Almost every HR initiative begins with a Needs Assessment. One HR training specialist announced to a group of manufacturing Operations Managers, “Our most important deliverable to you is the Needs Assessment.” The Operations Managers hooted. “We don’t need your needs assessment! We just need you to train our operators to use the equipment without breaking […]
Management. What do you manage? What is “performance”? How do you improve it? You already know the answers – you do it all the time.
Difficult people – is it about personality, or about the results they do (or don’t ) produce. Here is one manager’s solution to dealing with “difficulties” between people in the workplace.
Did you ever see the TV show “Restaurant Impossible”? An hour of interesting communication that saves a restaurant and sometimes saves a family too. But my favorite moment is at the very end, when the show is over, and some guy – while they are turning off the final credits – says “That’s done!” He has […]
A friend of mine is an accountant for a yoga-fitness studio, and last week he told me his studio owner is a “micro-manager”. I asked him what he meant – here’s what he said: “Patty is our studio owner who sometimes drops in on a yoga class, and if she thinks a student is doing a pose incorrectly, she will interrupt […]
The Marketplace newsletter has an answer for a question I hadn’t thought to ask: “Why are workers less productive?” It seems the output produced for each hour of labor worked (aka non-farm business productivity) dropped in the second quarter of 2015. It’s the third quarter in a row with a decline in US labor productivity. Innovations like smartphones and 3D printing […]
You know those name-badges people wear at conferences? I’m thinking people should wear them to state clearly what they are – and are not –committed to in life. It would save so much wasted time and confusion. Did you ever have a conversation with someone who said they wanted your help , only to discover that […]
Here’s how to help other people learn to keep their word with you. Please do it! It’s a service to everyone in their lives, not just you.
Five steps to change the way things will be done – in the office and at home – by reducing resistance from others and including their best ideas.
Help people give you what you really want by making complete requests that use all 6 “journalist questions”.
Awarded "Best Management Book" by 800-CEO-READ.
Rated #5 "Best Business Book" by The Toronto Globe and Mail.