I know a company where the CEO and the COO decided to stop acting on QA reports. I guess it seemed easier for them to sign-off waivers than to fix problems.
Quality went down and customer satisfaction went down with it.
At a certain point they decided they did not want to pay for reports that required them to act and fired the QA department.
Quality, they quoted, is everybody's job.
Quality went further down and customer satisfaction followed suit.
The last time I heard about them, the CEO and COO had been let go after a takeover and the company was hiring auditors.
Fungus
Showing posts with label management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label management. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
360°
Mine is a sad experience ... I have never seen a 360° evaluation process that works as advertised.
To be more precise: I have never seen a 360° evaluation process that can be clearly tied to a lasting improvement in customer satisfaction.
The Emperor, they say, has new clothes.
Fungus
To be more precise: I have never seen a 360° evaluation process that can be clearly tied to a lasting improvement in customer satisfaction.
The Emperor, they say, has new clothes.
Fungus
Monday, July 13, 2009
Touchy-Feely
I've heard that thinking is what men do, and feeling is what women do.
I've also heard that thinking is what we do with the left half of our brain, and feeling is what we do with the right half. ... or was it the other way round?
I say that thinking and feeling are two distinct processes in our project to live. Both need to be performed right.
In ISO 9000 terms ... the thinking part is measurement and analysis and the feeling part is validation and verification. Of course, there are other processes. Of course, at the organizational level we may specialize.
I am quite good at measurement and analysis. My wife is better at validation and verification ... which may mean that in the end, thinking is what men do, and feeling is what women do.
But it only works when man and woman work as a team.
Fungus
I've also heard that thinking is what we do with the left half of our brain, and feeling is what we do with the right half. ... or was it the other way round?
I say that thinking and feeling are two distinct processes in our project to live. Both need to be performed right.
In ISO 9000 terms ... the thinking part is measurement and analysis and the feeling part is validation and verification. Of course, there are other processes. Of course, at the organizational level we may specialize.
I am quite good at measurement and analysis. My wife is better at validation and verification ... which may mean that in the end, thinking is what men do, and feeling is what women do.
But it only works when man and woman work as a team.
Fungus
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
FTE
Before getting into FTEs (Full Time Equivalents), you need to:
1. Know your goal.
2. Prepare a hierarchical map of the work packages you will need to achieve your goal (WBS).
3. Detail the lower level work packages, until you have tasks that can be accomplished by one individual in a week or so.
4. Estimate the number of hours for each role that you will need in a day (or week or month).
Then you can calculate the man-hours per day (or FTEs) that you will need.
It works both for continuous processes and for projects.
As you and your team develop skills, the required FTEs decrease, or the total work performed increases.
Of course this is only a practical, but rough approach. Real people have a heart, and perform different than mathematical FTEs.
Fungus
1. Know your goal.
2. Prepare a hierarchical map of the work packages you will need to achieve your goal (WBS).
3. Detail the lower level work packages, until you have tasks that can be accomplished by one individual in a week or so.
4. Estimate the number of hours for each role that you will need in a day (or week or month).
Then you can calculate the man-hours per day (or FTEs) that you will need.
It works both for continuous processes and for projects.
As you and your team develop skills, the required FTEs decrease, or the total work performed increases.
Of course this is only a practical, but rough approach. Real people have a heart, and perform different than mathematical FTEs.
Fungus
Monday, February 23, 2009
Soft skills
The most important "soft skills" are those skills that we need to understand and manage:
- Superordinate goals,
- Style,
- Staff and
- Skills.
You may notice similarities between these levers and the eight quality principles described by ISO 9000
- Superordinate goals: Leadership
- Style: System approach to management
- Staff: Involvement of people
- Skills: Process approach & Continual improvement
A little story: Thirty years ago, McKinsey & Co. researched why the Japanese organizations were more successful than their American counterparts. McKinsey developed a business framework, which describes seven factors or levers that a manager can use.
It seems that American managers only understood and used three of the seven levers, while Japanese managers leveraged all seven factors, including four "soft" factors that westerners usually considered unimportant.
The 3 hard "S" are Strategy, Structure, and Systems.
The 4 soft "S" are Superordinate goals, Style, Staff and Skills.
(See Pascale & Athos ref in the link below)
In an effort to make soft things seem hard, and thus, understandable and manageable, western authors started compiling ever longer lists of the components and variations of those culturally bound, intangible and elusive factors.
A friend of mine says that companies value soft skills.
I don't agree.
I think they don't even understand the concept behind soft skills.
They say they do, because it is fashionable, and as with the Emperor's New Clothes, nobody dares to admit that they have spent their training budgets in a concept so volatile that they don't grasp.
Fungus
Follow this link to The Art of Japanese Management
- Superordinate goals,
- Style,
- Staff and
- Skills.
You may notice similarities between these levers and the eight quality principles described by ISO 9000
- Superordinate goals: Leadership
- Style: System approach to management
- Staff: Involvement of people
- Skills: Process approach & Continual improvement
A little story: Thirty years ago, McKinsey & Co. researched why the Japanese organizations were more successful than their American counterparts. McKinsey developed a business framework, which describes seven factors or levers that a manager can use.
It seems that American managers only understood and used three of the seven levers, while Japanese managers leveraged all seven factors, including four "soft" factors that westerners usually considered unimportant.
The 3 hard "S" are Strategy, Structure, and Systems.
The 4 soft "S" are Superordinate goals, Style, Staff and Skills.
(See Pascale & Athos ref in the link below)
In an effort to make soft things seem hard, and thus, understandable and manageable, western authors started compiling ever longer lists of the components and variations of those culturally bound, intangible and elusive factors.
A friend of mine says that companies value soft skills.
I don't agree.
I think they don't even understand the concept behind soft skills.
They say they do, because it is fashionable, and as with the Emperor's New Clothes, nobody dares to admit that they have spent their training budgets in a concept so volatile that they don't grasp.
Fungus
Follow this link to The Art of Japanese Management
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