| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Organisational Culture for Continuous Improvement
I have been working with leading Business Improvement guru, Tim Franklin, preparing the PR for his latest book which offers an introduction to Continuous Improvement (CI) at beginner level, encompassing Lean, TQM, Six Sigma and the other related methodologies of CI. He was developing an analogy of a geographic expedition to describe Continuous Improvement. As you start out on an expedition, you can see the horizon clearly as being the final destination, but as you walk towards it, it recedes and eludes you, like a moving target. CI is like this in practise. In the beginning you think that you know the maximum benefit that you can lever from a particular process, but if you continue to revisit the same process time and time again, it's amazing how your comprehension alters through experience - learning by doing. Sadly, many organisations don't develop this advanced comprehension, because they don't embrace the ideology behind CI, they see TQM or Lean as a set of tools and techniques, rather than a different way of working. By simply imposing CI as an additional set of craft skills, employees can become suspicious, wondering just what the hidden agenda may be. Just look up the word Lean in the dictionary - devoid of fat, sparse - no wonder that many employees think that it is another term for downsizing. In Tim's view, to get the best from CI, you need to have an organisational culture that supports the ideology - empowerment, no blame for trying and failing, good leadership with modest egos. Given the choice of a)imposing CI; Organisational culture can act as an invisible force to repel CI introduction. Being invisible, management can misinterpret the lack of progress wrongly, and 'throw' more money or management time, or both at the implementation to try and establish a CI momentum, without succeeding. If I can close with analogy once more - if CI is an expedition, surely you need to understand your point of embarkation as well as your destination; you need to understand the organisation culture that you are dealing with before you embark upon your CI journey. Tim has developed his own web blog (an unusual step for top Business Improvement gurus but an interesting development) which can be found at http://blogs.ardice.com/ambiance - I have a vested interest in Tim's work but I think this has the potential to become a useful tool for business leaders to reflect upon how they can lead and manage change in their organisation. John Hicks is the Managing Director of Headline Promotions Press & PR
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
PR Still a Mystery to Some Unfortunately, there are managers who define public relations by its applications. Which explains neither its underlying strengths nor what PR is all about. Build Your Business (On A Shoestring): Hire a College Intern Starting up a new venture or business can be one of the most exciting times of your life. It can also be one of the most stressful. Cultural Awareness - an HR Perspective The use of cultural awareness training has increased rapidly in the majority of global companies over the last decade.My experience working in global companies in which effective cross-cultural functioning was critical, involved the devotion of considerable time and energies to ensuring that cultural training needs were identified and accommodated as necessary. Performance Appraisal - Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw It Up Performance appraisals aren't fun. But a lot of the time they are agonizing because managers do really dumb things, ending up destroying a process that is important to everyone (or should be). Policy & Procedure Manuals - Tools For Greater Productivity and Efficiency In today's tough retail environment the retailer needs all the tools he can get to help improve efficiency, productivity, and the bottom line. Two of these tools are the company's Policy Manual and Procedure Manual. Critical Success Factors - Next The Critical Success Factors Focusing on the things that make the biggest difference to your future prosperity. (Note, although this article was written in early 2002, it is totally relevant. The Devil We Know "I'm in an abusive relationship," sighed Andrew. "My bookkeeper annoys the hell out of me but I just can't let him go. Challenge of ERP Implementation: Q and A with Rick Maurer Question: ERPs seem like a good idea, so why is return on investment so low?Answer: Resistance often kills many of these new systems. Even though the promise of what an ERP can do is high, the planners often fail to look at how the users are likely to view this "improvement. Understanding How Change Has Changed There seems to be an assumption that change is a single traumatic event that is thrust upon us and over which we have no control.In the recent past this was definitely true, in industry there would come a sudden realisation at the end of the financial year that unless we did something radical we were going to the wall. 5 Steps to Identify Core Processes Part Two of Creating Well-Defined Processes SeriesNext Week: ImplementationLast week, we raised the question: how do you know where to begin? How can you identify a gap in one of your company's core processes?The answer: follow the money trail?But how do you follow the money trail, and what will that mean for your business? To answer this, let's look at five steps to identify your core processes and any needs for change.Step 1: Define Your Business ModelThe following question might sound very basic, but you should first ask yourself: what business am I in? You'll ask this because you want to follow the money trail: to identify how exactly you earn revenue and from where that revenue comes. How to Set Up a Conference Call The methods in which you set up a conference call vary between the different services you use, and what type of conference calling you are using. There are three main types of conference calls, all with different methods of set up. Managing Workplace Conflicts Kinds of Workplace ConflictsLet's start by identifying where conflicts happen. Think about the kinds of conflicts that happen around your workplace. Demise of the Lone Ranger Manager: A Lesson in Management Communication Style When executives see themselves as solely responsible for the overall success of their enterprise, subordinates can hardly be blamed for acting according to predictions.Let's look at a familiar scene in classical American - if I may use the word - mythology. Riding the Waves to Success Last week I was confused and frustrated about a few things related to one of my businesses, and a bit upset with myself and "The Universe." As a result, I went into a deep meditation to get some clarity and help. Ten Secrets of Super Successful Meeting Planners Whoever said that being a meeting planner was easy, lied! Rather, it should be classified under the tough and demanding job category. But, along with being tough, it's also fun, exciting, exhilarating, stimulating, and never, never boring. Office Politics Office politics! It's just another way of saying: "The employees are not getting along!"When so much of a company's success depends on the employees' ability to work together as a cohesive team, it is critical that people understand and appreciate the differences in each other.Symptoms of Office Politics:ConflictStressJob DissatisfactionPoor communication skillsThe Results:High employee turnoverReduced productivity and profitabilityThe Solution:Improve employee communication and understandingThe Disc Classic behavioral assessment is widely used by the nation's largest companies to improve the working relationship amongst its employees. Telephone Techniques: Boost Your Productivity With Effective Phoning One of the things that most impacts people's productivity is not being able to focus on completing one task at a time - we are so overloaded with tasks and interruptions that it requires great discipline to avoid spending the entire day responding to other people's agendas. Telephone calls, both making and receiving them, are one of the greatest disruptions to the flow of the day and to our ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Why Do Managers Create Low Morale? Or Does My Bum Look Big In This? Why do managers create low morale as a product of their management and what can we do about it?The answer to the initial question is easy.We all know what managers do to the workforce that causes the workforce to feel the way they do about their jobs. Innovation Management - Six Crucial Steps Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Communicate To The Four Main Personality Types You probably know this already, but there are generally held to be four main personality types, which I call: Extrovert, Amiable, Analytical and Pragmatic . Let's take a moment to consider each of them in the workplace.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
