I was once speaking with an engineering professor who was working on breakthrough Fuel Cell technology. He told me something interesting… “Fuels cells are probably about 10 years out from being broadly viable and widely used … but 10 years is what everybody says when they really have no idea how long it will take.”… Read More »
Computers, databases, printers and forms. One thing they have in common is that they make it really easy to collect information. But the ease of collecting information makes us management types get greedy, and we ask for everything under the sun. Just because you can collect information doesn’t mean you should. We call this disease “Overcollectionitis”. Overcollectionitis… Read More »
Do you have a wait-list? If you do, then it should be getting longer. Lets say your organization provides autism assessments, and you can provide 10 assessments a week. However, you are getting requests for 12 assessments per week. Therefore, each week, you provide 10 assessments and 2 more people get added to the waitlist. Every… Read More »
When you make a change to a process, you will inevitably get people telling you that it isn’t working (often in a boardroom). “It didn’t work when Sally didn’t follow the process.” “It didn’t work when the phone call wasn’t made in time.” “It’s doesn’t work when the staff are feeling stressed.” The correct response… Read More »
Imagine that you are sitting with a travel agency trying to arrange a visit to see relatives in Europe. After much discussion, they recommend the best airline and hotel combinations. After filling out all the requisite paper work, the travel agent tells you: I am going to fax this to the airline. The airline will… Read More »