Posts tagged as:

Leadership

Chrysler’s boss abandons the top-floor

03.27.2012

Where are your executive offices? And how do they affect the engagement of the organization? In the early 1990s, Chrysler built the Chrysler Technology Center. The design was intended to help communication. Each floor was dedicated to a different platform: minivan, large car, small car. Vertically, their functional focus on design, such as body or [...]

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What we can learn from a giraffe about dealing with change

02.23.2012

For a Friday humor, here is a giraffe stuck in quicksand. A client is using this video to help introduce what people go through when dealing with change, through the classic stages of grief. Of course, there’s also a lesson here. Management, and leaders at all levels, sometimes forget that they went through this, and [...]

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The failure of “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions!”

02.07.2012

I head this approach many times, and in many different forms. Managers say “I don’t want people to bring me problems; I want them to bring me solutions.” Or “I don’t want more questions, I want answers.” I ran across this on the Harvard Business Review Blog in The No Whining Rule for Managers by [...]

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Building great spaces instead of great managers

01.30.2012

Why do organizations build great workspaces? Get prime real estate with a great zip code? Buy the fanciest office furniture and features? We do it in an effort to be an employer of choice. We do it to recruit, and retain, the top talent. But is there a problem in this strategy? On fistful of [...]

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Why won’t they tell me there is a problem?

01.24.2012

Leaders ask people to tell them what problems they have. This isn’t a practice exclusive to lean. MBWA, or Management By Walking Around, even incorporated this concept. In some organizations, there are systems in place (whether digital or on a board) for individuals to capture and surface problems. We ask as part of one-on-ones. But [...]

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Chief of Staff: The new CEO necessity [Guest Post]

01.02.2012

Guest post: Shawn Patterson is the Executive Director, Enterprise Performance Management and Chief of Staff to CEO at DTE Energy. Shawn has held numerous positions in multiple industries and is passionate about influencing lean transformations in organizations. A recent CNN Money article stated, “In headier days a CEO’s must-have accessory was a GulfstreamV or a [...]

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4 myths about the principle of “Respect for People”

12.07.2011

The principle of Respect for People has received greater attention in the lean community over the past several years. Books, blogs, and speeches have all given attention to its importance. Both companies and customers are made up of people, and the best profits and processes in the world are not worth it if they lay [...]

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Building Manager Standard Work

11.18.2011

My latest column for Industry Week, Lessons from the Road, titled “Building Manager Standard Work” has been posted. Here is an excerpt: …People resist building standards in knowledge work because of natural variation. Yet if you already have variation, why would you want to add more by having no structure or routine? No, you can’t [...]

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All you really need to know about courage and risk in your career

10.19.2011

Sam Walton was fired as a J.C. Penny store manager before starting WalMart. Countless world champion coaches were fired before reaching the ultimate prize. So many individuals want to do more, push harder, say what’s on their mind, and take some risks. But something’s stopping them. But it’s the courage and risk-taking that leads to [...]

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“I messed up” – the words of a leader

09.19.2011

Netflix has been and will be written about extensively. I won’t write much but just want to highlight how Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings began his recent customer communication: “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.” Notice he didn’t say “We messed up.” Nope – it was “I”. There is so much talk [...]

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