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In his book entitled “Zurück an die Arbeit”, Lars Vollmer examines the aspects that keeps us from delivering good, productive work. As Lars Vollmer takes the reader through corporate settings, shop floors and board rooms, it becomes clear that there are two different “stages” on which an organization operates: The front-stage and the backstage. The…
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For decades, Prof. Jeffrey K. Liker devoted his time to study the Toyota Production System to find out what is at the core of a highly successful Lean company. In his book on Lean Leadership, he points out the damage that shortsighted managers can have on the long-term development of an organization, if the only…
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You probably have seen this cartoon: Two persons working hard while a third person is standing apart with a solution to ease their work. Unfortunately, the two persons are too busy to care about what the “process improver” has to say. No improvement is done, all due to the lack of time from the operators.…
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In his book, “Getting Things Done”, David Allen describes the “2 minutes rule”. It is a simple rule stating that a task, which can be done within two minutes, should be done immediately. Watering the plants, cleaning the desk, filling up coffee, replying to an email. If the task takes more than two minutes, you…
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Of course, this is a hammer, but can you guess how many people in the world wanted this kind of hammer in 2022? Difficult question? Perhaps you need to do some calculations for a rough estimation? I can spare you the effort. Here is the answer: 0 (zero). No one in the entire world wanted…
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Being interested, expressing affection, giving appreciation, finding opportunities for agreement, empathizing, apologizing and using humor are good ingredients for building lasting relationships. Countering these positive interactions, are the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. Dr. John Gottman uses this metaphor to describe four communication styles capable of destroying relationships: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness, and Stonewalling. If you…
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In 1970, Dr. John Gottman conducted an interesting experiment: He observed married couples and how they argued in conflict situations. Nine years later, he contacted the couples again. It didn’t surprise him that some of the couples had separated, while others stayed together. Dr. Gottman was eager to answer one crucial question: Is there a…
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Threatening to punish or offering a reward? Which alternative is the best? According to Daniel Pink, none. For problems that require even rudimentary cognitive skills, the introduction of pressure, in form of punishment or reward, will narrow the focus, when in fact, finding a solution to most problems demands exactly the opposite: An open mind…
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No traffic light, no traffic signs, no road markings. The example shows our great ability to self-organize. We sometimes tend to believe that a standard is needed for everything, but how many of them are really necessary? Safety and quality are certainly among the things that cannot be put at risk. But for many other…
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I set out to find a reference to confirm that positive interactions can boost performance… and I found it: on Netflix. A reality show called 100 Humans. In this well humored reality show, 100 people from different backgrounds, ages, and genders are subjected to experiments to gain insights into human psychology. In the fifth episode…