Patients often wait weeks or months for medical appointments. Canada’s Fraser Institute recently reported that Canadians typically wait 10 weeks to see specialists. Long wait times are one reason Canada ranks behind other developed countries in healthcare quality.

In the United States, waits are shorter but also increasing. Merritt Hawkins reported an average wait of 24 days in its 2017 sample, up 30 percent from 2014.

When they finally arrive at physicians’ offices, patients in both countries often face further delays. They may spend substantial periods in the waiting room, despite having specific appointment times—it’s something we love to complain about.

The sad truth is that the word “engagement” is not very engaging. It’s one of those fluffy, ambiguous terms that have become all too familiar around the business world, like “empowerment” and “respect.” What does engagement really mean, and how do you, as a leader, engage your workforce? The concept of engagement seems so simple when you hear it, but why is it so hard to achieve?

Engagement, like other buzzwords, is a matter of human interaction. Human interaction is complicated, so people often inadvertently make anything related to it complicated. People make engagement complicated by turning it into surveys and pointless performance reviews, but surveys are the opposite of engagement. They force people into a predetermined frame of thought. Surveys don’t listen or inspire action. Engagement doesn’t have to be complicated if we don’t make it complicated. The following is how I have come to define engagement, based on my coaching experience and exploration of the scientific process behind it.

The global aerospace and defense (A&D) industry grew by 2.4 percent and generated about $674 billion in 2016, according to a Deloitte 2017 study. California alone was responsible for generating $62 billion a year in revenue in 2014, according to a 2014 California Aerospace Industry Economic Impact Study. The supply chain is a critical component of aerospace and defense manufacturing. In the face of challenging competition, industry manufacturers are aggressively looking for ways to improve processes, lower costs, and achieve long-term operational performance through supply chain optimization.

Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems, or the internet of things (IoT): the paradigm shift in the production economy is cheerfully progressing under various names. What they all refer to is the digitalization and networking of production processes and environments. The idea is by no means new. The difference is that there are now technologies that offer a level of precision, speed, and flexibility to a previously unknown degree.

In large companies within the automotive industry, for example, these processes are already offering enormous efficiency and diversity. These companies will set the pace for numerous supplier industries, and thus take “Industry 4.0” to small and medium-sized businesses. It is precisely here that the attractive potential for value generation needs to be made visible, and concerns and fears assuaged. One important aspect is that although we may always refer to an “industrial revolution,” Industry 4.0 is far more about an industrial “evolution” that demands tailor-made solutions. Production measuring technology and sensor technology are key tools on this path.

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, we find most often that prioritization issues, like trust issues, are a symptom of deeper problems.

This video discusses what some of those root causes are and how we at Modus Cooperandi approach them.

Many people ask: How do I take all of these options that are available to me and pick the one to work on right now?

Prioritization is rarely a problem on its own. It’s usually a symptom of other problems. Prioritization is a symptom of big batches; it’s a symptom of siloing; it’s a symptom of not understanding what your capacity is.

It’s not about what you want, it’s about what they can handle

If you don’t understand the capacity of your team, then you can’t possibly prioritize work for them, because you don’t know how much work they can handle.