Any successful business owner or senior level manager will know that investing in employees is essential to the smooth running and the success of their business. Taking the time to invest in your employees ensures a high level of employee satisfaction, something which can often be necessary in order for the company to be productive, […]
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Action Is the Enemy of Thought
What’s the issue here? In the fast-paced world of today, we are urged to undertake ‘business at the speed of thought’ and become increasingly action orientated. Intuitively it makes sense to increase our speed of response in this rapidly changing environment. But, as we move to action, have our organisations become more effective at understanding […]
The Agony and the Ecstacy of a Change Manager
Editor’s Note: Editor’s Note: Ron Leeman is a world-recognized Change Manager and author of several Change, Process, and Project training guides on Flevy. You can also learn more about Ron and his approach to Change in our interview with him. * * * * There is a famous line in the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstacy about […]
Are Your Stakeholders Supportive of Your Project?
Yesterday, a Project Management Best Practice was shared regarding stakeholders, whom are important to any project’s success. According to Do your stakeholders know why your project exists? article (published on CIO.com), you need to conduct a kickoff meeting, distribute the statement of work, conduct regular meetings, and produce summary reports. I absolutely agree with the author Brad Egeland! […]
When You Care Enough to Give Your Best
Customer care or service quality or quality of service seems to be a fallacy nowadays. The truth that some of us tend to forget sometimes is that we are all customers and we are all consumers. We do care about many things, price, attributes, convenience, product quality, but, what about service quality? According to Zeithaml, […]
Stress Management and Meditation in Corporate Culture: Key Components of Success and Work-Life Integration
Meditation is the ancient-latest trendy buzzword making the rounds, and even those who wouldn’t give the concept a second thought a few years ago are now practicing on a regular basis. Some folks have been practicing for years and would appreciate reinforcement at work, where most of their waking time is spent! Clearing the mind […]
What Factors Truly Drive Change?
A couple decades ago, back in 1992, W. Warner Burke and George Litwan collated a number of organizational change models into one holistic view of how organizational structure and design affects change. With this research, Burke and Litwan developed the Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change, otherwise known as the Burke-Litwin Model. Their seminal framework […]
Organizational Culture Change: What Is It Exactly and Why Is It So Difficult?
I have been meaning to tackle this issue for some while now, because I have to admit that I do not fully comprehend the concept “organisational culture change,” so I am using it as a bit of a learning exercise. I have also seen a few articles on the subject of late and I wanted […]
Three Smart Ideas for Handling Customer Service Exceptions
While it’s always preferable to solve a customer’s problem first with automation, which means less friction for the customer and less cost for the company, the fact is that most companies’ self-service offerings are nowhere near advanced enough yet to be able to deal with all the exceptions and unanticipated circumstances that might give rise […]
Have More Effective Meetings
Editor’s Note: Jim Cucinotta is a very senior executive, with over 20+ years of experience in leading sales, marketing, and operations teams. He is also an author on Flevy. You can view his firm’s business training guides here. * * * * We have all been in one of these meetings, a marathon session with no clear […]
What Leadership Qualities Drive Organizational Performance? (Hint: Trick Question.)
A few decades ago, faculty members at the University of Michigan were researching the major indicators of effective organizational performance. What came from this research was an incredibly useful model for organizing and understanding a wide array of organizational (and individual) topics. These include theories on Organizational Effectiveness, Corporate Culture, Leadership Competencies, Stages of Life Cycle Development, Financial […]
Theory of Constraints: What’s Limiting Your Organization?
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a methodology for identifying the most important limiting factor—i.e. constraint—and systematically improving it. It was developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, introduced in 1984 book, The Goal. TOC differs from traditional management views, in that traditional methods seek to make improvements throughout the organization. They divide the organization into smaller, more manageable […]
