Similar but not the same It may be semantics, but I think we confuse outcomes and outputs: Customers desire outcomes, organisations deliver outputs. They are not always the same. Where do you place your attention? Outputs are easy to measure and manage. Output data rolls off systems and out of processes. Outputs are easy to quantify, target […]
Productivity for Productivity’s Sake
The obsession We love to make things more productive. We strive to be cheaper, more efficient, higher yielding. It is the holy grail, taking up most of our working hours. More for less in itself isn’t a bad goal, but who decides if we are being productive? Myopic measurement Imagine you flip burgers for a living and you […]
Issues, Incidents and Risk Events
Boring meetings Issues, incidents, risk events, screw ups, call them what you will, we all have them. Somewhere in your organisation somebody is logging them, categorising them and recording them. That somebody also has a target to reduce them. And every month they hold a meeting to discuss how they are doing. And — be honest — […]
The Simplest Way to Improve Performance – Possibly
An interesting story: Courtesy of Donella Meadows: Near Amsterdam, there is a suburb of single-family houses all built at the same time, all alike. Well, nearly alike. For unknown reasons it happened that some of the houses were built with the electric meter down in the basement. In other houses, the electric meter was installed in the front […]
What Gets Rewarded Gets Done
The walk I have always thought sheep dogs were intelligent. I didn’t realise, until recently, that they are smarter than me. I was walking with Kate — a friend of mine. Her sheep dog, a Border Collie called Harvey, was with us. After 10 miles or so Harvey seemed to be flagging. He stopped at […]
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