All Features
Mary Ann Pacelli
As a manufacturer, you don’t want workers; you want company ambassadors. Workers are individuals who show up and get their tasks done. Company ambassadors are a team of employees who are enthusiastic about their careers, and they are inspired and empowered to proactively help your business grow.…
Giles Hutchins
Much of today’s organizational management mindset—whether corporate, nonprofit, government institution, or startup—is rooted in a flawed logic about how the world works.
“We have been, and still are, in the grips of a flawed view of reality—a flawed paradigm, a flawed worldview—and it…
The QA Pharm
Historically, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited the Supreme Court decisions of United States v. Dotterweich (1943) and United States v. Park (1975) as Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) legal cases that establish that the manager of a corporation can be prosecuted under the…
Jack Dunigan
Delegation. If you’ve been in leadership for very long, you’ve undoubtedly had a class or two on the subject, read a couple of books about it, and encountered effective delegators as well as ineffective ones.
I have as well. Your experience might be different, but most of the classes and books I…
John Bell
Leadership doesn’t begin when you step up on the first rung of the management ladder. One direct report doesn’t make you a leader; nor does 10. Yet, the moment you have direct reports, you are expected to lead. When you fail to demonstrate traits critical to successful leadership, the expectations…
Mika Javanainen
With more than one million certifications issued, ISO 9001 is the world’s most widely adopted framework for quality management systems, helping companies achieve conformity of products and services to meet customer expectations and regulatory compliance. The ISO 9001 standard has become synonymous…
Michelle LaBrosse
Project managers, and especially certified project managers, know firsthand the value of quality training for their own professional development and effectiveness. Being a project management professional (PMP), after all, requires project managers to pursue ongoing education to maintain their…
Mark Rosenthal
It's a typical staff meeting. The function heads sit around the table with the boss. One of them describes a hiccup or problem he's encountering that's outside of his control because it originates in another department. An action item is assigned, and we move on to the next topic. Good to go,…
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
This month’s column results from my wife, Carole, asking me to “watch this.” This was a short video on her computer showing two young children brilliantly and inspirationally singing, “You Raise Me Up.” I was dumbstruck. Their song immediately took me to many places. I was reminded of the wisdom…
Harry Hertz
I feel like I should start this article with something like: “An innovator and a boss walk into a bar....” But I don’t have a punch line to follow it, so I’ll stick to the facts.
I recently read a blog post titled, “Think Like an Author, Not an Owner.” I felt the story should be more accurately…
Dawn Bailey
I recently had the great experience of speaking as part of a panel on the value of the Baldrige Excellence Framework, but what meant the most to me was the chance, I hope, to dispel some common misconceptions about what the Baldrige is actually all about. And, no, it’s not just an “excellence…
John Hunter
I have discussed steps to take to build a culture of continuous improvement in numerous posts on my Curious Cat Management Improvement blog. What it boils down to is building a system that supports that culture. Your culture is the result, not your aim.
David Heinemeier Hansson put it well…
Bruce Hamilton
In 1987, shortly after I became a manufacturing manager, the shop foreman at the time warned me about a young assembler. “Watch out for Michael,” the foreman said. “He tends to bend the rules. You may need to talk to him.”
In fact, I did watch Michael, and it did appear that he approached his…
Arun Hariharan
I do not presume to preach to business leaders (CEOs and other senior managers). However, having helped a number of organizations and their leaders with knowledge management (KM), I’ve observed certain leaders who are able to achieve greater and more sustainable results from KM than others,…
Annette Franz
Pundits and experts alike say that ensuring a good customer experience (CX) is everyone’s job. In fact, if you Google “customer experience is everyone’s job” or “customer service is everyone’s job,” you’ll find endless articles, blogs, and webinars with that very title.
It’s true. Technically, it…
Shawn Murphy
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. It doesn’t matter how great your plans to introduce a new product to the market are if your culture weakens execution. Culture is how things get done around a company. Great leaders focus on the work culture their leadership helps create as much as they focus…
Davis Balestracci
“When I die, let it be in a meeting. The transition from life to death will be barely perceptible.” —Anonymous
Today I’m going to share some ideas from an always-thoughtful newsletter written by Steve Harden of LifeWings—a company of pilots who use aviation ideas to create cultures of safety in…
Lois Kelly
I’ve been fantasizing about going on a road trip next summer to Alberta to experience the majestic Canadian Rockies. While browsing possible itineraries, I keep noticing this advice: “Leave the beaten path and take the alternative route of....”
If you’re trying to get new ideas considered at…
Brian Maskell
Companies that are seriously pursuing the lean journey soon find their accounting, control, and measurement systems need to change to support the new strategy. The principles and methods of lean thinking and practice are quite different from traditional business and therefore require different…
Mark Rosenthal
Improvement kata describes a routine for continuous improvement through four major steps. Those steps provide a structured pattern to enable consistent practice of each kata routine until it becomes habit—until it’s a natural way of thinking and acting. This change in behavior makes it easier…
Jeffrey Phillips
I’ve written before (and often) about how challenges with clarity and consistency introduce difficulties when corporations try to create new products and services. Notice that for a blog about innovation, I didn’t use the “I” word. That’s because I think corporations confuse the ends with the…
Mark Whitworth
Layered Process Audits (LPAs) offer companies tremendous potential benefits, but they’re also more involved than other audits. They task all of a plant’s personnel - including multiple levels of management—and cover all key areas at varying intervals. Creating an LPA system that is truly effective…
Kevin Meyer
“If you are too obsessed with success, you will forget to live. If you have learned only how to be a success, your life has probably been wasted.” —Thomas Merton, Love and Living
Sometimes there are dots just waiting to be connected....
I was rather surprised when Pope Francis mentioned Thomas…
Douglas C. Fair
Sponsored Content
Statistical process control (SPC) software has been around for decades, used by manufacturers across industries to help monitor process behavior and control quality on the shop floor. Like any technology, the software has evolved over the years into something much more than a…
Jesse Lyn Stoner
How do you help leaders understand they need to delegate? I often hear this question, and it was the focus of a recent letter I received.
“Hello Jesse: What have you found are the most effective ways to engage business owners in the need to delegate? Are there particular pain points that make…
