I was at a meeting the other week when one of those annoying corporate sound bites was used to shut someone down, you know the ones that seem to sound right but when you stop and think about it a litt

I've never understood how being busy, having a full calendar somehow became a badge of honour, I'm so important that there is no time, it wouldn't surprise me to hear someone say they were actually bo

Work groups are characterized by the least amount of interdependence. They are based on organizational or managerial hierarchy. Work groups may meet periodically to hear and share information. Teams a

When we promote people to their first management or leadership position it's very rare that we have actually trained them in advance for that position, it's equally rare that we train them at all for

The other week I had a really interesting discussion over a coffee with potential client. They had been working internally to find a way to really drive and push a continuous improvement culture into

If you are a long-term reader of our blog you will know that one of the things that we continually talk about is your organisational values and how you reflect these in everyday operations, how you li

It was Dan's idea, it can't be wrong, can it? Dan hired that person, they must be Ok, it's everyone else that just need time to adjust. Dan's the leader, so must know all of the answers, doesn't he? L

Last week I was involved in a conversation with a person I met at a networking event where we were discussing problems they were having at their workplace with people not following processes. They ask

A month ago I caught up with some friends for a drink and a chat to set the worlds to rights. I should explain that means we had a really good chat about everything that was bugging us and shared our

Martin looked at the calendar on his wall and back to the invite on the screen to the off-site review. That can't be right he thought, we only just had an off-site to figure out this strategy stuff. H

I have a question for you to think about this week. How often have you had a conversation with a colleague, a staff member or perhaps even your partner where you left feeling sure they knew what to do

People never seem to pay attention or understand what's being said, why do I have to keep repeating myself? We have said that our culture is X or that our priority is Y it was perfectly clear! I hear

When people talk about lean there are so many areas that are discussed, there are of course all the tools – 5s, Kanban, load balancing (Heijunka), mistake proofing (poka-yoke) Root Cause analysis with

"What If?" are magical words, they are the first words of endless possibilities and adventures. If people in history had never asked "What If?" we wouldn't have achieved so many things, no discovery o

I was talking to someone the other day about gardening in their organisation, I must admit it got a bit of a "are you mad" look which was fair but when you think about it there are similarities after

How do you feel when you hit the situation when you have to say those dreaded words... "I Don't Know"? and why are they dreaded words in the first place, what makes it hard for some to say "I Don't Kn

Every organisation has challenges and areas where they need to improve, even the very best of them. The challenge is always figuring out what to work on and what not to work on or putting it in anothe

We don't want managers, we want leaders! We hear and see that phrase or something similar to that a lot. In fact, so often it's now one of those throwaway lines that it's now just seen as spin, someth

Like a great many people around the world I ventured out at the weekend to try and see the Lunar Eclipse. I had a plan, since I knew I had to be at the top of a hill above the city to get a  clea

The Threshold Policy​  As a leader you are judged, fairly, or unfairly by your team's performance, that is after all one of your primary responsibilities, ensuring that your team delivers (and of

Daily work life can be busy, meetings, phone calls, paperwork, emails, more meetings. It just never stops. By lunchtime, your head hurts and your thinking I just need 5 minutes to get things in an ord

When it comes to describing the LEAN Wastes I like the DOWNTIME acronym, it gives the added hint that these aren't good things. Most people know and attack the popular ones in the group, the loud ones

I can't tell you the number of companies I have seen who list speed or "responsiveness" in some form as a core value in their organisation. They claim it's the way of working in their business but whe

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

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

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, u

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&nbs

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 goin

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, H

Lets start a conversation about your company values, you know that list of words or phrases that you have pinned to a wall somewhere, the ones that the exec team brought back from the golfing weekend

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

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 wel

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

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,

We thought it was time to get a quick bit of feedback from everyone about how they see 2018 shaping up and their focus for next year, and what better way than one of our 60 second surveys. We want to

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 giv

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 o

​"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

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 countle

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 headi