Posts tagged as:

respect for people

Motivation and Incentives in the Lean Company

05.11.2010

Some groups don’t have to worry about motivation. Sports teams, for example, are filled with people who want to win, or at least enjoy trying. But for most of us, don’t have motivation so easy.
Truly lean organizations have demonstrated a higher level of motivation, incentive, and engagement. In part it may be because of the [...]

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You’re sacked! NEXT!

03.17.2010

Although I have written about Undercover Boss, don’t expect this post to be about Donald Trump’s Apprentice (even if the show has now officially jumped the shark, since we now have crook governors and ex-wrestlers). But while fun to say “You’re Fired!” on TV, it’s a lot harder in real life.  
I found some interesting comments [...]

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Creating Employee Engagement, Part 4

03.08.2010

This is the final part of a 4 part series on Creating Employee Engagement. You can first read Parts 1, 2, and 3.
Skills Required for Engagement
Skill gaps to create engagement exist both in employees and managers, although most transformation efforts tend to focus on only one or the other group.
Employees need to be able to [...]

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Creating Employee Engagement, Part 3

03.05.2010

This is part 3 on employee engagement. Read Part 1 and Part 2.
The Development of Systems to Support Engagement
When conducting an assessment, one of the most revealing questions that I seem to ask is “if you have found waste or an opportunity to improve, what do you do with it?” I usually get answers ranging [...]

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Creating Employee Engagement, Part 2

03.03.2010

This is Part 2, you can read Part 1 on Creating Employee Engagement.
The Role of Culture in Engagement
Culture is the set of shared assumptions, beliefs, and principles that a group or organization holds. It is best measured or observed by the shared behaviors or habits that are exhibited.
A certain set of beliefs and behaviors need [...]

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Creating Employee Engagement, Part 1

03.01.2010

Learning happens in the classroom. Coaching happens through a formal mentor often away from our work. At least that’s what we’ve been lead to believe.  
But that view has many limitations.
As it applies to learning, learning is never internalized in the classroom. There is a difference between information, which is in the head, and knowledge, which [...]

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You must lack common sense!

02.24.2010

Kiyoshi Suzaki, a lean thinker who deserves to be at the top of any lean guru list, wrote:
Lean tools are common sense – after the fact.
I think that makes sense based on my observations. People see it, and they want to call lean “common sense”. Some organizations and I believe even books have called it [...]

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What NOT to Learn from the Undercover Boss

02.15.2010

I don’t know if the show will last, but the Undercover Boss certainly has an interesting premise. Leaders of organizations go undercover in their own organizations to do front-line jobs, learning what is really going on. This is a great idea, and one consistent with lean where we talk about getting to the point of [...]

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Fail, Learn, Lead

01.18.2010

Do you have a lot of room in your organization for people to learn? Or as soon as they step out of their comfort zone, do things get a little scary?
What you do as a leader has a huge impact on the behaviors of others in terms of their own learning. Scott Burken, author of [...]

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Just a spoonful of sugar

01.11.2010

This post originally appeared on the Lean Career Compass community run by Value Stream Leadership.
“Respect for people” – This tenant has been thrown around a lot within the lean community in the past few years. It’s been used to challenge every company that’s ever done a layoff or anyone that is tough on someone else. [...]

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