News

… where ‘normal’ (or ‘good’) is the predetermined acceptable standard. A recent project with Lachlan Shire Council has taught me (Ben) a lot. Although, upon reflection, I’m now wondering why it took me so long. Let me show you what I learnt.

When I (Oscar) asked Tony Burns “what’s our objective for the week?” Tony replied “make sure all participants have enough knowledge and skill to go and play and learn from that”. What a terrific answer when the ‘playing’ is directed toward scientifically thinking within continuous improvement. It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting …

The reality is if the why isn’t meaningful ‘enough’, the what and way we do it will probably waiver over time.

There is potential for 91,000 workplace experiments per year in a very large Australian government organisation. The maths is straightforward. It may be for your organisation too.

A client last week … A department knew they had ‘problems’. Productivity had dropped, Work in Progress was growing, quality ‘issues’ (that were ‘sort of’ measured) were raised. What then happened is very common in many workplaces. In the midst, one question saved us lots of time, effort, and energy.

Oscar was recently interviewed by Value Prop CEO, José Palomino, on Business Growth On Purpose. The discussion led to seeing ‘improvement’ a little differently.

What a person thinks - right or wrong - is a fact to that person and must be considered as such.

Job Relations, specifically the 4 steps to handle a problem, is introduced in linear form to assist ‘learning’, then, when learned, the cyclical nature can then be noted and applied.

In my mid-April news item I introduced the work we’re doing with Story Construction, Iowa. I spoke of the application of Work Standards with the Small Projects Group. Their endeavours have continued largely through ‘learn by doing’ with mentoring via Zoom (1 x 1 hour session per week). Our goal – apply the model you see to their ‘Daily Routine’ of planning and reflecting.

I have had a great time recently working with teams at different workplaces that both wanted their workplaces to speak. We’ve had some great learnings and conversations.

Story Construction deliver construction projects. That’s what they do. They say the reason why they do it is because people matter. This is perhaps a phrase that has been coined before and loosely applied by many. The difference with Story is that the President and Chief Operating Officer walk the talk, which then spills in every direction. Not in a loud way - in a way that embodies respect for people and builds trust.

I was recently reminded whilst working at Cabonne Shire Council the benefits of planning to build people capability before the capability is needed. Three separate departments had approached me in preparation for the arrival of 'new' staff. The new staff were replacing staff about to go on maternity leave and filling existing vacancies. What the leader (and teams) wanted to create was a clear plan of who to train, for which work and by when.

At Warburn Estate, in the last 6 months, it has become very apparent that without Work Standards effective and efficient problem solving on the production line is tough. There’s a high risk of going around in circles. Before going deeper into this, clarification around terms will help.

In mid-January I posted a news item about a Plant Manager planning a well-deserved break, however he wanted to maintain stability in the workplace whilst he had time off. This article is a follow on.

In early December I had a great conversation with a client. The caller, the Plant Manager, was planning a long well-deserved break. He had worked a VERY hectic 2021 with little to no time off and really needed a break. Where the conversation quickly led to was the fact he wanted to maintain stability in the workplace whilst he had time off.