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August 12, 2024
Is the term ‘problem solving’ a misconception in itself? Does it create the wrong picture in our minds right from the start? What are the main phases? What were the answers to these questions at a food production facility recently and how were they put into practise?
July 27, 2024
Recent follow up coaching with both the Australian Federal Police and Cabonne Shire Council has revealed the importance of taking small steps from the learners perspective.
May 23, 2024
Terry Hatfield recently started his practice of Job Instruction to further improve his on-the-job training skills. One of his early practice sessions was teaching Ashlie Hauf (HR, recruiting) the construction industry skill of tying rebar. His ‘recipe’ (Job Instruction Breakdown in our world) was more robust after his practice. READ MORE please to learn why and how this happened.
April 20, 2024
Here is my (Oscar) mini keynote from the KataCon10/TWI Summit 2024 where the theme was Deliberate Practice. Listen please as I retell the story of Qantas flight 32 which on November 4th 2010 took off from Singapore bound for Sydney with 470 people on board. At 7,400 ft there was a huge BOOM likened to an air-to-air missile hitting engine #2. Captain DeCrespigny landed the plane safely 2 hours later. DeCrespigny spoke of how his fast mind and slow mind were major factors in avoiding what would have been the world’s worst aviation disaster. How did he develop his critical fast mind actions that underpinned ‘fly the plane, stay alive’? The answer is through Deliberate Practice…
April 10, 2024
In the news article titled ‘Making ‘good (normal)’ regarding the output easy to see’ on February 8, 2024 I said that I would provide an update in April 2024 with the learnings we’ve had. The site is a large beverage factory and we focused on homogenisation.
March 5, 2024
In supporting development of skill in the workplace, how might we make best use of a world crowded with ‘e-options’?
February 8, 2024
I (Ben) have just started working with a new client. What we’re initially focusing on is making ‘go (normal)' regarding the output easy to see. Just as the example illustrates, when ‘go' is made easy to see …
January 15, 2024
Richard De Crespigny (pilot, QF32) quotes Anders Ericsson (2007) as saying deliberate practise is ‘specific and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well, or even at all’. De Crespigny then goes onto describe this from a commercial pilot’s perspective where there’s quite a bit at stake!
December 12, 2023
On October 18th I (Ben) posted an article titled 'Are you giving credit when due?' This is a follow-up on that article.
November 9, 2023
Might the ability to conduct a practical workplace experiment be a) vastly overlooked and b) absolutely essential to improvement or even just change? We believe so; our evidence follows.
October 18, 2023
A leader in any situation, being work, sport or conflict such as the World Wars, cannot get the results themselves. If we try (‘easier to do it myself’) we will become quickly overburdened, quickly finding our goal is impossible. There is only one choice; create real followers who by nature will trust us, cooperate with us, and provide us with honest feedback.
September 19, 2023
At Story Construction (Iowa), in the last month, four leaders practiced workplace experimenting. For each this took 8 hours - about 5% of their work time assuming a 40 hour week. Such an approach to improvement probably won’t be for everyone at Story. But let’s conservatively assume it will be for 50%. They employ about 160 people thus, in a year or two’s time, 80 people may well be spending 5% of their work time experimenting - there’s 160 hours per week of experimenting going on at Story (alongside ‘getting the job done’). Just imagine that …
August 21, 2023
Engagement – who holds the power?
Where does the primary obligation to be engaged lie? With the staff member, or with those who have the opportunity to create an ‘engaging environment’? We feel it’s the latter. Quite simply, staff won’t be inclined to engage in a non-engaging space! Therefore fundamentally it’s not ‘up to them’, it’s up to us. The staff will determine their level of engagement! So what can we do?
August 3, 2023
I (Ben) feel that sometimes we get so busy ‘doing’ we go into auto pilot and, as a result, often miss the true intent or value. We start to become transactional!
July 22, 2023
‘Making-do’ as a waste refers to a situation where a task is started without all its required inputs, or we choose to continue to do a task when a required input ceases to be available.
July 7, 2023
I was working with a client recently and a comment then a following ‘NON’ action really got me thinking.
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