All Features
Kate Zabriskie
‘They reduce our bonus if our calls go longer than three minutes. I’m not going to lie; I start talking faster at the 90-second mark.”
“She asked me to suggest ideas, so I did. I now have a whole bunch of extra work to do. It’s the last time I’m opening my mouth. I didn’t realize offering an idea…
Jake Mazulewicz
Wildland firefighters. Air traffic controllers. Flight deck crews of aircraft carriers. Operators of nuclear power plants and the national bulk electric grid. These are among the safest and most reliable work teams in the world. And they don’t try to eliminate all errors and surprises.
Decades of…
Dave Gilson
Many people think of negotiation as a fight, but it’s really about collaboration, Margaret Neale explains to me as we begin our walk. “What negotiation is, to me, is joint problem-solving. Let’s find a solution to a problem that we’re facing.”
Right now, the problem Neale and I face is how to get…
Jeanne Quimby
As I sat with my 7-year-old son for more than an hour in front of an abstract painting, I saw what appeared to be black paint thrown onto a white canvas.
My son loves abstract paintings. He was explaining to me how much I was missing by just looking at the paint color. I hadn’t seen the energy…
Matt Fieldman
German manufacturing is a powerhouse, fueling 21 percent of the country’s economy and contributing nearly $1.4 trillion in exports. Given these facts, we in the MEP National Network have been studying Germany’s vocational educational training (VET) program, which most of us call apprenticeships, by…
Gleb Tsipursky
Many leaders, driven by memories of pre-pandemic times, believe that forcing employees to return to the office will naturally lead to mentoring and development. For example, consider what Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in spring 2023 on the On With Kara Swisher podcast after the company demanded…
Nathan Furr
When top Amazon executives were debating in the mid-2000s whether to greenlight Kindle, the now ubiquitous e-reader, sparks flew in the boardroom. Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s retail business at the time, openly challenged Jeff Bezos in front of the board. Wilke argued the venture would fail because…
Jennifer V. Miller
Many people think they can’t say no on the job. They tell me, “It’s just not acceptable.” They say it’s because they work in a “can do” culture. Or, they work for a boss who is pure evil. They’re afraid they’ll lose their jobs if they don’t try to do everything humanly possible to bring in one more…
Tina Behers
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s how quickly—and drastically—things can change in business. Indeed, organizations have been in an almost constant state of change through the ebbs and flows of the pandemic and its new work models, the fluctuating economy, and labor challenges…
Harish Jose
I’m looking at a topic in statistics. I’ve had a lot of feedback on one of my earlier posts on OC curves and how one can use them to generate a reliability/confidence statement based on sample size (n), and rejects (c). I provided an Excel spreadsheet that calculates the reliability/confidence…
Nellie Wartoft
Diverse teams are an essential asset to any business. According to a Forbes article, “Companies with a diverse workforce are 35 percent more likely to experience greater financial returns than their non-diverse counterparts.” This is because heterogeneous teams can provide greater insight into a…
Martin Cottam
It’s tempting to attribute the increased profile now given to occupational health and safety (OH&S) to the Covid-19 pandemic. But while in many organizations the pandemic shone a spotlight on OH&S management, there are other issues that will keep OH&S at the fore throughout the next…
Alonso Diaz, Maria DiBari
The pandemic has sparked a shift in many business models around the world, especially in the MedTech industry. The old manual labor model has sharply transitioned into businesses leaning on digitization and remote working models to cut costs, innovate, discover new drugs, enhance clinical trials,…
Megan Wallin-Kerth
The ability to observe relationships, patterns, and environment may be deemed a “soft” skill, but there’s plenty of hard data supporting the power of observation in the workplace. After all, observation is the sometimes overlooked first step in the scientific method: Make an observation, and from…
Scott Knoche
A very popular version of the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is the portable CMM “arm,” not to be confused with the “robotic arm” or simply, robot—as it is called in the factory automation world. Robots are motorized, machine-driven devices that have tube segments connected by articulating…
Sharon McDougall
Although the coronavirus pandemic changed the working lives of employees around the world, closing workplaces and transforming dining tables into professional workstations, it also gave employees a chance to time out and recharge from the hustle and bustle associated with office working.
The…
Tami Trout
It’s time for a digital workforce transformation. Modern manufacturers must juggle evolving expectations for workplace flexibility, pay, career paths, and benefits. They also have to take into account the changes in the ways employees learn and access information. The most obvious example of this…
Ken Chapman, Tony Orlowski
‘Turning to the men around him, Dodge shouted, ‘Up this way!’ but the men ignored him. Dodge later stated that someone responded, ‘To hell with that, I’m getting out of here.’ The team raced past Dodge up the slope toward the ridge. Four men reached the crest, but only two, Bob Sallee and Walter…
Peter Büscher
Over the past few months, I’ve covered the common sampling techniques used in technical cleanliness inspections. So far, I’ve taken a closer look at the washing method, direct liquid filtration, and tape lift sampling. Now I’ll discuss the particle trap method.
What is the particle trap method?…
Gleb Tsipursky
With 74 percent of U.S. companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid work model, leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their return-to-office and hybrid work policies. That’s because, in the United States, there’s only one traditional office-centric model of M–F/9–5, but…
Bryan Christiansen
With so many assets and projects to think about, facilities management is a huge and complex field. It’s easy to lose focus.
Luckily, there’s a simple and easy fix for this problem—facility management KPIs (key performance indicators). Outlining and tracking the most important ones will help you…
Rajas Sukthankar
Digitalization is transforming all areas of life as well as existing business models. It’s enabling the manufacturing industry to implement its product ideas by taking advantage of technology trends such as generative design and intelligent models. Production has become more innovative through…
Harry Hertz
On two prior occasions, I was motivated by additions to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to create and update the Hertz Lexicon of Creative Leadership Terminology.
As luck would have it, in late 2022, Merriam-Webster added another 370 words to its dictionary. With…
Stephanie Ojeda
Quality management and environmental health and safety (EHS) have traditionally existed as siloed processes and roles in most organizations. It’s easy to see why, given the forces that have shaped quality and safety during their history.
Modern quality management was born from the post-World War…
Henry Mintzberg
Management is a practice, not a profession or science. To appreciate the true complexities of managing, we have to understand its intrinsic conundrums.
Management is learned largely through experience—which means that it’s primarily a craft—although some of the best managers make considerable use…
