comment that our organization human capital assets are no longer engaged. Dale Carnegie Institute in a recent survey states that among the 1,500 employees, only 29% are fully engaged and 26% are disengaged. Almost half (45%) are partially engaged. One of the downsides of today’s organizational structure is that […]
TLS Continuum Part 88: I am a human capital asset manager, but who am I managing?
I began as the personnel administrator. I was the organizational fireman. But times have changed and now I am the gatekeeper to the organizational talents, attributes and skills. With that responsibility comes the need for me to assist the organization with the retention of current human capital but also to plan for the future talent […]
TLS Continuum Part 87: Processes Gone Awry
First of all, let me extend my regrets for not keeping better in touch but I and my family have been fighting this bug that is flying around. Not the flu but close to it. It sucks to be under the weather. This past week has been filled with more irony then I would want […]
TLS Continuum Part 86: 5 ways to bring business skills to the classroom
We constantly read in the media and hear our elected officials espousing that our schools are in turmoil. However, if we bring the TLS Continuum and its associated business skills to the school environment we can counter these messages of gloom and doom. So how do we make that happen? Map your processes Both from […]
TLS Continuum Part 84: Are you in real time or in a bubble?
In Part 84, I posed the question as to whether your organization viewed the global workplace from looking in the mirror or looking out the window. I suggested that the view from the mirror is what you think you do and the view from the window is what your clients tell you what you do […]
TLS Continuum Part 84:The organizational view of the world via a mirror or a window?
The other day I was listening to an installment of the Voice of Experience from the National Speakers Association in which the presenter talked about the different view one gets from the mirror versus the window. There is a direct applicability to the TLS Continuum. In order to achieve sustainable process improvement, you must begin […]
TLS Continuum Part 83: The HR Missing Link;Have you found it as yet?
In Part 82 of this series, I posed the question whether or not human capital management was dead or not. In this part I want to suggest that there is a vital path to your survival both as an HR professional and as part of your organization. The C-Suite office holders of the 21st century […]
TLS Continuum Part 82: Is Human Capital Management dead?
As I listen to the Internet scuttlebutt I have cause to stop and consider whether the HR profession, as we know it , is thriving or either dying or has already died. I have a fellow consultant who told me that the reason why I am not getting the interest in some of my programs […]
TLS Continuum Part 81: Who are we as an organization/ as a society?
TLS Continuum Part 81: Who are we as an organization/as a society? I am currently experiencing the thrills of having a 16-month old grandson running around the house. This is an experience, which I have not had to deal with in over thirty years since my sons were born. But the events of this past […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
When beginning a continuous process improvement effort begin with asking what is it you do?
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
The Greatest Ability is Dependability
Do you diagnose What Goes Right?
Paul Michelman, Editor in Chief of the MIT Sloan Management Review discusses 6 steps to diagnose what you as an organization do right in the Spring 2017 issue. The full article appears at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/do-you-diagnose-what-goes-right/
What problem are you trying to solve?
Solving organizational problems begins with understanding the problem in the first place. Nelson Repenning et al discuss how to identify the real problem in the business in the Spring 2017 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Read the full article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-most-underrated-skill-in-management/
Beware the Cycle of Doubt
Projects fail when support dwindles due to shifting organizational priorities, changes in leadership, and distrust of information. Karen Brown et al discuss to reverse the cycle of doubt in an article in the Spring 2017 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Read the full article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/protect-your-project-from-escalating-doubts/
TLS Continuum Part 80: Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell
This blog post does not refer to the former government policy regarding sexual orientation in the military. Rather this refers to a vital part of the TLS Continuum and the voice of the customer. We can’t improve our processes without the input from our customers. However it does no good for you to ask the […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
If you change the process, the old standard of work becomes obsolete
TLS Continuum Blog Post Reprise: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery and today is present
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery and today is present You read that real quick didn’t you? But go back and really consider the implications of the words themselves to the human resource professional in the daily exercise of their responsibilities. Yesterday is history There is no organization that is free from having made really […]
TLS Continuum Part 78: Obstacles are pathways to Opportunities, Not a Dead End
Let me begin with a few premises. Whether we are talking about our personal lives or your business workplace, everything we do is based on a process of some type. Each process is constructed of a series of steps, which lead us to the end result. The second premise is that although we would like […]
TLS Continuum Part 77: The Dark side of TLS Continuum Part 2
I had made a commitment to you, the readers of this blog series to try and post a new segment every Friday. So far in 2017 I have gotten away from that to some degree and I promise to be better through the rest of the year. At the end of Part 76 of the […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
Sometimes the solution to the problem is not the solution, reframing the problem is
TLS Continuum Part 75: Where have we been and where are we going?
As we enter a new year and we begin a new round of postings to the TLS Continuum blog series, I want to wish you and your families a very happy new year. Further if you are experiencing some humps in the life road, as I am, I hope they are short lived. During our […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
Crowds are only wise when the group has access to everyone’s individual information. Think organization for crowds. Jonah Berger “Invisible Influence.
TLS Continuum Part 74: I want it and I want it now
I want to apologize in advance for some of what I have to say in this segment of the TLS Continuum Blog series may make you uncomfortable. If we look at society as a whole, we find that our lives seem to be surrounded by the need for instant gratification. Earn an MBA and expect […]
TLS Continuum Part 73: I think I can
In part 66 of the TLS Continuum Series I discussed that the missing ingredient in process improvement was the buy in to the process by management. There is another critical element that we did not discussed in the earlier segment. In reviewing the evaluations from a recent seminar presentation one individual stated that the least […]
TLS Continuum Part 71: HR TLS Continuum Reading List
Lately I have been asked about a reading list of titles that can be accessed to learn more about the components of the TLS Continuum. Over the next seven segments I will provide you with a list of titles that appear within my personal process improvement library. The first part will deal with the area […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
Major obstacle to process improvement is management buy in and acceptance