I was recently asked by a business owner, “how important is employee engagement, anyway?” And so I thought I would share some reasoning behind Employee engagement and its importance. Employee Engagement Defined But first, what’s employee engagement? Employee engagement is about getting the right conditions in place to enable employees to give their best…
16 Good Interview Questions (Including 11 Great Ones) to Help You separate the Wheat From the Chaff
When it comes to running interviews, having good interview questions can separate you from employing the next high flier to that resource sapping problem child. Let’s face it, there are three things you need to get right (and answer comprehensively): Can they do the job? How do they react under pressure? How well do they…
3 Critical Business Process Improvement Tools to Reduce Defects and Improve Productivity
When it comes to business process improvement tools, there’s no silver bullet. That’s the bad news… But, there are 3 critical business process improvement tools, which are close to it. And that’s the good news. I’m not going to describe the standard DMAIC, lean six sigma tools. Or Quality Management Tools. I’m going to describe…
DMAIC Methodology: 5 Steps to Eliminate Root Causes
DMAIC methodology is another problem-solving framework that’s designed to hunt out and eliminate problems. Very similar to its cousin, the PDCA cycle, it has its origins from TQM movement. It’s used extensively when applying Six Sigma to process improvement, but the DMAIC methodology is used by many also as a way of following improvements in a…
Plan Do Check Act: A Simple 4 Step Problem Solving Methodology
Plan Do Check Act is a framework that was created by quality guru, Edward Deming as a way of structuring problem solving and continuous improvement. It’s simple in its approach but very powerful in its delivery. The generic steps of PDCA are: Plan – Identify the problem, where you want to be and gather the…
13 Quality Management Tools to Drive Process Improvements
There are some essential and popular quality management tools that’ve been around since the dawn of time (or at least it seems that way). Why are they used? To understand problems better. And to make informed decisions, based on data. When used correctly, they can help identify issues, trends and root causes, quickly. And provide…
Why Problem Solving in Business Usually Fails
Problem solving in business sounds simple, but it’s hard to do correctly. There’s normally lots of variables that demand attention of resources across any business: Customer complaints Quality problems On time delivery issues Staff issues Cashflow problems Profitability issues Things not going to plan Sales not hitting objectives Equipment failures Overheads to pay Not enough…
A3 Problem Solving: A Simple Tool to Report Problems
A3 problem solving is a standard way of presenting problems and resolutions. It has the name A3, as it’s simply an A3 size piece of paper (international 11”x17” / 29.7cm x 42cm). Its inception was part of the Toyota Production System. And is a means of providing a standard framework to present problem solving, projects,…
Non Monetary Ways to Reward Employees
I regularly get asked, what are the Non Monetary ways to reward employees. It’s a daunting subject, one that’s often overlooked by many managers and leaders. In fact, in my experience, how to incentivise employees and reward them is the crux of good change management, and leadership. And it provides the difference between a highly…
Professional Presentation Tips: 6 Tips to Instantly Improve Your Public Speaking
Here’s 6 professional presentation tips that you can take away today and use instantly to help improve your public speaking skills. But first, I’ll let you in on a story. I attended a business exhibition, many years ago and one chap presented on the concept of leadership. He was the skipper of an around the…