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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

When beginning a continuous process improvement effort begin with asking what is it you do?

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Continuous Process Improvement is not a fast track to the end result, it is a journey that never ends.

TLS Continuum and Innovation requires inclusion not exclusion

In last week’s blog I discussed the response to the question What Is? The intent was to present you some tools on how to determine what your organization looks like in its current state. It is that determination which leads to the rest of the process. Ogilvie and Liedtka, in their book Designing for Growth: […]

Welcome to the first of four posts that explore the interconnection between design thinking and the TLS Continuum. It is a dynamic way to understand your customer and your customer’s expectations. This first installment is critical to the success of the process improvement effort since we need to understand the problem in its basic manifestation. […]

Try a new idea, let your mind expand the possibilities; begin your improvement effort by asking the question What If?

When choosing a project to be undertaken, choose those that are leaning toward alignment with the corporate goals and mission.

If you watch the media and social positing there a lot of comments about why process improvement efforts fail. The reasons for excuses run a wide gamut. I would suggest there is a more fundamental reason for improvement efforts that fail. We have the wrong focus. I am not suggesting that the problems are the […]

We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are

I was reading the Summer 2016 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review in which an article appeared by Catherine Bailey and Adrian Madden titled “What Makes Work Meaningful or Meaningless.” The article gave me some pause for thought as to why cross functional teams sometimes failure to reach the goals that they have set. […]

I am still in the process of reading Your Place at the Table by Allan Cox. Throughout the book Allan Cox centers his message on seven signs of authenticity. Considering the events of the last 48 hours a couple of these signs appear to stick out more than others. The need to belong is a […]