There are so many area's as a leader that you need to focus your energy on from making sure your team are performing well, those improvement projects you need to do to get those business metrics heading in the right direction and of course not forgetting the monthly reports and bottom line results! The list feels never ending. What if there were a ...

There are as many ways to run a to do list as there are days in the month, probably more! The other day I was having a coaching session with a new leader in a business and they were sharing their to do list set by their boss with me. I found it quite an eye opener, there were a great many things, 10 in total with an A against them inferring these w...

It's easy to get caught up with what everyone else is doing, to try and guess what's in their heads or what their strategy is for the way forward. People and companies all over the world spend countless hours and bundles of money trying to figure out what the other guy is doing or going to do rather than focus on the important thing, what are they ...

"Now THAT's an hour of my life I won't get back!" ..it's a phrase I have heard a number of times leaving meetings, I'm willing to bet you have as well, in fact come on, let's admit it, it's a phrase we have all probably used. Meeting are generally those parts of the business that people hate and it doesn't seem to matter if you are an exec or anyon...

I've sat in a few, ok a lot of exec & operations meetings at companies as they discuss the various metrics that are being used to monitor the performance of the company and make some fairly major decisions. Each time I do I see largely the same thing, and it's not good. The range of metrics used in businesses always surprises me in the commonal...

Meetings are a complete waste of time!.. well if that's how you feel then you're probably doing them wrong! I know sounds strange when you go to so many meetings to hear that but yep you're doing them wrong and what's more, as a leadership team, there are only 4 types of meeting you need to be having, that's right, only 4 meetings but lik...

What are you trying to do?  For the last 3 times I've started to write a particular article and then stopped, restarted, then stopped again. The reason?.. it just doesn't look right, it's not how I had it in my head, it's not... perfect. It wasn't till I was out walking the dog that it hit me, I was stuck in one of those really dangerous spots...

Did you ever notice how what looked like impossible tasks or deadlines seem to just happen when there is that sense of crisis? "If we don't achieve X then we" loose the major customer or the company or whatever it is. People rally around, pull together and suddenly everyone is heading the same direction and you make the numbers or the deadline? It ...

The Thematic Goal as we discussed here, is your rallying cry to give your organisation the laser focus it needs to have on a specific topic. In a sense you create your own 'controlled' crisis without a crisis. Now that you have clarity about what is the most important thing your organisation needs to focus on, it's time to figure out the next stage...

The Thematic Goal process is, as we discussed here, a process for creating a rallying cry to give everyone focus on the single most important thing in your business, right now. It's executed by using Supporting Objectives with Lead measures that we discussed in our last post, here. Once you have your lead measures then, it's time to get into action...

If you want to change the culture in your organisation focus on the behaviours, no big shock really but what if I said there is a good chance that your own measures or business metrics are fighting against your efforts to grow your culture and improve behaviours?   Lets Look At An Example  We worked with a company who said that "Quality i...

For many people it's budget time again and I don't know about you but for me, doing the annual department budget was never my favourite task. My first budget was terrible, it was largely just given to me and not knowing much better I said sure I can do a 5% cut in costs! Having been through the loop a few times now I've learned the odd thing o...

We have all been there, we argue black & blue that it's round when someone else argues nope, it's a square, the weather is too hot or just right, you should set the machine like this or like that, the examples are endless.  I was talking about this top of viewpoints to a client last week and pulled out this image that I've used many times ...

The Daily Check in is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, its a check in session where daily schedules, activities and issue alerts are shared between the team so everyone starts on the same page each day. The meeting should last no more than 5 minutes, 10 minutes at the most! There is no agenda for this meeting and you sho...

I used to work for a boss who had an over riding rule, "The  answer is YES" no matter what, we answer yes then figure it out, then we do it. While from a marketing point of view this may well have been great, from a real world perspective it was terrible, let me explain. For a start there was an ever growing mountain of things to do, thin...

As part of a run down on the 4 Meeting structure which really comes out of Patrick Lencioni's book Death By Meeting (also referenced in his book The Advantage) last week we talked about the 5 minute meeting, this week it's the Weekly Tactical Meeting we're discussing. You'll remember from our summary (check here if you don't!) that this is the 45-9...

As part of the 4 Meetings process we talked about having a scoreboard set up for your 3 or 4 key metrics that you want to track for each quarter. There are a number of templates around that you can use, you can develop your own as well but we thought we would share one of ours. Overview We've structured the Scorecard to make it as simple as possibl...

We have talked a lot about the benefits of a thematic goal but did you know we created a template that you can download and get stuck into using right away? Here is the link to get your very own copy of it completely free Grab Your FREE Template For your FREE template of the Thematic Goal process just fill in the form and we will send you a co...

As part of our run down on the 4 Meeting structure which really comes out of Patrick Lencioni's book Death By Meeting (also referenced in his book The Advantage) last week we talked about the first two meeting types, the Daily Check In and the Weekly Tactical so lets talk about the Strategic Meeting and why it's critical. Strategic decisions a...

Becoming a Budget Ninja may not sound like something to aspire too but believe me, once you learn the ways of the budget Ninja you wont go back! Your busy getting prepared, you have studied with the grand master of the finance department and know what your challenges are. You've carefully read (and printed out our info-graphic) for 8 Tips...

We have all been to those off site 'strategic' meetings where you spend more time hiking through hills, playing golf, river rafting, falling off tables in the obligatory 'trust' exercises and, I'm sure, many more "Team Building" exercises I haven't even thought about. What a waste of precious time, don't get me wrong I'm not saying t...

You will have heard the saying - if a tree falls in the forest does it make a noise, well Productivity is kind of the same, Are you really productive if no one knows or rather how do you know you are productive if you are not actually measuring it? A question we always ask clients is how you view your business? Is it effective, ...

The Complete Process We love the Thematic Goal Process, we've talked about it often here and we've even designed some templates to help you make it work but we wondered what else can we do to help. The, it hit us, an E-Book.. something you can take away, print off, hand out to friends colleges so they can discover the process in their own...

On Wednesday morning my alarm went to remind me to get up to watch SpaceX's Falcon Heavy take off on it's test flight. Truth be told I didn't need the alarm, I was up already and excited, this was history in the making. Then, disappointment it was delayed by over an hour because the wind conditions weren't quite right. Finally the wind was good, th...

Every business has problems, it doesn't matter the size or complexity of the business issues come up, daily some large and some small. What defines great business and great business cultures is how they solve those problems both in terms of the solutions they come up with and the methods they use to do it. The size of the problem often dictate...

A lot of the time when you ask companies about their ISO9000 compliance they are ever so eager to show you their quality statistics, the Xbar charts and a multitude of other charts, talk about their outgoing and incoming quality checks and of course customer returns levels. All of which is great, but that's only a part of ISO9000 and some would arg...

It's been a busy time of late between some increased travel while working with some great clients in Auckland, plus touching base with some in Christchurch, working with some really interesting individuals as part of the LinkedIn Mentoring program, preparing for our workshop next week on Understanding & Improving The Customer Experience and of ...

When I talk with people about their quality system or ISO9000 the one bit they all tell me is that they have lots of Non Conformances getting captured (which is good) or that they have just had an audit and passed with no issues (which is not so good!). What I tend to pick up though is that Non Conformances are seen as a bad thing, someti...

In our previous post on Core Values, we outlined Permission to Play Values, those values that must be present in someone before you even let them in a organisation. There are some obvious ones here, Honesty and Integrity for example but there may be other ones that your organisation decide to add that are specific to your business or industry and t...

When you go see a movie you don't turn up a third of the way through because you know that part is pointless or skip the first 3 or 4 chapters of your book because, well the interesting stuff is always in the middle. That 1st part is the critical opening act, it's where the whole story, the basis for everything is set up, it's critical to the end o...

So you have done the hard work, you have figured out what your real Core values are, you are clear on your permission to play values and you also have a couple of aspirational values that you are going to build a plan to embed these into your organisation. You are all set, let's get the posters made & framed! Frame them, Don't Frame them.. Not ...

In our last post we pointed out that skipping the initial sections of the ISO9000 standard is dumb, it's like walking into the movies after the first 30 minutes and hoping you know what's going on so if you haven't read our post on the initial clauses pop back there and have a read, we'll wait.    ISO9000 and The Initial Clauses (the one'...

Can we have a quick chat about your company Purpose? Great, so just tell me what it is … At this point in the conversation one of a few things typically happen:   The individual starts to trip over their words and gives a long string of jargon which doesn't really mean much, and I possibly nod off halfway through.The individual reaches for the...

Clause 4 if the ISO9001:2015 standard is broken into 4 sections in a bid to make it cleared, for the user which are: 4.1 Understanding the Organisation & its Context4.2 Understanding the needs & expectations of interested parties4.3 Determining the scope of the quality management system4.4 quality management system & it's processes Now,...

Before we start I want to point I'm not going to be talking about in-depth project management or project office systems, I'm not talking about slippage, work breakdown structures or Gant charts or  Scrum sessions or anything like that. What I am talking about is actually controlling what projects happen in your organisation and why that's...

When you think about a company mission statement what springs to mind? A bunch of buzzwords that create a nondescript marketing pitch that no one really understands or pays much attention to right? If people do pay attention, it's only to laugh at them. Sometimes companies incorrectly toss in a bit about it's long term future as well just for good ...

You hear the advice from a huge number of people, hit the big things 1st, focus on the biggest bang for the buck, don't sweat the small stuff. Yet the thing that people forget, it's all small stuff, until it's not! Big stuff starts out as small stuff, then it grows, it feeds waste or lack of accountability or poor company culture and it grows then ...

ISO 9001:2015 Clause 4.4 is an interesting one, it says that you shall establish, implement, maintain and continually improve a quality management system. It says you should  include the processes needed & their interactions as well, its your job to determine the processes that are needed to meet the standard. It doesn't say anywhere ...

ISO9001:2015 Clause 4.3 is all about the scope of your Quality Management System, of what parts of your organisation will be included within your Quality Management System, in other words what are the boundaries of the Quality System. By completing ISO9001:2015 Clauses 4.1(Context of the Organisation) , Clause 4.2(Interested parties) ...

Volume is the solution, volume will make you more productive, volume will reduce costs. That's the goal, reduce costs and send more money to the profit line. The more you can spread your set up costs over a larger run (like spreading jam on toast) the cheaper things will be and the more profit you will make. Problem solved.. just make more! Except,...

What is your vision for your company? Can you talk about it with people in a way they will understand? Will it inspire people in a way that they will want/need to get involved and to help with it? Or will it be a statement on a bit of paper that is framed in your entrance hallway or posters in your canteen that everyone looks at the first time, sha...

In ISO9001:2008 we had Management Responsibility, in ISO9001:2015 however we have Leadership as a clause, surely, it's just a simple name change, branding if you like. Actually no, it's quite a deliberate distinction they have made in the standard and it's aimed at engaging more of the company. Previously a company would hire a Quality Manager and ...

Productivity conversations are always interesting conversations, generally they start about being more efficient in the organisation, when what is really meant is I want more out the factory, which is fine. We invariably talk about what has been done so far and how they lead the floor and the example they set themselves. One of my favourite little ...

If you are familiar with the ISO9001:2008 standard you will know that it had a customer focus requirement so the need for it in ISO9001:2015 shouldn't be a surprise and it's similar. So what are the changes and why do you care? Again it is about stressing that top management needs to care about and be focused on the customer, they are responsible f...

It's not news that when you have a bottleneck in your process you have a problem, backlogs build up, sales don't go out on time, customers get frustrated and cash flow starts to suffer. Identifying your bottlenecks and understanding the value of them then is important, so why don't more people pay attention to them? Moreover why isn't more tim...

The quality policy is one of those documents that is ubiquitous to ISO9001, we have all seen them, pinned to noticeboards inside the company handbooks and, if your really lucky, as part of a presentation at your induction. That is, for most, the extent of the involvement with the Quality Policy which is bizarre as it is the fundamental document of ...

I don't know how many times I have the conversation or overhear the conversation about wanting to improve throughput in a operation by doing things quicker. Typically it's something like "Lets find that 1 or 2% additional speed and it'll be fine", I cringe every time and here's why, speeding up your operations will not give you the big bang ch...

For a lot of companies having crystal clear roles and responsibilities along with clarifying who has authority for what is something which is perhaps not the highest of priorities, which to me seems strange, don't you want your people to know what's going on and who does what? There is sometimes the fear that if you define things too much then...

Many people in leadership positions struggle to have difficult conversations, not just those new to the roles, people who have been in a management/leadership position for years can still struggle to have the conversations that are needed within the organisation to help everyone improve. There are shelves lined with books by experts on the topic in...