Scoping a benchmarking project is the first step

I’m often asked what the first step should be once you decide you need to benchmark. I’m assuming that you have already done the vital steps of understanding the value this benchmarking effort will bring to your organization, aligned it with a current strategy or business issue, and have common agreement within your organization that […]

In Benchmarking, It’s Time to Get Started

The ability to benchmark your organization’s performance is expanding quickly. Services for metric benchmarking, as well as qualitative (or best practice) benchmarking are growing and expanding. The market has solved barriers around security and confidentiality. If you don’t have a benchmarking source that can guarantee you that level of trust, you need to find another […]

Class of 2013: Think more like the Class of 1973

LinkedIn is running a series on commencement speeches and advice as older, more experienced people are imparting wisdom for the class of 2013. As someone who was supposed to graduate in 2013, this still somewhat applies to me and I thought I would contribute my own thoughts. Anecdotally speaking I was supposed to graduate in […]

Great companies benchmark differently

In a recent post in this benchmarking series, I discussed the issues I see with defining benchmarking peer groups based on industry. That led me to share the similarities I see among great companies when they benchmark. Benchmarking roles In our benchmarking projects, there are primarily two roles. The sponsors are the organizations wanting to […]

Turning pixels into atoms

That’s the creative tag line for Makie Lab, a UK-based startup that allows children to design their own custom dolls via the iPad, print them on a 3D printer, and have them delivered in the space of two weeks. It is a personalized service standout story. Space This service knows its audience. If there’s one […]

Society killed the Renaissance Man in all of us

All the Renaissance men and women have are gone because there were only ever Renaissance children. From the moment we enter school at five years old we become more and more specialized until it has been engrained in our minds that it is undesirable to be a “Jack of all trades, but a master of […]

In Texas, everyone has to get burger and fries

I grew up in Texas. If you grow up in that part of the world, you don’t have a choice, you have to play high school football. After every game, you must get a hamburger and french fries. This phenomena leads to two challenges, 1) getting sick of eating burgers and fries, and, 2) getting […]

Getting kids ready for the new workplace

Remember those indispensable employees that just knew things no one else knew? They could be the worst coworker in the world but were valued for what they knew in the moments that counted. Times have changed and we can know anything if we just figure out how to search for it. The Internet is the […]

Time to be disruptive in class

The disruption first brought on by the computer and then the Internet is reaching far into our society and isn’t nearly done yet. But there are fewer and fewer holdouts. Even healthcare “Doctors will never move away from paper.” Working in healthcare, I heard that phrase said many times. It was true until it wasn’t. […]

The cost of not knowing

I am exposed to organizations doing some very innovative things with their organizational processes. They are state-of-the-art in managing leveraging process-improvement tools, such as Lean, Six Sigma, or other homegrown or hybrid improvement methodologies. They focus a great deal of effort in refining processes, better managing processes, and/or reducing waste from their organizational processes. I […]

The power You wield

It is impossible to miss. Over the past few decades, all the things that help one become professionally more efficient, more effective, have dramatically changed. From infrastructure to transport to communication to technology, things have only improved. Each of these today has altered our immediate professional context, opening the door to endless ways to be […]

The hierarchy of employment – where are you?

From the top to the bottom: Paid for who you are (credibility)   $$$$$$$ Paid for what you know (knowledge & skill)     $$$$ Paid for what you do (time & attendance)…………………..$$ Are you investing effort to get better at the level you are now, or in climbing to the next level up?

Leadership is how you look at things

Over the last few years, being a leader has gotten tougher and tougher. Being a CEO was probably never so stressful as it has now become. But leadership does not necessarily suggest a CXO. It also is about everyone part of an organization. And things aren’t really easy for them either. An editorial that appeared […]

Picasso had to unlearn and so do you

I’ve watched this Ted talk below about 5 times and it is making me think of my kids, my work, and my relationships.  It reminded me of the experience I had with my oldest, Zoe, and the way she was ‘taught’ history.  She is not alone and this problem isn’t confined to schools. At minute […]

On Demand Learning

The following is a guest blog by Tom Molyneux. Tom is a business process consultant at some of the largest enterprises in the world. His experiences in the strategic use of technology give him thoughtful insights into the rapidly changing world we live in. Tom is stepping in while Chris climbs in the Himalaya. ——————————————- […]

Heroics versus Mastery

The following is another guest blog by Tom Molyneux. Heroics Out and about in Newport Beach this weekend, my daughter yelled “Rocketman!” Easy to think it was her imagination, but sure enough, there was a man flying over the water on a jet pack  It was somehow both futuristic and like watching a news clip […]