“But my job does not require me to be creative. I am not sure why I need to attend this workshop”, was the statement we received recently from a participant of one of our Innovation and Productivity workshops. This was not the first time. Innovative work behaviour of their employees is on top of the […]

By using the SBI technique, the feedback is rather focusing on facts – neither on person nor on assumptions. This helps to make it less threatening and easier to digest. It goes like that: Specify the Situation, describe the Behaviour, state the Impact of the Behaviour. See some examples here…

Before considering what the key skills for HR practitioners in the future will be, it is essential to identify the future challenges for the HR service. The role of HR is changing as a result of many influences. These include: globalisation resulting in increased competition; a change to service- and consultative-approach; demographic trends evidenced by […]

Running improvement projects in a wide variety of service organisations over the last couple of years, I had to relearn what I thought I had a good grasp of already. I had to restudy the basic drivers of productivity and process efficiency. Yes, it is certainly possible to drive productivity by process changes.

Coaching is about believing in someone and then taking action to help that person to be his or her very best. Some months ago, the managing director of an MNC approached me to develop a team of four operations managers with some people and management skills. Three of them were promoted recently but have not […]

To be a good coach is hard work. Coaching requires a set of skills that need to be built. The journey as a coach is a long but rewarding one. How will we know when we have arrived? “With the best of leaders, when the work is done, the project is completed, the people all say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” Lao Tzu

Your staff members complain about having too much work, the proportion of people on short-term sick-leave is consistently above average and the turnover rate is disturbingly high. However, comparing takt time and processing time does not show to any obvious issue. So, what is the problem?

HR professionals with knowledge of Lean Six Sigma tools and HR Data Analytics can deliver better service to their customers – their leaders and colleagues. Identifying requirements and gaps, analysing, improving and innovating processes as well as ensuring the performance long-term are valuable business partners.

Given today’s need for HR professionals to be Strategic Business Partners, to be a ‘Voice of Conscience’ to the CEOs as well as Champion for the Employees, those with background in proven management methodologies and tools such as Lean, Six Sigma or Kaizen have a great advantage. An HR Professional who can present his business case for HR strategies and interventions with a compelling return on investment will be respected and regarded. Having the knowledge and exposure in cost and time estimates, in analytical thinking processes as well as fact-based strategies and decision making will open doors.

The Quality of a Relationship relies on the Quality of the Conversation. At some point in a mentoring relationship, the need for a difficult conversation will arise. Whereas every conflict is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all advice, there tend to be patterns to what goes wrong, and what helps. Every difficult conversation has three […]