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The New Person’s Opportunity
When you take a position with a new group or a new company there’s a honeymoon period that provides a one-time-only opportunity to make your mark and exert influence. Everyone is curious to hear what...
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Benchmarking: It’s the Process, Not the Data That Matters
It seems not that long ago that benchmarking was another “next big thing,” touted as an invaluable tool for strategic planning and operational improvement. I remember attending several training...
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Six Sigma Without Management Support
Early in my career I routinely signed up for on-site classes and workshops designed to teach some new methodology to improve our management of people or projects. I remember returning to my work group...
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Should Stretch Goals be Achievable?
In the early 90s our division went through a week-long training session to learn some basic process improvement techniques. As part of the program we were divided into teams of 6-8 people and given a...
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Stakeholders Change Their Minds: Get Used To It
Here’s what we’ve been taught: spend the first part of your project talking to stakeholders and customers, develop a deep understanding of their expectations, translate those expectations to...
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Business Processes: Configuration, Customization and Convergence
In the mid-00s after Mark Hurd’s accession to the CEO office HP’s senior leadership aggressively pursued overhead cost reduction to improve the firm’s profitability. HP’s CIO used this opportunity to...
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Not So Fast: Baseline That Process Before Changing It
Teams are usually in a big hurry to make an improvement in an under-performing process because there’s some degree of unhappiness or pain (usually financial) associated with that process. The sooner...
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Consulting Pull vs. Push Strategies
Several of my former colleagues are now working to establish themselves as independent consultants. I’ve thought a lot about consulting over the last few years. I’m attracted to the narrative of...
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Changing the Tires While Driving the Car
That’s a phrase we often use to describe a chaotic work environment, but what if anything can be done when you’re faced with this situation? How should we manage when the current processes are...
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Leaders and the Illusion of Control
I’ve just finished Anne Applebaum’s excellent book Iron Curtain about the systematic efforts by Soviet-sponsored communist governments in the post-WWII period in Germany, Poland, and Hungary to...
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Why We Need Processes (and Recipes)
I enjoy cooking, it’s one of my few creative outlets. I used to tell people that there’s some deep connection between cooking and my early interest in laboratory chemistry, and maybe there’s something...
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Change Management and “Moneyball” (Movie Version)
The other day I watched the movie “Moneyball” again and was reminded of a few important characteristics of successful change management. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the...
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Getting People to Care About Quality
Quality sounds like something that everyone will support on principle, unless you have a saboteur working in your midst. It’s probably safe to assume that no one is deliberately acting to produce a...
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Something New: A Personal Web Site
Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy working on a personal web site that I launched on December 25. My intention is to provide more depth about my expertise and accomplishments than what can be...
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Getting Off to a Good Start
The transition to a new company can be disorienting. The HR folks always have a lot of forms to fill out, and it can take a while to figure out the e-mail and other IT systems. The work processes may...
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Process Detectives and Mechanics
Quality professionals are often called upon to investigate business processes and drive improvements because they’re typically responsible for the company’s quality management system and ensuring...
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The Personality Needed to Influence Quality
I’m not convinced there’s an ideal personality type for any specific job. I’ve seen many different kinds of people make strong contributions and achieve results. That being said, I don’t think you can...
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Patience and Process Improvement
It used to be easier when I was working in the factory. If we wanted to make a change to a production process we could usually determine fairly quickly whether the change led to a real improvement in...
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Managing a New Team, Replacing a Manager
I’ve gone through several job transitions where I was the new manager, replacing another manager and assuming responsibility for an established team. Obviously this can be a very stressful time. The...
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Trends and Early Indicators
Everybody understands that it’s better to be proactive and avoid problems rather than be reactive and respond after the problem has surfaced. In quality we try to shift from fixing defects to defect...
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