It’s strange, we get training in all sorts of things but when it comes to the one area that causes us as much if not more hassle than anything else, namely email, we are left to get on with it ourselves. We need to know how to effectively manage email…
Big ideas are great but usually require huge amounts of resources to put them into place. Government and politicians in particular love the big idea but so often it’s the small things that matter. Students of Lean know all about Kaizen and continuous improvement but how often do they propose…
In so many areas of our lives we are experiencing robotics and the technology is rushing ahead along with the associated AI. Done well robotics is undoubtedly efficient but are robots effective? What many businesses and other organisations forget is that the success or failure of their product or service…
We train people in all sorts of technical areas. We would not expect an engineer, doctor or accountant to have “picked it up as they go along” so why do we expect everyone to be a natural leader? We promote people from a position of technical competence where they have…
Big Data is one of wonders of the modern business environment. It’s all there and easy and cheap to access. What more could you possibly want? Having lots of data may be good but how effective is big data? In order to be effective we are only interested in things…
I love honey bees. My other business is a honey farm and I have over six million of them flying around making honey. Because of the waggle dance where the scout bees communicate to the hive where the best pickings are to be found everyone assumes that honey bees are…
Customer feedback is flavour of the month these days and that’s a good thing. Restaurants who could previously get away with substandard food and service because they are in a tourist hotspot and only feed people once have the problem of customer reviews on things such as Trip Adviser. This…
Whether we like it or not the world is changing faster that at any time in human history and the rate of disruption looks set to increase. Disruption is inevitable and that’s why organised disruption is the way ahead. Too many individuals and far too many managers / leaders are…
Cost / price and value are not the same thing. There is an old phrase “he understands the price of everything and the value of nothing” and that’s why effective people understand value. Reducing cost is easy, reduce headcount, outsource, use cheaper materials the options are endless. Anyone can do…
Men don’t multitask they say and that’s a good thing but so many people don’t understand why multitasking is not effective. For the avoidance of doubt evidence shows that women don’t either. Writing in the Harvard Business Review Paul Atchley Associate Professor Of Cognitive Psychology at the University Of Kansas…