Archive for September, 2009
Speak With Facts
“Speak With Facts” was one of several slogans tossed around while I learned about and helped facilitate the Quality Improvement Program at Florida Power & Light Company back in the dim ages (lighting pun intended). FPL won the Deming Prize in 1989 in no small part because of that slogan and others (then promptly put [...]
It’s ALL about the assumptions
I have to admit that this seems so basic to me and perhaps it comes from my time working with ADHD children when, as a caregiver, you take NOTHING for granted in your communication. I found these kids to be brilliant at finding loopholes (perhaps this is all kids). For those kids and for other [...]
Measurement in Context
In “A Piece of Sky” from the “Yentl” soundtrack, Barbara Streisand holds the final vocal note for 19 seconds. (Yes, I’m THAT geek, too.) Try it now. Sing a note at full volume for 19 seconds. No one will care. Go ahead, I’ll wait… I know, right? Tough to do! (for me, anyway). For context, [...]
Read “The Goal”
Reasons to read The Goal (1986) by Eli Goldratt: Nostalgic 80′s references like the secretary who drives a Chevette and a company called “Douglas” that makes DC-3′s and DC-10′s. A match-and-bowl “game” that demonstrates statistical fluctuation and process dependency brilliantly (can’t wait to try the game). Main character refers to a group of Boy Scouts [...]
Your New Training Measurement Strategy
Learning measurement has become mired in its own best intentions and is sinking. Everyone of us agree that there should be some significant measurement of the learning function. Why? To get a seat at “the table”! To protect our budgets! To calculate the ROI for the training dollars we DO spend! So we set about [...]
The Pepper Grinder Debacle
OK, so it wasn’t so much a debacle as a snafu, or maybe just a glitch. But the experience got branded on my psyche because it was so emblematic of what I believed about business. Intrigued? I’m reading The Goal (finally) by Eli Goldratt (thanks for the recommendation, Chris at Ceptara) and it made me [...]
Live life in the intersection
I’ve been thinking a lot about Venn Diagrams lately. Or, more accurately, I’ve been giddily appreciating Venn Diagrams lately. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re well outlined here. As a way of ordering the universe I’m thinking (at least lately) that Venn Diagrams can’t be beat. The basic premise (in my musings) is that if a circle [...]