How do you celebrate? Do you have a party? Do you give each other a high five? What does it mean to celebrate excellence? The secret of joy in work is contained in one word— excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. Pearl Buck [...]
Value people first . . . If we hope to transform our organization, our department, our team, we need committed and dedicated people. Without them, we will never get there. How we treat each other does matter. Our expectations should always remain clear. A much too common story . [...]
We are all leaders. The questions we must answer . . . How will you lead today? What actions will you take to help yourself and others be and become their best? Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow. —Seth Godin [...]
To reach excellence, start looking at the actions in the organization. Quality? Excellence? World Class? Trite expressions or powerful descriptors that differentiate the ordinary from the extraordinary, good from great? You can walk into an organization or talk to someone for a few minutes and recognize the difference immediately. [...]
What does it mean to be a "systems" thinker? “List everything you see in the room.” So began our study of systems thinking. We listed things, lots of things we saw in the university classroom with only a few references to relationships and people. Each of us shared our [...]
The Wisdom of W. Edwards Deming I first heard about W. Edwards Deming in 1982 during the broadcast of the NBC White Paper, If Japan Can, Why Can’t We? I was a young mother of three, who had not formally studied quality concepts, but I recognized the wisdom in Deming’s [...]
What does it mean to be data-driven? The term “data-driven decision making” has become an overused phrase in business and education. What does it really mean? Does data “drive” decisions? One of the fallacies of being “data-driven” is the assumption that it provides the answers or solutions to our [...]
