It’s easy to determine whether the leadership of a company truly embraces lean thinking. One of the more frustrating “tells” is the insistence of leadership to precisely follow the path others have taken. The underlying notion of achieving the same or similar results may be appealing but it does not address why the specific path or methodology was chosen by […]
Lean – Have it Your Way
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? I stumbled across this term while reading 8 Unexpected Signs You’re Smarter Than Average by Jessica Stillman (Contributor Inc.com). The Dunning-Kruger effect, according to Wikipedia, is best described by the first two paragraphs and paraphrased in context as follows: The Dunning Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people of low […]
The Pulse of Leadership
In theory, Employee Opinion Surveys provide a pulse of the workforce and the workplace in general. In practice, they measure the performance of executive leadership and the management team. They serve as a tool to understand what is working and to identify opportunities for improvement. Unfortunately, collecting and compiling survey data is very time-consuming and only represents a snapshot in time. While […]
Desk Jockey Leaders – Where Did That Come From?
The inspiration that tipped the scales and served as a motivator to write about Desk Jockey “Leaders” came from a headline that appeared on the front page of Friday’s edition of the Toronto Sun (October 25, 2013): “Despite $862M repair backlog, housing boss says: I need a bigger office! – Keeping Up With the Jones – TCHC Eyes $2-Million Reno […]
It’s Time to Celebrate! Happy Thanksgiving Canada
It’s Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada and I want to thank you – our valued subscribers, contributors, and visitors – for your continued support. This is also a day where we turn to family and friends to celebrate and share the many things that we are thankful for. I am also reminded that we need to be thankful for the […]
Leadership is NOT an Event
We’ve all been to the employee “town hall” meetings where a senior executive attempts to motivate the team and clarify the vision just one more time. A captive audience, donuts, and free coffee are all it takes to reignite the passion and synergy that once was – or so they like to think. Leadership is not an event, it’s a […]
Collaboration …
Great minds don’t necessarily think alike, they think together. ~ Redge How many times have you heard someone say you should just set aside your differences and move on? I suggest that bringing our differences to the table is an opportunity to create something that is new and better than we ever imagined. We tend to be quite content when […]
Learning From Mistakes
An event occurred this afternoon that required an immediate resolution. When asked whether we were going to pursue the root cause, I could only respond with this question: What’s the point of making mistakes if we’re not going to learn from them? This is likely the shortest post I ever published here, however, I think the simplicity of the message […]
Apple-opoly: It’s Not a Game
Some people can hardly contain their excitement when a company like Apple is thriving with sky high profits in the midst of a dismal global economy. Yet, this same excitement is seldom shared when banks or oil companies report similar results. Wouldn’t we all prefer reduced fees or lower gas prices over excessive profits from the very companies that portend […]
Transition Versus Change – 2013
The time between Christmas and New Year’s eve is one of transition as we consider the events that occurred over the past year and prepare for the new year ahead. Experts are sure to present their annual summaries and will also attempt to “predict” what may be in store for us in the year to come. As lean leaders we […]
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