At one point I was asked to deliver a project in a high-risk, highly-regulated service in a national organisation. It was an area that I hadn't worked-in before and I was pretty anxious about doing no harm. Reading through the internal documentation; previous external consulting firm reviews, reports and project documentation, the organisation had repeatedly tried to solve … [Read more...] about An antidote to Whack a mole projects
efficiency
To understand effectiveness university leaders should study demand
One of the quickest ways for university leaders to understand the effectiveness of their services is to study demand. When done right, such studies will provide a student perspective that can act as a sophisticated way to reframe student services. Studying demand in a university As a consultant I conducted a demand analysis (adapted to meet constraints and to fit within … [Read more...] about To understand effectiveness university leaders should study demand
Consulting advice is serious business
Despite widespread humour about business consultants giving advice, it is a serious endeavour. Bad advice harms companies and livelihoods. I wanted to illustrate the mechanics of advice-giving with an example from internal consulting practice. A CIO asks for an opinion A Chief Information Officer (CIO) asked for advice during an IT development freeze. One team had … [Read more...] about Consulting advice is serious business
Studying reveals the impact of incentives
This compilation on targets and other incentives and the second film from a sales environment was recorded between 2010 and 2013. All of the staff and managers had the opportunity to study and learn together to understand their service from the customer’s point of view. When they removed the targets, changed the design of the service and introduced better measures the … [Read more...] about Studying reveals the impact of incentives
One customer’s experience in telecoms – a cartoon
This cartoon strip depicts my recent experience of trying to resolve some simple problems with a broadband and phone service provider. The organisation has been applying Lean Six Sigma (an approach that originated in manufacturing) to their services operations for over a decade and more recently agile. I haven't named the company. My purpose for calling I have had … [Read more...] about One customer’s experience in telecoms – a cartoon