root cause analysis

Lean Six Sigma and Project Management – triangles and (virtuous) circles

By Elisabeth Goodman and John Riddell On 6th July, we held a very enjoyable second iteration of our APM workshop on this topic in Norwich, having run it previously in Stevenage in May. As with the previous seminar, our audience ranged from people and organisations with very limited knowledge of Lean and Six Sigma, to …

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Why thinking in terms of burning platforms and tipping points is not sufficient to drive change

The term ‘burning platform’ has its origins in a real life/death scenario faced by an oil worker in the North Sea and now commonly used to help change agents and stakeholders articulate organisational or personal motivation (WIIFM – What’s In It For Me) for change. ‘Burning platforms’ form the basis of ‘sticky’ or unresistable messages …

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High performing organisations: interweaving process improvement, knowledge management and change management.

Approaches for building strong quality foundations are well documented in the manufacturing industry, but also occur across all business sectors and types of organisation such as flight airlines, the navy, health services, pharmaceutical research & development and education systems. Steven Spear, in ‘Chasing the Rabbit’1 discusses, with examples from the above, how this quality foundation …

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The problem with relying on intuition for process improvement and decision making.

In a previous blog “There’s more to decision making than meets the eye… or why we shouldn’t dismiss gut feelings“, inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Blink’1, I made a case for the discretionary use of intuition in decision making.  I argued that: There seems to be a particular role for intuition when: a) encountering very …

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Powerful quotes for strong performing (effective) teams

Followers of my blogs will know that I have been reading Stephen Covey’s “The 8th Habit” and have found it very inspirational both from a personal perspective, and for the various ways in which I help teams become a strong foundation for their organisations. I particularly liked the following quotes which Covey includes in his …

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