Some authors say at least 60% of change efforts fail to achieve lasting results. In “Why Process Improvement Projects Go Wrong,” Professor Satya Chokravorty shares how and why a majority of Six Sigma implementations fail. Professor Chokravorty found: …that when confronted with increasing stress over time, these programs react in much the same way a […]
Can you fail less? What actions would you take? Read More »
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” Henry David Thoreau Catch the quote of the week here or on Twitter (@engineforchange).
…the person who tries, fails and tries again. At work last week we celebrated the success of an issue I’d been working on for nine years. Some wins come quickly. Some don’t. For those hard to achieve changes, the only way to someday win is by being willing to try, fail and try again. For
Who gets to make a difference? Read More »
From Zappos.com: At Zappos.com, our #1 focus is our company culture. We believe that if we get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service and an enduring brand, will happen naturally on its own. We found that “Tribal Leadership” describes many of the steps that we took intuitively to build
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Now for a new feature: “Your Thoughts?” I’ll post something someone short and ask you for your thoughts. As they are your thoughts, anything goes. This is a good place to practice commenting in public. I’d venture a guess that if you can’t comment on your own thoughts to strangers on a blog, you’re probably
For years I’ve carried around a business card with John Kotter’s emotions that work for and against change written on the back of it. Pulling out the card and reading it helped me build a habit of recognizing when I was adding to or robbing from the change I was trying to drive. Because of
Build a new habit: Put the card in your wallet Read More »
Are you looking for ways to get more done without working longer hours? What if you could multiply one hour of work into 10, 100 or even 1,000 or more? If you’ve ever read a blog (since you’re reading this I think it’s safe to assume you have), or read a book, or watched a
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In my non-free time I run a Guiding Coalition. It’s a group of 35 people, from all levels of the organization, committed to bringing about the future of the organization through our own initiative. Those 35 people form four teams with 13 sub-teams, made up of more than 250 members. The Guiding Coalition is based
Who’s got a Guiding Coalition? Read More »
Have you ever caught yourself in a meeting thinking, “How does that guy know about that and I don’t?” Have you ever toured a new place and wondered, “Why didn’t my boss show me this sooner?” Have you ever left training saying, “Why didn’t the company send us to this years ago?” If you’ve had
Stop waiting. Start learning. Read More »
There are more colors in nature than in any size box of crayons. Yet, with a box of eight crayons, including one crayon called Blue, you can show an ocean or a sky, a naval officer’s uniform or a Blue Angels jet. But, sometimes one blue crayon isn’t enough. You need more variety of blues
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