Debashis Sarkar
We all know the famous quote, “The customer is always right.” It was coined more than a century ago. In the United States, it was popularized by Marshall Field during the early 1900s. In the United...
Marlene Chism
Many new leaders silently struggle in their leadership role. They avoid difficult conversations about performance because they do not have the confidence or the skill to coach others or facilitate...
Mike Richman
Last Friday’s episode of QDL welcomed the new year with our usual original take on featured editorial content, plus a great Tech Corner. In case you missed it, here’s what we covered:
“Most ‘...
Quality Transformation With David Schwinn
I was recently reminded of a fundamental statement about continual improvement. In Out of the Crisis (Massachusetts Institute Center for Advanced Engineering, 1986), W. Edwards Deming stated, “I...
Manfred Kets de Vries
The CEO of Wickrott Corp. was known as a suspicious control freak. Symptomatic of his leadership style were the numerous “internal consultants” hired to keep him informed of the goings-on in the...
Gleb Tsipursky
When was the last time a colleague said something so ridiculous that it made your jaw drop? Perhaps a desk mate went into something political, claiming that George Bush is behind 9/11 or that...
Scott Berkun
On Tuesdays I write about the top-voted question on “Ask Berkun.” This week’s question came from J.R., who wrote: “What is a favorite theory that you wish more people understood?”
A favorite...
Annette Franz
Why is employee engagement at an all-time low? Why is turnover as high as it is? Why are employees constantly looking for better opportunities?
Think about those questions, along with what I...
Mike Figliuolo
Focusing on metrics is key to achieving your desired business results—but it can be difficult to determine which metrics actually matter. There are five major questions you need to answer to ensure...
Bruce Hamilton
Speaking at the 2003 Shingo Conference, Guy Briggs, general manager of North American operations for General Motors lamented, “We spent the 1980s ‘counting robots’ before we realized that it’s...
Alaina Love
Among the most significant qualities demonstrated by effective leaders is the ability to make meaning of their experiences by interpreting the deeper insights that can be gained from daily...
Walter Copan
For the last 30 years, NIST and the Department of Commerce, together with the President of the United States, have been recognizing the nation’s most outstanding organizations with the Malcolm...
Phanish Puranam
What would you say about a system that improves performance but is disliked by a significant percentage of those participating in it? Conventional organizational hierarchy may be just such a system...
Jim Benson
People are always asking us for help with ways to prioritize. Almost everyone believes prioritization to be an action in and of itself. They ask, “What mechanisms do you use to prioritize?” However...
Julie Winkle Giulioni
As leaders face the most volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous business conditions ever, one thing is clear: Talent is an organization’s most powerful and sustainable competitive advantage...
Jon Speer
Corrective and preventive action (CAPA) is an important process for your medical device company. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states in its Quality System Inspection...
Mildred Hastbacka
Start a social media conversation thread about mentoring, and the replies from those in the working world will get your attention. At the summary level, the responses are remarkably similar across...
Jeffrey Phillips
I was leading an innovation workshop recently with a company that invited some of its customers to talk about the future. We were interested in getting feedback from key B2B customers about the...
Peter J. Strauss
The recent spate of natural disasters that devastated parts of North America included a violent variety of events. There were three major hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, and Maria—wildfires in California...
Harish Jose
I recently read Jordan Ellenberg’s wonderful book, How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking (Penguin Books, 2014). I found the book to be enlightening and a great read....
